Animal Agent C.S.I.: Squirrels Have Homeowner at bay

Repair and Prevention and Animal Waste Clean up Covering North Carolina Counties: Mecklenburg,Union,Stanly,Cabarrus,Iredell,Gaston and South Carolina countie: york,Chester, Lancaster

Bats In a Gable-Vent

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Squirrels Have Homeowner at bay

Gray Squirrel ! Gray Squirrel ! in my attic! Help! thats the calls at Animal Agent C.S.I. receive.

Posted by Anthony Hardison at 6:51 AM

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NWCOA

NWCOA

Bat Conservation

Bat Conservation

ARC Wildlife Rescue

ARC Wildlife Rescue

About Me

Anthony Hardison: Charlotte, North Carolina, United States; Owner with over 22 years in Wildlife Damage Control and Bat Removal And Waste Clean-up

View my complete profile

Squirrel Damage

Squirrels can chew holes in your home

Entry Point

Squirrel's can chew through roof shingles

Humane Removal

Trapped and Removed Raccoon from someones attic

Followers

Live and Safe Squirrel

Baby Copperhead Snake

Opossum

Opossum

General Biology, Reproduction, and Behavior

Opossums usually live alone, having a home range of 10 to 50 acres (4 to 20 ha). Young appear to roam randomly until they find a suitable home range. Usually they are active only at night. The mating season is January to July in warmer parts of the range but may start a month earlier and end a month later in northern areas. Opossums may raise 2, rarely 3, litters per year. The opossum is the only marsupial in North America. Like other marsupials, the blind, helpless young develop in a pouch. They are born 13 days after mating. The young, only 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) long, find their way into the female’s pouch where they can attach to one of 13 teats. An average of 7 young are born. They remain in the pouch for 7 to 8 weeks. The young remain with the mother another 6 to 7 weeks until weaned.

Most young die during their first year. Those surviving until spring will breed in that first year. The maximum age in the wild is about 7 years.

Although opossums have a top running speed of only 7 miles per hour (11.3 km/hr), they are well equipped to escape enemies. They readily enter burrows and climb trees. When threatened, an opossum may bear its teeth, growl, hiss, bite, screech. and exude a smelly, greenish fluid from its anal glands. If these defenses are not successful, an opossum may play dead.

When captured or surprised during daylight, opossums appear stupid and inhibited. They are surprisingly intelligent, however. They rank above dogs in some learning and discrimination tests.

Damage

Although opossums may be considered desirable as game animals, certain individuals may be a nuisance near homes where they can get into garbage, bird feeders, or pet food. They may also destroy poultry, game birds, and their nests.

Gray Squirrels

Gray Squirrels

General Biology, Reproduction, and
Behavior

Gray squirrels breed when they are 1 year old. They breed in mid-December or early January and again in June. Young squirrels may breed only once in their first year. The gestation period is 42 to 45 days.During the breeding season, noisy mating chases take place when one or more males pursue a female through the trees.They nest in tree cavities, human-made squirrel boxes, or in leaf nests. Leaf nests are constructed with a frame of sticks filled with dry leaves and lined with leaves, strips of bark, corn husks, or other materials. Survival of young in cavities is higher than in leaf nests. Cavities are the preferred nest sites.About 3 young comprise a litter. At birth they are hairless, blind, and their ears are closed. Newborns weigh about 1/2 ounce (14 g) at birth and 3 to 4 ounces (84 to 112 g) at 5 weeks. Young begin to explore outside the nest about the time they are weaned at 10 to 12 weeks. At weaning they are about half of their adult weight.Home range size depends on the season and availability of food. It may vary from 1 to 100 acres (0.4 to 40 ha). Squirrels move within their range according to availability of food. They often seek mast-bearing forests in fall and favor tender buds in elm and maple forests in the spring.During fall, squirrels may travel 50 miles (80 km) or more in search of better habitat. Squirrel populations periodically rise and fall. During periods of high populations, squirrels--especially gray squirrels--may go on mass emigrations. At such times many animals die.Fox and gray squirrels are vulnerable to numerous parasites and diseases. Ticks, mange mites, fleas, and internal parasites are common. Squirrel hunter often notice bot fly larvae (called “wolves” or “warbles”) protruding from the skin. These fly larvae do not impair the quality of the meat for eating. Squirrels are a food source for hawks, owls, snakes, and several mammalian predators. Predation seems to have little effect on squirrel populations.

Typically about half the squirrels in a population die each year. In the wild, squirrels over 4 years old are rare, while in captivity individuals may live 10 years or more.The biology of other North American squirrels has much in common with that of fox and gray squirrels, although most other species have one breeding season per year. Flying squirrels are unique in that they are active at night. All other species are active during the day.

Damage

Grey, Squirrels commonly enter houses by chewing holes along the fascia or in dormer corners, or by entering any existing gaps 1-2 inches in diameter. Once inside they may chew on electrical wiring or phone lines, displace or pack down insulation, and make noise with their activities.Thebest way to rid yourself of squirrel problems is to first remove the problem squirrels and then patch holes to prevent further problems. Trimming any trees away from the house is also a good idea. For traps, attractants, and a video on solving squirrel problems in your house see menu below.

Squirrels may occasionally damage forests trees by chewing bark from branches and trunks. Pine squirrels damage Ponderosa pine, jack pine, and paper birch. In the Southeast, fox squirrels damage loblolly and other pines.

These species and others may eat cones and nip twigs to the extent that they interfere with natural reseeding of important forest trees. This is a particular problem in Ponderosa pine forests where pine squirrels may remove 60% to 80% of the cones in poor to fair seed years. In forest seed orchards, such squirrel damage interferes with commercial seed production.

In nut orchards, squirrels can severely curtail production by eating nuts prematurely and by carrying off mature nuts. In New England fruit orchards, pine squirrels may eat ovaries of cherry blossoms and destroy ripe pears. Pine, gray, and fox squirrels may chew bark of various orchard trees.

In residential areas, squirrels sometimes travel power lines and short out transformers. They gnaw on wires, enter buildings, and build nests in attics. They frequently chew holes through pipelines used in maple syrup production.

Squirrels occasionally damage lawns by burying or searching for and digging up nuts. They will chew bark and clip twigs on ornamental trees or shrubbery planted in yards. Often squirrels take food at feeders intended for birds. Sometimes they chew to enlarge openings of bird houses and they enter to eat nestling songbirds. Flying squirrels are small enough to enter most bird houses and are especially likely to eat nesting birds.

In garden, squirrels may eat planted seeds, mature fruits, or grains such as corn.

Brown Snake

Little Brown Bat

Little Brown Bat

Little brown bat, little brown myotis - MYOTIS LUCIFUGUS

Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)

Subclass: True Mammals (Eutheria)

Order: Hand Wing (Chiroptera)

Family: Vespertilionidae.

The Name "Bat": "Bat" comes from Old Norse "ledhrblaka," "leather flapper." It became "bakka" and then "bat."

Description: A small bat with simple nose; moderately long ears with long, pointed tragus (ear flap); tail extending to edge of tail membrane; long hairs on toes. Fur long, silky, glossy; tan, reddish, or dark brown; paler beneath. Length of head and body 1.6-2.2 in, forearm 1.3-1.6 in; weight about 0.3 oz.

Location: Most of Canada and continental U.S.A.

Habitat: Temperate forests and woodlands near fresh waste r.

Behavior: This very common nocturnal species eats flying insects caught on the wing. Seasonal in habit, little brown bats roost in colonies of up to several thousand, choosing warm sites such as attics or caves in summer 105-120F. They breed in late summer and autumn, though fertilization is delayed until spring, and migrate up to 290 miles to form winter colonies in caves where temperatures remain just above freezing. There they hibernate, rousing themselves about every 2 weeks to move to more favorable positions. Reproduction: Again migrating in spring, the females form large maternity colonies, males usually roosting alone. After gestation of 50-60 days, the single offspring is born May-July. It flies and forages as an adult when 1 month old.

Removal: Bat females with young my not be removed from May 31 till Aug 01or when able to fly and forage as an adult.

Raccoons

Raccoons

GeneralBiology,Reproduction, and Behavior

Raccoons are omnivorous, eating both plant and animal foods. Plant foods include all types of fruits, berries, nuts, acorns, corn, and other types of grain. Animal foods are crayfish, clams, fish, frogs, snails, insects, turtles and their eggs, mice, rabbits, muskrats, and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds and waterfowl. Contrary to popular myth, raccoons do not always wash their food before eating, although they frequently play with their food in water.

Raccoons breed mainly in February or March, but matings may occur from December through June, depending on latitude. The gestation period is about 63 days. Most litters are born in April or May but some late-breeding females may not give birth until June, July, or August. Only 1 litter of young is raised per year. Average litter size is 3 to 5. The young first open their eyes at about 3 weeks of age. Young raccoons are weaned sometime between 2 and 4 months of age.

Raccoons are nocturnal. Adult males occupy areas of about 3 to 20 square miles (8
to 52 km squared), compared to about 1 to 6 square miles (3 to 16 km squared) for females. Adult males tend to be territorial and their ranges overlap very little. Raccoons do not truly hibernate, but they do “hole up” in dens and become inactive during severe winter weather. In the southern United States they may be inactive for only a day or two at a time, whereas in the north this period of inactivity may extend for weeks or months. In northern areas, raccoons may lose up to half their fall body weight during winter as they utilize stored body fat.

Raccoon populations consist of a high proportion of young animals, with one-half to three-fourths of fall populations normally composed of animals less than 1 year of age. Raccoons may live as long as 12 years in the wild, but such animals are extremely rare. Usually less than half the females will breed the year after their birth, whereas most adult females normally breed every year.

Family groups of raccoons usually remain together for the first year and the young will often den for the winter with the adult female. The family gradually separates during the following spring and the young become independent.

Damage and Damage Identification

Raccoons may cause damage or nuisance problems in a variety of ways, and their distinctive tracks often provide evidence of their involvement in damage situations.

Raccoons occasionally kill poultry and leave distinctive signs. The heads of the adult birds are usually bitten off and left some distance from the body. The crop and breast may be torn and chewed, the entrails sometimes eaten, and bits of flesh left near water. Young poultry in pens or cages may be killed or injured by raccoons reaching through the wire and attempting to pull the birds back through the mesh. Legs or feet of young birds may be missing. Eggs may be removed completely from nests or eaten on the spot with only the heavily cracked shell remaining. The lines of fracture will normally be along the long axis of the egg, and the nest materials are often disturbed. Raccoons can also destroy bird nests in artificial nesting structures such as bluebird and wood duck nest boxes.

Raccoons can cause considerable damage to garden or truck crops, particularly sweet corn. Raccoon damage to sweet corn is characterized by many partially eaten ears with the husks pulled back. Stalks may also be broken as raccoons climb to get at ears. Raccoons damage watermelons by digging a small hole in the melon and then raking out the contents with a front paw.

Raccoons cause damage or nuisance problems around houses and outbuildings when they seek to gain entrance to attics or chimneys or when they raid garbage in search of food. In many urban or suburban areas, raccoons are learning that uncapped chimneys make very adequate substitutes for more traditional hollow trees for use as denning sites, particularly in spring. In extreme cases, raccoons may tear off shingles or fascia boards in order to gain access to an attic or wall space.

Raccoons also can be a considerable nuisance when they roll up freshly laid sod in search of earthworms and grubs. They may return repeatedly and roll up extensive areas of sod on successive nights. This behavior is particularly common in mid- to late summer as young raccoons forage for themselves, and during periods of dry weather when other food sources may be less available.

The incidence of reported rabies in raccoons and other wildlife has increased dramatically over the past 30 years. Raccoons have recently been identified as the major wildlife host of rabies in the United States, primarily due to increased prevalence in the eastern United States.

There are no registered poisons for raccoons and repellents are usually ineffective. Trapping raccoons and removing them can be done in most situations however .

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