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Winter is a unique time of year. It is the one season where animals are motivated to hide from the cold. In nature, they find a nook, hole, tunnel, rotted leaf pile, log, stump root system, or other place to hide. To wild animals, your home is just another hiding place. The more your home feels like nature, the more animals you'll have living in it.
What do I mean? Well, if you have a pile of leaves that didn't get bagged up, or a lawn covered in leaves, you have a natural canopy for bugs and critters to hide under. If you have rotted holes in your deck, barn, garage, or exterior walls, you have a tree knot for wildlife to protect their babies in. Creatures that hide in trees will find your attic inviting. Critters that burrow into holes or make tunnels, will be happy under your shed. If the hose from your dryer is pumping warm air under your deck or porch, you'll have skunks, porcupines, opossums, raccoons, and a host of other critters fighting to make their nests under there. The less your home feels like a moist, cluttered, rotted, piece of nature, the less interested wildlife will be.
If, on the off chance you think it is pretty cool to have bats living in your garage or a family of raccoons in your attic, you might want to consider the dangers. Wildlife will not take care of your home. They will use it for their needs. That means insulation will be ripped up, wood will be chewed, dung will be splattered, and droppings will be littered. Wildlife will get into your garbage, dig holes in your yard, and pose a threat to your family.
Many wild animals carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. And, wild animals can be contaminated with rabies. Don't let that cute little raccoon fool you. Raccoons, according to the CDC, are the biggest threat of rabies. If you or your children are bitten by any wild animal, have the animal caught and tested for rabies, immediately.
Animals also bring parasites with them. These parasites live in their fur and in their bellies. Have you ever wondered how a lice outbreak happens? Wild animals bring lice, mites, fleas, ticks, and other parasites into homes in late fall and early winter.
If you live in the New York area and you have wildlife on your property, or in the structures on your property, have them safely and humanely removed by Parkway Pest Services. Having wildlife overwinter in your home is never a good idea. Be proactive, and keep your family safe from winter pests.