Getting unwanted wildlife on your property can turn a peaceful haven into a stressful, damaged zone. When you hear the scurrying of squirrels in your attics or see evidence of raccoons under your decks, the instinct is often to take immediate action with a simple trap. However, when dealing with sophisticated wild animals and the structural integrity of your home, a quick DIY fix is rarely the safest or most effective path. Professional wildlife removal is far safer and provides a long-term strategy that protects both your family and your property investment here in Canada.
The Hidden Risks of DIY Wildlife Control
Many homeowners mistakenly believe that wildlife control is as easy as buying a cage and placing food inside. In reality, removing critters like skunks, rats, and raccoons safely and legally requires expertise and specialized equipment.
1. Safety Hazards and Disease Transmission
The biggest risk of DIY animal control is exposure. Wild animals, even seemingly small mice or squirrels, can be highly territorial, and they carry significant health risks.
- Direct Contact: When attempting trapping or removal, startled animals may scratch or bite. Raccoons and skunks are known carriers of rabies, and accidental contact with bats during bat removal can also transmit disease.
- Biohazardous Wildlife Waste: Rodents, raccoons, and squirrels leave behind animal waste (droppings) that can carry bacteria and viruses. Cleaning up this biohazardous wildlife waste in confined areas like crawl spaces or garages requires protective gear and specialized treatment to prevent airborne illness.
- Aggressive Wildlife: During breeding season, animals protecting their nesting areas are especially aggressive. Trying to remove a mother raccoon or a squirrel from their entry point can result in serious injury, far outweighing the perceived savings of DIY.
Therefore, professional technicians are trained in handling aggressive wild animals safely and ensuring the complete removal of all contaminated nesting materials.
2. Legal and Ethical Complications of Trapping
In Canada, wildlife removal is governed by strict regulations, particularly those set by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the federal Canada Fish & Wildlife Commission. Ignorance of these laws can lead to fines and ethical violations.
- Trapping and Relocation Laws: In Ontario and many other provinces, there are strict rules about where and how far an animal can be relocated. Improper trapping or relocation is illegal and often simply shifts the pest problems to a different neighborhood, sometimes causing the animal to die trying to return.
- Protected Species: Many common “pests,” such as specific birds like pigeons or seagull control subjects, may fall under protected statutes depending on the area and the time of year. Bat control and bat removal, for instance, are highly regulated to protect these beneficial critters.
- Humane Treatment: Professional wildlife removal services are trained in humane trapping methods and adhere to provincial guidelines, ensuring the well-being of the wild animals through proper handling and, where necessary, coordination with wildlife rehabilitation centers.
Ultimately, using a professional pest control services company ensures legal compliance and ethical treatment of the wild animals.
The Professional, Permanent Pest Management Strategy
DIY solutions often focus only on the visible pest but ignore the cause: the breaches in your foundation and roof that provide them with shelter and entry. Professionals focus on permanent exclusion.
3. Comprehensive Inspection and Exclusion Techniques
The long-term solution to any wildlife removal barrie or rodent control pest problems lies in exclusion—physically blocking the entry points. This requires a thorough inspection that most homeowners cannot perform safely.
- Identifying All Entry Points: Our technicians are trained to find the hidden entry points that squirrels, rats, and mice exploit. This often involves inspecting tight crawl spaces, assessing rooflines for woodpecker damage, or checking gaps in the foundation and around decks and garages.
- Exclusion Techniques: Once identified, we implement professional animal proofing services using durable materials. This includes installing a one-way door to allow the animal to exit safely without being able to return, and sealing all secondary vulnerabilities with durable mesh covers and exclusion repairs.
- Video Walkthrough: Many modern pest control solutions providers offer a video walkthrough of the problem area before and after the treatment. This transparency shows the homeowner exactly where the wild animals were entering and how the exclusion repairs were performed.
Therefore, this permanent strategy ensures that your wildlife pest problems won’t simply recur next season.
4. Specialized Treatment and Sanitization
Dealing with an infestation often means addressing the consequences of the critters living inside your walls, attics, or basements.
- Odor Control and Waste Removal: Wildlife nesting often leaves behind strong odors and animal waste. We provide odor control services and careful removal of biohazardous wildlife waste, which is essential because the scent of old droppings can attract new Rodents and raccoons.
- Targeted Rodent Control: For persistent Rodents like Norway rats or mice, we employ safe rodent control measures, including the strategic placement of professional bait and specialized traps in areas inaccessible to pets and children.
- Integrated Pest Management: In addition to wildlife removal, a professional service offers an integrated pest management strategy. This might include dealing with secondary pest problems like fleas, bed bugs, cockroaches, Carpenter Ants, or Odorous House Ants that were brought in by the wild animals.
In contrast to DIY methods, a professional service handles the entire process, from dead animal removal to complete sanitization.
Why Choose Top Choice Pest Control
Top Choice Pest Control provides expert, humane wildlife removal barrie and long-term exclusion repairs across Toronto and Ontario, including areas near Kempenfelt Bay and Georgian College. Our licensed technicians are specialists in raccoon control, bat control, and rodent control, offering a comprehensive warranty on all wildlife-proofing work. We manage the entire process—from detailed inspection to the safe removal of animal waste—ensuring animal re-entry is prevented and your property is secure.
Conclusion
When confronting wildlife intruders like skunks, squirrels, or raccoons, the choice between DIY and professional wildlife removal barrie is a choice between risk and guaranteed safety. A professional service provides expert inspection, legally compliant trapping, and permanent exclusion techniques to address entry points and clean up dangerous animal waste. This holistic strategy is the only way to protect your home from long-term property damage and ensure these resilient critters don’t return.
Ready to secure your home with a permanent wildlife-proofing strategy? CALL TODAY for a free estimate!