If wildlife creatures get into your home, it can be pretty hard to miss the signs. Raccoons and squirrels aren’t the tiniest or quietest of creatures, and even bats make a decent amount of noise when living inside your walls. If you live in New York and find yourself with a wildlife problem, the best thing you can do is call the professionals at Parkway Pest Services.
Why Wildlife Gets Inside Your New York Home This Time of Year
Whether you live in the city or call the suburbs home, winter is the worst time of year for wildlife infestations. If you don’t take steps in the fall and early winter to protect your home, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with unwanted visitors.
When the weather gets cold and once-plentiful food supplies grow scarce, raccoons and squirrels looking for a warm place to live often find that heated homes fit the bill. Similarly, bats often enter homes in late fall in order to hibernate through the winter.
How to Protect Your Home Against Wildlife
In order to avoid the problems wildlife can cause in your house, you need to be proactive about preventing them from getting inside. This involves several things, including:
- Repairing the outside of your home for damage of any kind: holes or cracks in the foundation and siding, gaps around windows or doors, damaged shingles, etc.
- Wildlife can easily take advantage of these weak areas to get inside.
- Covering all open vents and capping your chimney.
- Eliminating outdoor food sources. Pet or bird food will attract wildlife, as will open garbage containers.
- Keeping your yard maintained. Cutting tree limbs away from your house, keeping your grass trimmed in the spring, summer, and fall, and removing debris will help keep wildlife away.
- Removing water sources. Standing water, bird baths, and overflowing gutters will all attract wildlife.
What to Do if DIY Protections Fail
Sometimes raccoons, squirrels, and bats can make their way into your home despite your best efforts. If this occurs, you’ll want to get rid of them as quickly as possible because they can cause a lot of damage to your home. However, you should not try to remove them yourself.
These animals are dangerous. They all can carry and spread a number of serious diseases through their feces and saliva. Raccoons and bats can even have rabies. Plus, raccoons are incredibly aggressive when threatened.
If you find your home infested with wildlife, call the professional pest control experts at Parkway Pest Services. We can eliminate your entire wildlife problem. We’ll also determine where they got in to help you avoid future problems. Give us a call to learn more about our wildlife control services.