Critter Control of Newport, RI

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According to the University of Rhode Island, the state is home to over 800 native and non-native wildlife species. Rhode Island wildlife habitats will likely be impacted due to residential and commercial developments, drought, invasive species, pests, diseases, and climate change. Issues like these force wildlife to search for food, water, and shelter beyond their natural habitats in other parts of the state. Many find new homes and dens in your neighborhood or on your property.

Common Newport, RI wildlife includes squirrels, raccoons, rats, mice, bats, skunks, snakes, toads, opossums, and groundhogs. Wildlife can quickly become a nuisance if it damages your property, poses a health risk to you and others, or interferes with your ability to enjoy your property.

The Department of Environmental Management recommends hiring a wildlife control operator to remove nuisance wildlife. These professionals have specialized training, safe and humane equipment, and knowledge on preventing wildlife from returning to your home. Below are examples of common nuisance wildlife scenarios the experts deal with in Newport.

Critter Control Wildlife Removal Process

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. Contact a Critter Control office near you today.

STEP 1

Wildlife Inspection

During the inspection we try to ascertain how many animals there are, where they are located, and how they got in. Based on what you have seen, heard and smelled, we start the inspection where you have noticed signs of animal activity. Evidence of animals inside your home include nests, dens, feces, and animal tracks. We investigate the exterior of your home looking for possible entry points, any evidence of animal damage, tracks, fur, animal waste, or rub marks.
STEP 2

Removal

We use several methods to humanely remove the animal 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.
STEP 3

Exclusion and Repair

Wildlife will damage your home. Exclusion techniques repair any damage the animal causes getting into your home. Inside your home, animals build nests and dens out of readily available material. 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.

Raccoon Removal in Newport

Raccoons in Newport have black masks, bushy striped tails, and nimble hands. They earn the nickname “masked bandit” when they sneak into human areas, create a mess, and steal food. Raccoons are typically nocturnal, but they won’t miss out on an opportunity for food or water just because it’s daytime.

If you find a raccoon in your attic or elsewhere, you have a food source attracting it. Raccoons are omnivores, so their range of food preferences is extensive. They raid birdfeeders, bird nests, livestock and pet feed, chickens, eggs, small rodents, garden and field crops, fruits, insects, and human food. They adapt well to living around humans and feast on table scraps thrown out or left in a garbage can.

Raccoons will open garbage bags, grab fish from ponds, and enter your home through a pet door if they smell food. Their human-like hands make them expert climbers. They can weigh up to 35 pounds, making it easy to force their way into a good nesting spot, like your attic.

Signs of raccoon activity include greasy smudge marks on the side of your home, broken roof shingles, missing bark from trees, scattered garbage, stolen garden vegetables, and holes throughout your lawn. Raccoons leave piles of feces and urine inside your home, usually in one spot. They shred insulation, drywall, and any materials they find lying around to build a nest. They chew on electrical wires and plug vents and ducts, creating fire hazards.

Raccoons can carry diseases, including rabies and roundworm. To get rid of a raccoon, you must follow state regulations. Raccoons are protected furbearers in Rhode Island and may require special permits for hunting and trapping. Homeowners are not permitted to relocate a raccoon except elsewhere on their property to prevent the spread of diseases.

Inspection

Inspection

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.

Trapping and Removal

Raccoon Trapping

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.

Repairs

Repairs

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.

Rat Control in Newport

Brown rats, also known as Norway rats, outnumber all other rats in Newport, so they are usually the ones you will find burrowing under your home, shed, driveway, or other structures. Burrows are underground tunnels the brown rat uses to travel from one spot to another. Because the dirt is disturbed, the burrows make the ground above them unstable. Signs of rat burrows may include cracked roads and driveways, noticeable holes, or your house settling and shifting. Brown rats can climb but prefer to stay lower, like in your walls, basement, and crawlspace. Because they can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter, accessing these locations is not a problem.

The house mouse is often found in Newport homes, usually in attics, walls, and ceilings. They are much smaller than rats and can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime. Rats and mice are active when it’s dark and quiet in your home, which usually coincides with when you are asleep. Signs of rats and mice include trails of urine and droppings. The trails run from their nest to their food sources, generally no more than 300 feet apart.

Rats and mice chew electrical wires, carpets, furniture, cabinets, baseboards, and pipes. They build nests in and with insulation, contaminate pet and human foods, and keep you up at night with the various sounds they make.

When you see signs of rats or mice, contact a professional rodent removal for help. Rodents reproduce at alarming rates and can quickly become an infestation. An expert can correctly estimate the number of rodents living in your home and choose the right bait and traps to eliminate rats and mice.

Inspection

Inspection

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.

Trapping and Removal

Rodent Trapping

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.

Repairs

Repairs

The best way to reduce the possibility of letting unwanted rodents into homes is to seal possible entrances. Exclusion methods include caulking cracks in foundations, 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.

Squirrel Removal

Squirrels are members of the rodent family. In Newport, the Eastern gray squirrel is the one you see daily foraging for food and nesting materials to store for winter months. Squirrels prefer nuts, bird seeds, grains, fruits, and berries.

Where they store food makes squirrels both geniuses and nuisances. These tree squirrels may pretend to bury food underground but take it somewhere else, like your attic, chimney, crawlspace, or other dry space they use for a nest. If the food is essential, they will store it in the open even though it puts them at risk of predators. They do this to deter other squirrels from stealing their food.

Eastern gray squirrels gnaw on hard and soft surfaces. Squirrels gnaw through siding, drywall, shingles, plastic vent caps, and wood.

If they chew their way into your attic, expect to find shredded insulation, chewed boards and beams, feces and urine, and damage to anything you were storing, including sentimental items. Squirrels are known to chew through electrical and utility wires.

Squirrels build nests in spots they find warm, dry, and safe. This may be in your attic’s HVAC ducts, wall cavities, chimneys, vents, or insulation. Outdoors you may find nests in gutters, soffits, eaves, and trees. Squirrels carry parasites, like fleas and ticks, that carry infectious bacteria, which can pose a health risk to humans.

Before trapping a squirrel from your home, you must find out if you need a permit or license. Other regulations may include immediately reuniting a squirrel with its young, releasing it somewhere else on your property, and testing for diseases.

Inspection

Inspection

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.

Trapping and Removal

Squirrel Trapping

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.

Repairs

Repairs

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.

Bat Removal

Multiple bat species exist in Newport, but the big and little brown bats are the ones you may find living in your attic. Bats are amazing and nothing like the reputation they’ve been given in movies and stories. They are crucial to our ecosystem because they consume thousands of insects nightly. Without them, we and our crop fields would be overwhelmed by insects.

Bats are the only mammal that can actually fly. Their eyesight is not great, so they use echolocation, or the process of sounds bouncing off things, which creates an echo and guides them. They are nocturnal and begin flying in and out of their roost to feed as soon as dusk arrives. If you have bats on your property, you also have a great food resource for them.

Anything that attracts bugs is a food resource, including pole lights, stagnant water, open feed bags, and manure piles. The only nuisance a bat causes is due to its guano or feces. Bats eat many insects and expel a lot of guano, even while sleeping. Guano contains acids that can erode wood and metals. It stains wood flooring and walls, and it grows mold spores. If humans inhale the spores, they risk contracting respiratory issues. A bat living in your attic means the mold spores may travel through your ducts and vents into your living space.

Getting rid of bats is challenging, primarily due to the laws you must follow. Most bats are protected wildlife because their species is threatened with extinction. The most significant threats are wind turbines, climate change, and white-nose syndrome. Therefore, removing them requires you to avoid doing so during their maternity season, from late Spring to early Fall. Their pups must be able to fly out independently.

Bats can carry rabies and other diseases, making it dangerous to try and remove a bat without the help of an expert.

Inspection

Inspection

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).

Trapping and Removal

Bat Removal

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.

Repairs

Repairs

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.

Skunk Control

Skunks in Newport are about the size of a house cat. The striped skunk is the species you will likely encounter around your home. They are like raccoons; they are nocturnal and will raid trash cans, steal pet food, and raid gardens. Skunks are omnivores and opportunistic eaters. They take advantage of any available food source, including worms, rodents, insects, mushrooms, fruits, nuts, and human food.

Skunks will break into your home if they see holes or cracks leading into a crawlspace or basement. They have a terrific sense of smell and can sense bugs underground. They will dig holes in your lawn to get the bugs.

Anyone trying to remove a skunk risks being sprayed with the famous musky chemical they produce. The odor is foul and can linger for weeks. Skunks will typically leave an area after a short time without prompting. However, if it is in your crawlspace or basement nesting with its newborns, you may be waiting awhile. Never approach a skunk protecting her babies. She will become aggressive and may bite.

Skunks carry diseases like rabies. If a skunk is acting strangely, like staggering towards you in the middle of the day, you must contact the Department of Environmental Management so the professionals there can extract it and test it for diseases. Also, skunks are protected furbearers, and anyone removing them must follow local and state guidelines.

Inspection

Inspection

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.

Trapping and Removal

Trapping and Removal

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.

Repairs

Skunk Control

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.

Rhode Island Bird Control

There are over 400 bird species in Rhode Island. Some are year-round residents; some arrive only in the Fall and Winter, and others are present in Spring and Summer.

Birds can be a nuisance when they inhabit the trees, roof ledges, eaves, chimneys, and soffits of your home and property. Their feces can stain sidewalks, siding, and vehicles because they contain corrosive acids. It also creates an ugly aesthetic. Birds like to hang out on utility wires, making them sag and not work correctly.

If birds enter your attic or walls, they will destroy insulation, keepsakes, and anything else in their way. Sparrows, starlings, and pigeons cause the most damage. They are three species that do not have protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which means they can be trapped. However, trapping them is often useless since they can fly right back in.

Some birds, like woodpeckers, are strictly protected by laws. Other birds are protected by hunting regulations, like pheasants. If you don’t know the laws or need help keeping birds away, call an expert for help in removing birds from your property.

Inspection

Inspection

We thoroughly inspect the area for things that attract birds, like harborage and loafing areas, as well as food and water sources. Also, we look for where birds may be entering your home or business. We also inspect for damage caused by birds, whether it’s by nesting, or by droppings.

Trapping and Removal

Trapping and Removal

After identifying the bird species, we may start by physically removing the species in question. In rescue situations, such as chimneys or basements, birds can be released on-site if the entrance has been secured properly. Occasionally, live traps will be used, especially if flocks of birds are involved. For persistent birds and larger flocks, several advanced techniques may be applied simultaneously including netting, spikes, ledge products, scare tactics, misting and more. The most effective method of bird control is prevention and exclusion.

Repairs

Bird Control

We are happy to repair the damage caused by beavers. This can mean cleaning out flooded areas, filling in holes in the ground, and installing a better drainage system to redirect water away from your home.

How Professional Wildlife Control Services Can Help You

Numerous laws and regulations are adopted for various wildlife at the local, state, and federal levels. Not knowing these ordinances can result in hefty fines and possible jail time. Aside from potential legal consequences, even animals without restrictions can be difficult to remove. If you don’t use the right trap and bait set in the right place, you can create a bigger problem than what already exists.

Trained Specialists Animal removal is a highly sophisticated job. As such, we vet and train our team members to ensure they have the knowledge and skill to remove any pest from your building. Our wildlife experts utilize advanced removal and exclusion techniques and damage repair.
Guaranteed Work Your satisfaction is always guaranteed. Critter Control® takes great pride in providing quality workmanship resulting in customer satisfaction.
Residential and Commerical Invading nuisance wildlife can wreak havoc on property. If left unattended wildlife and pests can cause costly property damage. Whether a residential property, apartment buildings, retail stores, office buildings, industrial plants, medical facilities, or warehouses, our trained professionals can handle any wildlife removal problem.