Man, it just doesn’t get much worse than this. Four skunks dug their winter burrow under Karen McCullough’s house in Sheffield Lake, Ohio. Last November, McCullough and her family started hearing scratching noises under the kitchen and living room floors. The scratching set off the family’s dogs and cats that would bark and hiss and paw the carpeting. The skunks responded in the manner of their tribe — they sprayed, and sprayed, and sprayed.

The over-powering stench caused the McCulloughs to spend most of the freezing winter with their windows wide open. Their clothing, couch, chairs — everything! — still smell of skunk half a year later. McCullough said it’s been embarrassing to have to apologize to friends for the way she smells. “I’ve cried a few times. Inside, I’m having a nervous breakdown,” she confided.

Trappers finally lured the skunks from their den and the family is now living in a cramped hotel room while workers replace all their flooring. They’re also pouring a concrete slab to replace the original crawl space under their home. McCullough isn’t taking any chances on a repeat.

Skunks, groundhogs, raccoons, mice and possums can create some serious problems for homeowners. Particularly in newly developed areas, loss of habitat can force these wild animals to seek a substitute in your warm, cozy home. These animals can bring rabies, mites, ticks and fleas with them. For your safety, trapping and removal should only be performed by experienced wildlife control professionals.

For decades the people of New York City have claimed that rats live in the municipality. However nobody has actually seen one. Well, since it has been estimated that more than 60 million rats live in the city perhaps a few have been seen. The most conservative estimate claims that more than 250,000 share the city with other creatures and humans.

Some citizens claim they have seen rats the size of bull dogs. The scary hippopotamus size rat left years ago to live in Paris.

One exterminator claims Manhattan rats have the appearance of cats while Brooklyn rats actually look like rats. I don’t know if his Manhattan comment was dripping with silliness.

Years ago Joseph Mitchell wrote about the rats of New York city and boasted that the brown Norwegian rat is the most numerous, the dirtiest, the largest and the most fierce of the rat species. Your sweater wearing pet tiger may want to avoid them.

Thousands of licensed pest control professionals utilizing gas masks search for them on a nightly basis, clogging holes , putting out traps and fumigating. If the rat control specialists decided to move to Florida perhaps the city would have a few billion rats. Be nice to the rat exterminators. 

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.

People all over the country have to deal with pesky raccoons, even city dwellers. Raccoons enjoy residing in the underground sewer system and other locations. Unfortunately, raccoons sometimes have rabies. Rabid raccoons tend to initiate brawls with other animals. If you see one attacking a stout Grizzly bear he may have rabies or he may just have a massive ego.

If you live in an area where raccoons wander around it’s a good idea to vaccinate your pets against the disease. Rabies can kill. The variety of rabies that inhabit raccoons is a serous public health problem since it can be passed on to other animals.

The virus is contained in the critters’ saliva and is passed to their victims by bites and scratches. If you live in a community that features raccoons you might want to check with the appropriate public officials and inquire if they are willing to use baits that include a vaccine that when consumed by raccoons  protects the varmints from rabies. The bait is being utilized in various parts of the country. If  your community selects the right type of bait it will not harm dogs if they happen to eat a few for a snack. If you notice a rabid animal, immediately contact your government officials. 

Twenty-six pounds of poop! That’s the amount of waste one pigeon produces in a year. Sounds about right. If Hector doesn’t clean up his act, I’m thinking of evicting him.

Hector spends his winters on a small ledge at the top of my porch pillar. He was one of a cadre of noisy pigeons born a few years back in the eave of my roof. I’ve since repaired the eave, but Hector believes in the old saying about pigeons coming home to roost. He’s returned to my porch every fall for the past three years, and every spring I find myself hosing and scrubbing.

Pigeon poop is like trying to scrape concrete off brick. When it dries and falls on the porch, it produces a fine, caustic dust that can aggravate allergies and asthma. Droppings can ruin buildings and automobiles. Pigeons carry more diseases that are harmful to humans than rats, including encephalitis, histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis and toxoplasmosis. Add in fleas, ticks and mites and it’s time to roll up the welcome mat.

Unfortunately, once they pick your ledge, pigeons are hard to get rid of and the help of a wildlife control specialist may be necessary. Some cities are experimenting with a new product, Ovocontrol. It’s a birth control food pellet for birds designed to prevent egg fertilization. It doesn’t harm the birds, but it keeps them from multiplying. Since 5 pigeon pairs can produce up to 400 pigeons in just 2 years, that’s a good thing.

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!

As if regular rats weren’t enough, imagine gross, hairy, dirty rats the size of dogs and they are being found in New Jersey of all places! As odd and even scary as this may sound, these horror-story creatures do, in fact, exist. This furry fiend is called the nutria, and, currently, it’s making its home in the Garden State, New Jersey.

Originally from South America, this 12-20 lb. rodent, somewhat resembling a beaver, is capable of living in water and on land. It is found mostly in Latin America and in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. Female nutrias can be pregnant with three litters a year, and they are able to get pregnant again within a day of giving birth. However, these creatures aren’t too scary… At least, they won’t eat you. The nutrias are plant eaters. They can devour twenty-five percent of their body weight, every day!

In the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century, nutrias were actually bred for their fine furs. As this trend of nutria farming spread throughout the South and along the Gulf Coast area, the population of these rodents grew and grew. This wouldn’t be such a problem if they weren’t considered to be one of the most damaging creatures to happen upon the marshlands. In just the past half-century, they’ve devoured about 7,000 acres of salt marsh. They’ve been making their way up the Eastern Seaboard, throughout Maryland and Delaware. Maryland is taking firm action to keep the population of nutrias to a low and to protect our waters and marsh life.

You know what’s the worst? Going to bed and dreaming sweet dreams of your lovely home, but being woken up at about three A.M. to the unmistakable sound of something getting into your garbage. It’s an awful feeling. You know who the culprit is; the sneeky raccoon. That little fella has been throwing your garbage all over your lawn since you moved in, and quite frankly, you’re fed up with it. Come on, how many times have you been sleeping and you were shaken awake by the sound of what seemed like a rock climbing through your garbage cans? How many mornings have you gone out in your bath robe to pick up mold covered bread and other filthy articles of trash? How many raccoons have you seen smiling at you while you do this back-breaking labor? Well, maybe not that extreme, but it could happen. The point is that enough is enough!

Do you usually keep your garbage cans outside? If there is some way to bring them into a closed area inside, then the raccoons won’t have easy access to it. As well, do you have lids on your trash cans? Make sure they are fastened tightly on, and if you could get a trash can with a locking lid, that would be choice. You probably also have pets that you don’t really want to let out all the time, so you installed a pet door for them. This is a great way for raccoons to get into your house and eat your food, or go into your pantry. If you can’t possibly live without the pet door, get one that you can lock eventually, maybe at night time when the pets are inside.

It’s not hard to get rid of raccoons. You just have to manage your trash and lock up your house. Raccoons are like any other pest; don’t give them any reason to hang around, and they won’t. Do everything to keep them out, and you’ll notice that you are the one smiling, not them.

Coyotes, once associated with the southwest and known as a wily trickster by Native Americans, are becoming a more and more common occurrence in suburban environments across the nation. Like the raccoon, coyotes are smart and resourceful and have adapted nicely to live around humans.

Although their dense fur can make them look a lot bigger than they really are, they typically don’t weigh more than 20 to 30 pounds which is about the same as a smallish, medium sized dog. Coyotes are actually quite beneficial predators because their primary prey is small rodents. But they have no problem also eating a vast variety of other foods like fruits and vegetables, insects, garbage, or small free-roaming pets like cats.

While coyotes are primarily active between dusk and dawn and are generally shy and wary of humans, it is not unusual to see them any time of the day. Although they seem scary because they are a wild animal, coyotes do not present a risk to humans unless people have trained them to accept hand outs. There is only one human death that has been attributed to a coyote, and this was in California. It was when a coyote preyed upon the three-year-old child of the person who had been feeding it handouts on a regular basis.

So the lesson here is that, if you see a coyote in your neighborhood, it is not a danger to you. It may, however, be a danger to your pet. To get them to go away, the best thing is not leave them anything to eat or drink. If you feel it really has to go, like for any wild animal, call a professional. Trapped animals are dangerous. Do not do it yourself!

Moles are a common problem among many people. We all recognize the seemingly endless labyrinths of tunnels they leave all throughout our otherwise perfect front lawns and beneath our flower gardens. Let’s face it, they can be frustrating, in all of their destructive digging. The game “Whack a Mole” wasn’t created out of adoration. However, you can rest easy, knowing that there are, indeed, ways to protect your yard from our furry friends.

If it suits your preferences, you could start out by investing in an outdoor cat. Most cats will be content with hunting little creatures, such as the mole, all day long. They’re instinctive predators. This may seem a bit gruesome, but it does work. Sprinkling some used cat litter around the entrances of the mole holes also has the potential to drive the moles away, at least for a while.

If you’re one of the faint of heart who’d really rather not have a yard of corpses, there are other ways. Moles hate the scent of humans, so, after your next haircut, take a handful of leftover hair clippings, and put them inside the holes. They also despise the scent of garlic, so consider planting some around your yard. Also, you could venture to attempt to flood the moles out of their holes, by taking a garden hose and simply allowing a good amount of water to run through the tunnels. However, this only sometimes works. It depends greatly on the precision of the location of the water into the tunnels, as well as on the persistence of the moles. Also, try not watering your plants so vigorously. Grubs are one of moles’ favorite foods, and less water in your yard will mean less grubs, which, in turn, will mean less moles.

There are plenty of ways to rid your yard of moles without harmful poisons and snap traps. Give one (or more!) a try, and see how easy it is to whack those moles!