Monday-Friday 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday Closed
By County: Carter County, Cocke County, Greene County, Hamblen County, Jefferson County, Johnson County, Sullivan County, Unicoi County and Washington County
Johnson City, Tennessee, is known for outdoor activities. Every season of the year offers new adventures for locals and visitors. We have steep mountains, rolling hills, valleys, and ridges, all of which provide food, water, and shelter for local wildlife.
However, the more we develop Washington County, the more the local wildlife are forced into our neighborhoods. Today you can expect to encounter rats, mice, raccoons, opossums, skunks, snakes, bats, and squirrels, lots of squirrels, daily.
While fun to watch, they can quickly become nuisance wildlife or animals that cause damage to your home or property. According to Tennessee law, property owners are responsible for the removal of nuisance wildlife and damage repairs.
The state also recommends hiring an animal control operator since removing wildlife can sometimes be a dangerous task. At Critter Control, we have the knowledge and experience to safely and humanely eliminate nuisance wildlife. Below are some examples of how we solve animal problems using our three-step process of inspection, removal, and repairs.
After removal, we seal all entry points with chew-resistant materials, preventing future infestations. Our repairs are designed to withstand Memphis’s weather and wildlife pressures.
We clean and sanitize contaminated areas, removing animal waste and damaged materials to protect your family’s health and restore your property to its original condition.
The masks worn by raccoons cannot cover their bad habits, like overturning trash cans, raiding dumpsters, and building a nest in your attic. Their size and nimble hands allow them to break into your property. Raccoons are filthy and leave behind greasy smudges. They break vents, ductwork, spouting, shingles, and more. They dig up sod searching for insects, attack backyard chickens, steal bird eggs, and help themselves to pet food. If it’s edible, a raccoon will probably try it.
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.
We block raccoon entry gaps with galvanized steel to make sure raccoons cannot get back inside how they got in the first time.
We have an abundance of rodents in our area. Examples are Harvest mice, various deer mice, roof rats, cotton rats, and hairy-tailed moles. It’s the brown rat and the house mouse that become the biggest nuisance wildlife in Johnson City.
Rodents are sneaky, clever, and can squeeze through tiny holes, ones you may not even know exist. Once in your home, they spend their time chewing, gnawing, scratching, and scavenging. They break into your pantry and ruin groceries. They run across your counters and leave feces and urine everywhere they roam.
They carry diseases, making it risky for you to get rid of rats and mice on your own. Critter Control deals with rodent nuisances often. Here’s what we do.
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.
Johnson City is home to the Eastern gray, American red, fox, Northern, and Southern flying squirrels. Squirrels are becoming a big nuisance as more and more adapt to the urban lifestyle. They hang out everywhere, from ETSU to all our local parks. Some prefer staying at home, your home.
Squirrels can travel anywhere on your property, causing damages along the way. They make electrical wires sag, break roof shingles, eat vegetables out of your garden, and create nests in your attic if it is open and has a vacancy.
Squirrels are tiny collectors. They gather nuts, fruit, leaves, bark, twigs, bird eggs, and anything else they want to hoard in your attic. Professionals must remove them since they also carry diseases. We can get rid of squirrels in your home so you can go back to watching them on the outside.
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.
Out of 15 or more types of bats in the area, the little brown bat is the most common. It’s the one most likely to succeed at roosting in your attic, barn, or other building. Bats will choose your property as a place to live if they find a constant source of food and water. By food, we mean insects. Bats can eat thousands of insects daily.
Bats eating insects is not a problem. It’s the guano they leave behind that’s a problem. Bat guano smells terrible and is very toxic. It is heavy, and it could break the board if it piles up on a weak board. It contains acid that causes erosion. Inhaling guano fumes can lead to respiratory ailments in humans.
Bats are rarely seen but do make a lot of noise. It’s best not to try to get rid of bats by yourself for several reasons. One, bats will bite if they feel threatened. Two, bats carry diseases like rabies and can transmit them to you through a bite. And three, bats are covered in their poop. If you touch a bat, you are handling their poop.
Our experts have the equipment to solve any bat problem.
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).
Opossums are common in Johnson City. They are nocturnal, but it’s easy to see what they did the night before during the day. With 50 teeth and a tail that can carry items, the opossum can wreak havoc on your home if it manages to get inside.
Some people find them cute, like when they fake being dead to escape harm. But those who have had one spend a few days in their home think they are anything but cute. They can chew wires, scratch walls, and leave feces in piles.
It’s essential to get rid of an opossum living in your home before they give birth to nine or more babies, the average litter. We have a lot of experience with removing opossums.
Opossums can be found inside attics and basements or outside under decks and sheds. Common signs include unique paw prints and feces. Opossums are docile and usually easy to spot.
Opossums can be lured into cages for live capture. If it is maternity season, we follow all guidelines for removing mother and newborn opossums. We will seal entryways into the building to prevent opossums from reentering in the future. Opossums can be kept from getting under sheds and decks by installing fencing around the bottom edges and burying the fence underground.
Broken screens on chimney and roof vents are replaced with sturdier materials, and we properly seal all entry points, including crawlspaces. We clean and deodorize areas of opossum activity. Exclusion may include eliminating sources that attract bugs, like nighttime lighting, stagnant water, and livestock poop.
