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Nuisance Wildlife
Bats, birds, squirrels, and raccoons can be more than just a nuisance. These animals can also cause major damage in attics (including ripping up insulation, chewing through electrical wiring, and building nests in soffit areas and wall voids). Their fecal matter can contain disease, and areas may require a thorough cleanout in order to remove contamination. To learn more about some of the common types of nuisance wildlife found in New England, click on the profiles available for each type below.
Bats are usually brown with dark hairs at the base. Their wings and interfemoral membranes are black. Their colors vary from light in deserts to dark in forests. Length is 110-130 mm; weight is 13-18 g. They do not have fur on their wings or interfemoral membrane.
What is the Bat’s Diet?
Although various bat species eat different kinds of food, the vast majority consume a variety of insects such as moths, beetles, gnats, and crickets.
What is the Bat’s Reproductive Cycle?
Most bats have a breeding season, which is in the spring for species living in a temperate climate. Bats may have one to three litters in a season, depending on the species and on environmental conditions such as the availability of food and roost sites.
Where do Bats Live?
Some bats prefer to roost in barns, attics, caves or abandoned mines, those shelters providing safety from predators, protection from fluctuations in weather, and seclusion for rearing the young. Other species select hollow trees or rock crevices as their daytime resting site, while certain ones are known to roost in exposed locations, clinging to tree trunks or hanging upside down from tree branches.
Why are Bats a Pest?
Bats are certainly a beneficial part of nature. However, if they invade your home, bats defecate, soil and tear up insulation or bring in parasites like mites, fleas and ticks. Solving a bat problem is no easy task. Trained experts are equipped with the knowledge and tools to safely and humanely remove the bats, which is done through a process called exclusion.
Birds come in all shapes, sizes and colors. With a sleek, streamlined body, birds are covered with feathers (either colorful or subdued) and have two legs with front limbs that are modified into wings. Their jaws are covered by a horny beak.
What is a Bird’s Diet?
A bird’s diet usually depends on its breed and size and may include flowers, grass, seeds, worms, small invertebrates, insects, fish, small prey and animal corpses, as well as trash and “people food”.
What is the Bird Reproductive Cycle?
Many bird species bond in pairs and have distinct courtship rituals. Birds generally reproduce at a young age. Female birds lay sets of eggs, referred to as clutches. Clutch sizes vary within and among bird species.
Where do Birds Live?
When not flying or foraging for food, birds tend to nest and roost (sleep, sit, stand, or rest), often communally. Birds are found nearly everywhere and most birds migrate to warmer areas when the weather gets colder.
The flying squirrel is the smallest of all squirrels, weighing between 3-5 ounces with a body length of approximately 9-14 inches. Identified by their ability to glide (not actually fly), flying squirrels have a thin, furred membrane of skin that runs from their wrists to their ankles. Their fur varies in color from brown or grayish to reddish-brown or blackish-brown, and their tail is broad, flattened, and fluffy. Females and males are similar in appearance.
What is the Flying Squirrel Diet?
Flying squirrels primarily eat berries, blossoms, buds, cherries, and all types of nuts, except for walnuts, because the shells are too hard to gnaw. They especially like meat and also enjoy insects, bird eggs and small nestling birds.
What is the Flying Squirrel Reproductive Cycle?
Flying squirrels are communal, often living together. Their yearly mating season begins in February and ends in March. Forty days after mating, a litter of 3 to 6 young is born. At 8 weeks, a young flying squirrel will attempt its first glide and after 18 months, the squirrel is considered an adult. Their life span is about 5 to 6 years.
Where do Flying Squirrels Live?
Flying squirrels are generally found in tree cavities, though when nesting spots are scarce, leaf nests, an abandoned woodpecker nest or bird boxes may be used. Flying squirrels will make their way into homes, nesting in attics and closets.
Raccoons measure between 41 and 71 cm, not including the tail, which can measure between 19.2 and 40.5 cm. The most characteristic physical feature of the raccoon is the area of black fur around the eyes, which contrasts sharply with the surrounding white face coloring.
What is the Raccoon’s Diet?
The raccoon diet consists of many different types of food. While its diet in spring and early summer consists mostly of insects, worms, and other animals available early in the year, it prefers fruits and nuts. Acorns and walnuts (which emerge in late summer and autumn) represent a calorie-rich food source for building up fat needed for winter.
What is the Raccoon’s Reproductive Cycle?
Raccoons usually mate between late January and mid-March, triggered by increasing daylight. During the mating season, males roam their home ranges in search of females in an attempt to court them during the three- to four-day-long period when conception is possible. Mating can last over an hour and is repeated over several nights.
Where do Raccoons Live?
Raccoons are most active at night and only travel where food is available. The adult male only travels in about a one-mile diameter. Adult females and their young inhabit smaller areas. Raccoons will den in abandoned buildings, old beaver lodges or bank dens, car bodies, wood piles, abandoned coyote dens, chimneys, and haystacks. If you encounter a raccoon during the day and it doesn’t seem frightened by you, it could have rabies and should be reported to local animal control.
Squirrels are usually identified by their soft, dense fur. It is uniformly-colored, with gray above and white below. Their tail is bushy at the base, black in the middle, and tipped with white. The adult is about 380-525 mm long and weighs 300-713 grams. There is no difference in the colors of the sexes. Young squirrels are a lighter gray than adults. They have a long, bushy tail used for balance, as a parachute, or to protect the animal from the sun or cold.
What is the Squirrel’s Diet?
The food of gray squirrels is principally nuts, eaten according to the cycle of nut reproduction, which generally peaks in the autumn. Squirrels cannot digest cellulose and must rely on foods rich in protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
What is the Squirrel Reproductive Cycle?
Squirrels start mating when they are a year old. It takes about six weeks from the time the squirrels mate until the baby squirrels, called kittens, are born. Twice a year, in the spring and at the end of the summer, the female squirrel has two to five kittens.
Where do Squirrels Live?
Squirrels are diurnal and are usually active from early morning to late evening in both summer and winter. Squirrels can really be a nuisance because of their propensity to chew on various edible and inedible objects. They often cause power outages and are known to cause structural damage because of their tendency to burrow.