Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday Closed
By County: Faifield, Middlesex, New Haven and New London Counties
Located east of the Connecticut River, Fairfield and New Haven Counties are relatively flat with some of the largest towns in the state. Connecticut is one of the most densely populated states in the U.S., and New Haven is one of the most densely populated in the state.
The most common times to experience a nuisance wildlife problem is during the spring and winter. During the spring, mammals seek shelter to safely rear their young. In winter, animals seek shelter from the cold, dry winters of Connecticut. Attics, crawlspaces, and basements make ideal shelters for animals.
Most mammals can introduce additional pests and diseases into your home. If an animal is in the house, it causes damage. The longer the animal cohabitates in the house, the more damage it causes.
Critter Control is here for you every step of the way in the wildlife removal process. From inspection to removal—and even exclusion and repair—we have the services you need to get rid of raccoons, rodents, and other nuisances fast. First, we identify the animal on the property, then use humane methods to remove the animal and secure weak points where more could enter. If damage has been done, we can make those repairs for a complete restoration.
There’s a reason we have 40-foot ladders on our trucks. We thoroughly inspect your property, identifying the species involved, entry points, and nesting sites. We pay special attention to common access areas like attics, crawlspaces, and rooflines.
We use several humane methods to remove animals from your home. Depending on the species, the number of animals, and the condition of your property, we develop a custom wildlife removal plan. Humane wildlife removal strategies include animal traps, one-way doors, and repellents.
Once we guarantee all animals are gone, we implement exclusion techniques. Exclusion techniques provide a safe, long-term solution to nuisance wildlife in your home. We create barriers to prevent animals from getting to resources. We only apply exclusions once we are sure all animals are gone from your home.
Exclusion techniques repair any damage the animal causes getting into your home.
Wildlife will damage your home. Inside your home, animals build nests and dens out of readily available materials. They will create runs through the insulation. Rodents will gnaw on anything, including electrical wires and pipes. Animals can also spread diseases. We apply sanitation agents to clean up feces and urine. Mammals can host pests like fleas, ticks, and mites. Ectoparasite treatments exterminate those pests so you don’t become their next host.
Raccoons are active at night. While you sleep, they are out scavenging for food. Raccoons eat just about anything, from restaurant scraps and pet food to garden crops and chickens. Their hands resemble human hands and allow them to turn doorknobs, open storage bins, and climb trees, chimneys, and poles.
Raccoons have a permanent mask and banded tail. They would be cute if they weren’t so destructive. They will do what they can to get into parts of your house they see fit to sleep and give birth to pups. If they must rip, tear, or break something to get to that spot, they will. Raccoons make lots of noises, like whimpers, growls, and screams. They leave feces and urine nearby their shelter.
Before trying to remove a raccoon from your home by yourself, remember they can carry diseases, and if threatened, they may bite. Calling nuisance wildlife animal control experts is recommended. Critter Control’s three-step process works well for raccoon removal.
During the inspection, we determine the severity of the raccoon infestation. We look for physical evidence like footprints in or around the home, stains from raccoon feces and urine. On the exterior of the house, we look for damage like scratches on boards, broken vents and screens, ripped apart shingles, destroyed soffits, and every possible entry point.
Live trapping is one of the most efficient ways to get rid of a raccoon. Depending on the situation, a one-way door or excluder valve can be installed. An excluder valve works by allowing the raccoon to leave but blocks its reentry. The choice of device is largely dependent on the season and location of the raccoons on your property. Direct capture is not commonly used because raccoons are a rabies vector species. If we must trap, we place traps strategically to safely catch the raccoons and we check traps frequently, based on state laws.
We provide a wide range of repair and restoration services. We can repair raccoon damage like broken screens on vents and chimneys and broken boards on decks and porches. It is essential to apply cleaning agents and ectoparasite treatments on areas inhabited by raccoons.
Like most areas in the United States, property owners in Connecticut has its share of rodent issues. Cities like New Haven, offer plenty of habitats favorable to rats and mice. Please do not try to handle rodents, nor attempt to clean up after them yourself, as rodents in the area are known for spreading illnesses. Instead, call your local Critter Control office as soon as you notice any signs of a rodent infestation, and we will send one of our trained technicians to establish the best rat extermination program for you.
During a rodent inspection, we thoroughly inspect your attic and provide a complete exterior home inspection. The most common signs of rodent activity are gnaw marks, feces, rub marks, nesting material, runs in insulation material, and small entry points.
A Critter Control wildlife specialist will create a strategic trapping plan to remove the rodents found in your home. Critter Control specialists may use snap traps and live traps to capture and remove mice and rats. Rodent trapping can usually takes between five to fourteen days.
The best rodent control is to stop rats and mice from getting into homes. Exclusion methods include caulking foundation cracks, capping chimneys, and installing mesh covers over vents and crawl space entrances. We also strongly recommend a maintenance service. Rodents have front teeth that continuously grow, which means they can gnaw a new way back into your home.
Gray squirrels and flying squirrels are prevalent in Connecticut. The most noticeable difference between the two species is when they are active. Flying squirrels are nocturnal. Gray squirrels are active during the early mornings.
Squirrels readily take up residence in sheltered areas like eaves and attics. Nest and young may be totally concealed within eaves and wall spaces. The trapping of squirrels can temporarily solve a persistent problem but will not help in the long run. Other squirrels will soon come into an area to replace the removed animals.
Wildlife specialists look for signs such as chewing on, in, or around your home, small openings leading to the attic or the crawl space, droppings, and debris like nuts or nesting material. Beams, wires, pipes, and insulation may all show signs of damage from squirrels.
Live trapping or one-way doors are the most effective and humane ways to get rid of squirrels. One-way doors should never be used during birthing seasons (Spring & Fall), so our specialists will decide which is the best tool for the job. If we have to trap, we place traps strategically to safely catch the squirrels and check those according to state laws.
The best way to control squirrels is to prevent them from entering your home with exclusions. We use hardware cloth and galvanized steel to block common entry points for squirrels.
The little brown bat and big brown bat are the two most common nuisance bat in Connecticut. Little brown bats do not winter in buildings. Big brown bats occasionally will spend the winter in your attic.
Smaller colonies can go unnoticed. When colonies grow, you can hear the bat noises or smell the accumulation of guano.
We perform a full interior and exterior inspection and search for signs such as rub marks, guano, a strong scent of ammonia, and small openings. The most common sign is the accumulation of guano (feces).
The most effective and humane way to remove bats is by utilizing a bat valve in conjunction with a full home exclusion. A bat valve allows for bats to exit your home but not re-enter. We follow all local ordinances for humane bat removal. We will never abandon flightless pups in your attic.
After removing the bat valves, we seal the entrance hole(s) so bats can no longer enter your home. If there is substantial guano in your attic, you should consider taking advantage of our attic remediation services to remove the soiled insulation and replace it.
Skunks are active in Connecticut during the autumn. To prepare for winter, they’re foraging for food and looking for sheltered places to den. Spring is the other most common season to have skunks in your yard. Skunks mate in late February to early March. Born between April and early June, a litter can have up to six blind pups.
One of the most common nuisance wildlife in Connecticut, skunks dig up yards and gardens in search for insects and grubs. Skunks can undermine structures by burrowing under them. Not only that, a startled skunk will spray (a skunk can accurately spray over 10 feet!).
In addition to noting any pungent odors that signal the presence of a skunk, we will inspect the condition of your landscaping, as skunks are known for tearing-up lawns and shredding grass while hunting for grubs and insects. We will also inspect the perimeter of your building’s foundations and under decks, to locate burrows.
Never try to remove a skunk from your property yourself. Getting sprayed is a very unpleasant experience. Furthermore, these animals may carry diseases that can spread to humans and pets, such as rabies. Our specialists will use live traps to capture and remove skunks for you, or they’ll use a one-way exclusion device to evict skunks from their harborage areas. The most effective ways to control a skunk problem is exclusion and habitat modification.
The most effective ways to control a skunk problem is exclusion and habitat modification. Methods like sealing foundation gaps, replacing and screening broken foundation vents and installing hardware cloth (rat walls) around unprotected sheds and decks are the most effective and permanent ways to keep skunks out.
We recommend keeping pet food inside and securing any trash bins.
Woodchucks are the largest member of the squirrel family in Connecticut. Groundhogs create extensive burrows with multiple chambers and entrances. Breeding season starts in early March after hibernation. You’re most likely to experience woodchuck problems in late spring and early summer.Woodchucks cause problems when they damage gardens and crops, destroy landscapes with their burrows.
Largest native water fowl in Connecticut, their habitat is near water bodies and also open grassy areas like lawns, golf courses, fields, airports, or farms. Effective geese control requires the implementation of several strategies for long term solutions.
Noise and visual deterrents provide a short term benefit to scare away the geese. Barriers and habitat modification like planting shrubs along the water’s edge can keep geese off your property. There are chemical repellents topical treatments to grasses that make the turf unpalatable.
Pigeons are one of the few birds not protected by the Migratory Bird Act. Their acidic feces corrode gutters, erode stone buildings, and burn lawns. The droppings also harbor diseases. Repellents provide a short term solution because the birds usually get used to it.
Pigeon-proofing is the most effective and permanent method- physically exclude bird from roosting or make it difficult for bird to rest comfortably. Exclusions include bird netting, wire screening, sheet metal, and bird barriers.
There are seven species of woodpeckers in Connecticut. The pockets of spruce-fir forests, orchards, and city parks provide plenty of trees for woodpeckers to drum. Woodpeckers are attracted to natural, dark-stained, unpainted cedar and redwood siding but may also damage pine, fir, and stucco-sided homes.
Trapping woodpeckers is only legally be done with a federal depredation permits issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Visual deterrents supplemented with loud noises can scare away woodpeckers. Installing bird netting on eaves and angled backwards are a permanent long-term solution.
