Be honest, have you vaccinated your ferret? Don’t try and pass him off as a weasel or European Polecat or even a Steppe Polecat.  New York State law requires people to have all dogs, cats and domesticated ferrets immunized for rabies beginning at four months of age.

Just because your ferret destroyed the inside of your home doesn’t give you the right to claim he has no manners and therefore is similar to your husband; not domesticated. Pets that received their first vaccination have to be re-vaccinated within one year in order to qualify for a three year coverage. By the way historians claim that ferrets have been domesticated for about 2,500 years. Husbands? More research is required.

It’s rare for humans to get rabies but for people who have not been vaccinated, rabies can be deadly after neurological systems occur, but quick use of a post rabies exposure vaccination may stop the virus from further progression.

Since the 1970’s the northeast and mid-Atlantic portions of the country have occasionally been dealing with raccoons infested with rabies. Apparently the rabid raccoons had been transported from the southeast portion of the nation by hunters who desired to increase the raccoon population of the northeast. If you need wildlife control call a professional.

Recently a woman died and a man is seriously ill due to receiving kidney transplants from a donor who carried the LCMV virus. The virus was responsible for the death of three other kidney transplant patients on the east coast in 2005.

The donor was a homeless man. Experts suggest he received the virus from rodents, pets or wild animal droppings. Typically the virus causes symptoms similar to the flu. 

The virus is not easily passed from human to human. The only known way the virus is acquired from another human is from mother to fetus.

Due to the small supply of available organs, recipients will often take an organ from someone at high risk of disease and health problems. 

It does not seem to be a major problem with pregnant women, but avoiding animal droppings is another issue that pregnant women need to be concerned about more than most people.

Throughout history rodents have always been a problem or a nuisance for people all over the world. Professional rodent control services in New York City and New Jersey can be quite helpful if you have not been able to get rid of rats and other unwanted critters. Be sure to avoid their droppings.

New York City has gone on a rat rampage in an attempt to make a dent in the city’s considerable rodent population. Rat czar Bobby Corrigan, the noted rodentologist, and his team (dubbed the rat pack) are scurrying about the city looking for signs of rodent infestation. When a problem is found, property owners must correct the problem quickly.

The world record for biggest rat is held by an Asian rat that weighed in at a hefty 1 pound 7 ounces. (As a comparison, “purse dogs” like those favored by Paris Hilton weigh about 3 pounds; the average house cat weighs, 6 pounds.) Fortunately for NYC residents, it’s the Norway rat that makes the Big Apple its home. Weighing just a pound, adults grow to be between 1 and 1.5 feet long, though that’s plenty big enough.

At least we don’t have the problems found in some parts of the world. In the remote state of Mizoram, India, an army of rats has caused a critical food shortage. Initially attracted by tasty bamboo flowers, the rats have been feasting on standing crops and rice stored in granaries.  Rats have devoured nearly three-quarters of the region’s annual rice supply. State authorities have initiated a “kill a rat, get cash” program, paying 5 US cents for every dead rat. What they need is Stern’s Track & Trap mouse and rat control program.

A lot of people use pesticides around their house for a variety of purposes.  Pesticides include products such as mold and mildew cleaners, weed killers and chemicals utilized for pools.  Sometimes serious blunders occur which have serious consequences.

A woman placed some grainy pesticides into some meat balls. Her goal was to entice the raccoons that were giving her problems to gobble up the chemicals. The suspicious raccoons refused to eat the treats. She placed the meat balls in the freezer and the unsuspecting husband  had them for a meal. Fortunately, the hospital staff was able to save him. Perhaps it’s best to let professionals handle raccoons in an appropriate manner.

A man placed bug bombs on top of his gas stove. The aerosol was ignited by the stove’s pilot light. The man was surprised when he noticed blown out windows , walls pushed out of position and serious roof damage. It’s very important  to turn off  all ignition sources before using bug bombs. 

According to my abacus the man would have be in a significantly better financial situation  if he had obtained the services of a professional exterminator. When his wife came home he sighed and  said to his wife “Oops, would you like a Pepsi?” Well, I’m joking. Be safe and consider using professionals.

Recently a motorist in my neighborhood saw a raccoon standing in the roadway, foaming at the mouth and growling at cars. Raccoons are know carriers of rabies so the man called police, who referred him to animal control, who passed him to public health, who sent him to natural resources, which told him, “Shoot it if it’s on your property.”

Seems like you’re on your own if you see a rabid raccoon in your neighborhood. Shooting a dangerous animal might make sense in the wilds of Wyoming, but in my crowded city neighborhood, it’s not smart, safe or legal. Police deal with wild people, not animals. Animal control focuses on cats and dogs and isn’t equipped to handle wildlife. Local wildlife centers will tell you how to capture a wounded animal so you can bring it in for treatment. This is great for baby birds, but I wouldn’t want to get that close to a sick raccoon.

Raccoons are known carriers of rabies and canine distemper. Rabies can be passed to humans and other animals. Distemper is not contagious to humans but can be transmitted to other animals.

If you come across a rabid, sick or wounded raccoon or other wild animal, it’s best to call an animal control company immediately. Wild animals are unpredictable and dangerous. Don’t put your family, children or pets at risk, call Stern Environmental.

A bit of warm weather and the squirrels are out of their nests and into the bird feeders. The ground squirrels are enough of a nuisance, but it’s the bat-like flying squirrel that can really destroy your attic. The small flyers are more like rodents than squirrels in their uncanny ability to squeeze through tiny holes and cracks to gain entry to your warm rafters and eaves.

Heights are no object for these nocturnal critters. They can “fly” — it’s actually a glide — great distances using the distinctive web of skin that connects their front and back legs. Called a patagium, the web is similar to the wing of a bat. These squirrels can glide more than 200 feet — right onto your roof — using their flat tails as a steering rudder. They can enter your attic from roof vents, improperly installed chimney caps and small construction gaps.

Flying squirrels live in large colonies — often 20 or more — which means there are 20 sets of razor-sharp teeth chewing away on your rafters and electrical wires and 20 nasty little bodies using your attic walls and insulation as a litter box. Of course, that’s not what will tip you off first. You’ll call Stern because of the incessant partying. These critters are nocturnal which means the party’s just getting started about the time you’re going to bed. Come 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and your walls will be reverberating with their high-pitched cries and caterwauling. Don’t worry. Stern Environmental Group offers 24-hour emergency squirrel removal. Click here to find out more about squirrels and flying squirrels. Give us a call. You’ll sleep well when you get Stern with your pests.

She’s back! We have a neighborhood raccoon who specializes in finding “inconvenient” living quarters. The past few years she’s favored my neighbors’ hollow porch columns, nesting there and raising several broods. For most of the spring she perches on top of the columns, giving my neighbors the evil eye and hissing at them as they enter and exit their home. She’s just protecting her babies (who you can hear crying through the brick walls of the column), but it’s still annoying — and potentially dangerous. Raccoons carry rabies and have been known to charge humans who come too close to their nest.

She spent a winter in my chimney before I had it cleaned and capped. She dug out a burrow under another neighbor’s storage shed and terrorized her inquisitive cat. And now she’s moved into my garage. I don’t go into my garage very often in the winter. It’s an old style barn-door building of questionable structural integrity, but it makes a handy place to store my gardening tools, the bikes and assorted bits of odd lumber. Unsuspecting, I walked into its dark recesses yesterday to fill the bird feeders. From the dim recesses at the back of the garage, I heard a sharp hiss. Then I saw two eyes glowing in the dark. She’s back!

There’s little in the do-it-yourself line you can do that effectively gets rid of raccoons. They’re not easily intimidated by humans. I’ve tried ammonia, mothballs (I can still smell the stink in my attic), ultrasonic gizmos, even a radio blaring Nine Inch Nails. I’ll admit that did get that particular raccoon to leave for awhile, but she came back. I think after a few days, the music kind of grew on her. I thought about trying some of the predator urine sprays you can buy, but after one whiff I decided living with a raccoon might not be so bad.

Raccoons are destructive and leave all kinds of nasty creepy crawlies in their nesting areas. They have a pungent odor you’ll never get out of the floor boards. They’re a critter you don’t want to mess with. If you’re unfortunate enough to be selected as a raccoon’s new home, give Stern a call and let the experts move your “guest” along. Try to do it before she has her litter. Squalling raccoon babies are a sound worse than nails on a chalkboard!

Punxsutawney Phil may have seen his shadow and ducked back into his burrow for six more weeks of snooze time, but groundhogs in New York, NYC, Manhattan and New Jersey are starting to emerge from their dens. After their long winter’s nap, they’re hungry and your tulip garden looks mighty tasty.

If tulip time comes around and all you see is a few green stems sprouting from last year’s unraked leaves, blame it on the groundhog. Members of the squirrel family, groundhogs can chew through a garden in one feeding. The proficient tunnelers can even attack your garden from underneath, feasting on bulbs that will never get their day in the sun. Voracious feeders, groundhogs eat nearly two pounds of vegetation a day, generally feeding in early morning and evening.

Once established, groundhogs can be tough to get rid of. You certainly don’t want to try to remove them from their den yourself. They’ll take a taciturn view of your efforts and since they carry rabies you should be circumspect about bearding the proverbial groundhog in his den. This is a job for the pros. Call Stern; we’re your groundhog removal experts. Our experts use humane trapping methods, and we offer 24-hour emergency service. Click here to find out more about our groundhog removal services. 

To a lot of people, the only kind of bat that is acceptable in their home is Batman. Any other bat is completely out of the question. It’s not the bats fault though; their bad reputation could be attributed to tons of bad publicity in Hollywood with vampires and the infamous saying, “They’re in my hair! They’re in my hair!” They’re not evil demons, despite their popular image. They can, though, be a nuisance in your home. Just because they aren’t blood-sucking monsters, doesn’t mean they are allowed to fly in and hang from your garage beams.

There are about one-thousand known species of bats, but only ten suck the blood of another mammal. Mostly, bats feed on insects and fruits, so, with that said, you should probably take care of that insect problem. A lot of pests feed on other pests, so that is a common solution to a lot of problems. Less than half of bats have rabies, so if you come into contact, you need to practice caution for your own safety. You should probably get a professional to get rid of a bat, but if you need to handle it yourself, grab a small container to capture it and release it in the wild. If you have to grab it with your hands, use heavy work gloves.

Bats are a solution to your bug problem, but a hassle to your bat problem. Just close up any spot that would be a good place for a bat to hibernate, and you should be just fine.

Have you ever awoken in the middle of the night to the seemingly never-ending sound of a dog barking in the distance? How about that one little bird who decides to wake up at three o’clock in the morning and sing his heart out? Just as unpleasant is attempting to find solace in the comfort of your favorite pillow after a long day, but being interrupted by the pitter-patter of little feet scurrying across the attic floor above you.

Squirrels can be a serious problem for some. Getting them out of the house can be a real problem, but there are, in fact, some ways to rid your home of our furry friends, while remaining at peace with your wallet, as well as with the heart of the animal lover.

One thing you can do is to find an animal relocator who will catch the animal in a trap and take them away safely. You can also put out your own traps, baited with peanut butter or sunflower seeds, and drive the trapped animal out to another environment, preferably in the wild, as opposed to another neighborhood. Make sure not to touch the animals, and wear heavy leather gloves when handling the cage.

Moth balls patched into entrance holes are quite effective for driving out squirrels. Also, because of the highly developed senses of most animals, squirrels will be likely to stay away if you wet rags with ammonia and spread them around the general area that the animal is infesting. In addition, leaving a light on and a radio playing non-stop will drive them crazy and, hopefully, away from your home.

Stern Environmental Group, a company that prides itself in innovative and effective ways of ridding homes and other locations of pests, offers 24-hour emergency squirrel control services. The services they provide include: 24-hour squirrel removal, humane squirrel trapping, and quick squirrel removal services, as well as treatment for raccoons, skunks, pigeons, bed bugs, cockroaches, ants, and many other pests.The first step to ridding yourself of your squirrel problem is to take prompt action today!