Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
By County: Lake, Laporte, Marshall, Porter and Starke
Finding evidence of pests or nuisance wildlife is alarming. Pests and animals disrupt your life, damage your home, and introduce health risks to you and your family.
Nuisance wildlife like raccoons, squirrels, rats, mice, opossums, bats, and birds are some of the most common household pests. Typical signs of pests and nuisance wildlife include unusual noises, strange odors, damage to the exterior of buildings, and paw prints or tracks.
For over forty years, we have been trusted to solve nuisance wildlife infestations, restore and repair their property, and protect their home from future infestations.
We prioritize your peace of mind throughout every phase of the wildlife removal process. From comprehensive inspection to swift and humane removal, as well as full home exclusion and repair services, we offer a complete solution to rid your property of raccoons, rodents, and other nuisance critters.
At Critter Control, we understand the importance to restore your peace of mind. Our integrated approach includes a comprehensive inspection, humane animal removal, and whole home exclusion.
Our inspections cover the entire house. Based on what you have seen, heard and smelled, we start the inspection where you have noticed signs of animal activity. The inspection process identifies the target pests, the size of the infestation, and animal entry points.
We develop a custom animal trapping and removal plan based on our whole home inspection. Humane wildlife strategies include animal traps, one-way doors, harassments techniques, pest repellents, and habitat modifications. Once we guarantee the animal is gone, we install exclusions for long-lasting pest control.
Exclusion techniques repair animal entry holes and strengthen potential ones. Exclusions provide immediate animal and pest control to your home.
Pests and nuisance wildlife damage your home. Inside your home, animals build nests and dens. They will create runs through the insulation and gnaw on 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.
We don’t see the nocturnal, masked bandit of Valparaiso too often, only the evidence of its existence, like scattered trash, tipped garbage cans, opened feed bags, and missing chickens. They dig holes in your yard searching for insects, raid your garden and literally break and enter your home.
Raccoons will tear screens or doors blocking an entrance and even crawl through windows or open pet doors. Once in your personal space, raccoons will set up two places: a bathroom and a nest. To create these, they will use their nimble hands to rip insulation, scratch flooring and walls, and destroy stored personal items.
There are regulations regarding the removal of raccoons. Calling wildlife control experts is the best option to get rid of a raccoon problem.
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.
Rats can pose significant problems for homeowners in Valparaiso, Indiana. Rats damage property, spread diseases, and contaminate food. Effective rat control measures, including sanitation practices, exclusion techniques, and professional integrated pest management services, are essential for mitigating these issues and maintaining a safe and healthy living environment.
During an inspection, we identity where in the house rats are hiding. They tend to stay close to their nest and venture out for food. Based on this information, we create a plan for removal and control.
Our strategic approach to rat removal starts with an effective trapping solution. Rats are naturally cautious of new elements in their environment which makes trapping difficult. Coupled with their breeding rate, an effective rat trapping program takes between five to fourteen days.
The most important aspect of rat control is to stop future infestations from starting. We identify all potential entry holes and block them with materials rats cannot chew through. We also implement a maintenance program that includes bait stations to stop rats from getting close to you again.
Valparaiso mammals include the Northern and Southern flying squirrels, red squirrel, gray squirrel, and fox squirrel. They can all be found scavenging in your property for garden crops, nuts, fruits, seeds, grains, and even tiny bird eggs. Squirrels are collectors, stealing treasures to store for winter months.
You may hear squirrels chirping, growling, hissing, and making other sounds in your walls, attic, or ceiling. Prioritize getting rid of squirrels in your home because they can create fire hazards by storing items in your vents and ducts and gnawing on electrical wires. They like to raid bird feeders and strip bark from trees to nibble on the sap. In their daily scurries, they dent gutters and spouting, chew through the siding and break roof shingles.
We know how to handle issues with squirrels.
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.
We can restore your home or office by squirrel proofing all entry points after we have removed the offenders. We can also clean-up the nesting sites and remove any debris, food, feces and soiled insulation.
The big and little brown bats are two of thirteen bat species in Indiana. The brown bats are the ones you may hear or smell roosting in your attic. Bats are loud and when roosting in colonies, it will make it hard for you to ignore them.
Bats eating insects are not nuisances at all. We love that about them. We need them. It’s their guano that is the primary nuisance. They poop while roosting, so most of their guano is inside your attic, shed, barn, or other man-made structure. Bat guano can grow a mold that, if inhaled, can lead to respiratory issues. Also, when they feel threatened, bats may act aggressively and bite you. While rare, some bats can carry diseases like rabies.
Bat roosts are easy to locate. Getting them to move out of the roost is challenging. That’s where our experts can help.
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.
Nocturnal by nature, striped skunks are plentiful in Valparaiso and the surrounding areas. Skunks prosper in and around neighborhoods, taking advantage of pet food and trash left outside by residents. Skunks do not hibernate and may be active year-round. They can cause plenty of lawn damage when burrowing for food and can cause a smelly situation if confronted by a person, or pets. Not only is their spray foul-smelling and hard to remove, but skunks in the Valparaiso area also have been known to carry rabies; therefore, it’s best to let a professional handle removal for you.
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.
The most common nuisance wildlife in Valparaiso are are raccoons, bats, squirrels, and mice gaining access into customers attics, walls, and crawlspaces/basements. Also skunks, opossums, raccoons, and other wildlife living under decks and sheds and damaging landscaping.
Most nuisance wildlife is active throughout all the seasons. However, there are times that we see peak activity. Just before winter we will see an uptick in wildlife entering homes to find a place to overwinter. Also during spring and fall wildlife are giving birth to their young causing homeowners to hear more activity.
The most common sign of wildlife activity is noises being heard by a homeowner. Additional signs of wildlife can be droppings or nesting material in or on the home and/or holes the animals have created to enter the home.
The best advice for prevention or exclusion is to call Critter Control for a whole home inspection to determine the needs of the home to prevent and or exclude wildlife.
The best time to take action and call Critter Control is the first time you notice or think you may have a wildlife problem. Delaying will likely result in the animal creating more damage to the home. Homeowners can also call for an inspection to seal the home before wildlife becomes a problem. Being proactive versus reactive to wildlife issues will save homeowners money and headaches in the future.
This franchise is independently licensed and operated by Dietrich & Sons, LLC, dba Critter Control of Valparaiso, IN.
