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A raccoon is attracted to a backyard bird feeder filled with black oil sunflower seed. (Joe Mosby photo) Keeping wildlife at a distance Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 By Joe Mosby Wildlife in Arkansas, large and small, flying or walking or crawling, is most enjoyable at a distance from people - not in homes or backyards. If you don't want wild things around your home, don't feed them. Food, whether intended for wildlife or put out for pets like dogs and cats, is the No. 1 attractant of unwanted wildlife. When you provide a food source, they begin to expect and depend on your generosity. Wild animals are capable of finding plenty of food on their own, even in times of harsh weather. If your pets are outside, keep pet food inside. Put all trash in lid-tight containers and keep it in the garage or a shed until the scheduled pickup day. Garbage is a common draw for all sorts of wildlife as it provides an easy food source. Wildlife can be amazingly adaptable to humans, especially small animals like squirrels, raccoons and possums. They'll come right into your house if there are opportunities. If you hear the patter of small feet overhead in the still of night, you probably have uninvited guests upstairs in the attic. Make an inspection trip around your house and look closely for openings under the eaves and other places where a small animal may work its way inside. If you find openings, close them. Get help if working on a ladder isn't your thing. A common entry point is an attic opening covered with aluminum of vinyl louvers. Push your hand between the slats, and you'll quickly see how an animal can get inside. Chicken wire or metal hardware cloth fastened on the inside of the louvered opening will solve this problem, and it will be out of sight. Pet doors are handy for letting Spot or Fluffy in and out of the house. These swinging doors inset at the bottom of a regular door are just as easy for wild animals to use, especially when the scent of food inside is a lure to them. You can reduce chances of this by fastening the pet doors when you go to bed at night. Often overlooked as animal entry points are dyer vents. Fasten hardware cloth or chicken wire over the outside opening of the vent, and this route should be eliminated. Chimneys can be both entry routes and nests for a variety of animals as well as birds. Building a fire in the fireplace doesn't always run them off, either. Screened caps can be fastened on the chimneys outside to keep wildlife out. If you know or suspect something is living in the chimney, a rag sacked with household ammonia can be put on top of the damper inside the chimney and close the damper. Look around the base or foundation of your house. Even a small opening will let mice and snakes inside. Close off everything. Use caulk to fill small cracks and hardware cloth across ventilation points, if they exist in your house. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally a skunk will find an opening into the basement or foundation of your house. The best solution in this case is to call a professional wildlife nuisance-control person. Make a mistake in removing a skunk yourself, and you will have an unpleasant experience that will long be remembered. So many misleading tales and urban myths abound on this wildlife-in-the-house topic that it becomes laughable. You are generally safe in disregarding the stories you may hear. Putting a radio in your attic and tuning it to a 24-hour station is likely to keep you awake downstairs instead of disturbing intruding squirrels or raccoons. Equally unlikely to work is the trick of laying a rope or garden hose around the perimeter of your house. Snakes will crawl right over the rope or house, no matter what you may have been told. You don't want bats in your house, but not because they might be vampires and suck your blood or because they might fly into your hairdo. Bat droppings accumulate where they roost, and this can be smelly as well as potentially unhealthy. Close attic and eave openings to keep bats out. Remember that bats are small, sparrow-sized for the most part. They can get through small openings. -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
