How We Solve Oakland Wildlife Problems
It starts with your phone call. We answer our phones 24/7, and we will carefully listen to your wildlife problem. Every case is different, so we will ask appropriate questions to help
us understand the situation better. Questions like, "do you hear the noises at night or during the daytime?" or "what type of roof do you have?" After we have a general idea of your
situation, we can provide a ballpark price range, and schedule a same-day or next-day appointment to inspect your property.
INSPECTION: Once on site, we will perform a full inspection of your home and property. This allows us to use the correct strategy and traps. If the animals are in an attic, a full building inspection is crucial, including the following:
- All ground-level areas, such as piper or A/C line entry & exit areas, A/C chase bottoms, ground-level vents, etc.
- All mid-level areas, such as dryer vents, siding gaps, first floor eaves or dormers, etc.
- We inspect the entire roof, including all plumbing stacks, ridge caps, vents, and other potential gaps or holes.
- We also inspect inside your attic, to identify animals and damage they have caused.
- If the animals are outside, we notice many subtle clues that will assist us in a successful strategy.
TRAPPING, EXCLUSION, REMOVAL: Once we understand what animal species we are dealing with, and the problem, we use the most effective means of removing the animals. We use dozens of different types of traps.
- Trapping - If trapping the animal(s) in live cage traps, trap type, set, and location are crucial to success.
- Exclusion - Oftentimes, we are able to simply set one-way doors or other exclusion devices that allow the animals inside a building to safely exit, but never get back inside.
- Removal By Hand - Sometimes we actually remove animals by hand, or with special tools like snare poles.
- The Law - In all cases, we obey state and local laws regarding wildlife, but aim to take the most humane approach.
ENTRY HOLE REPAIRS: Repairs are a crucial step in the wildlife removal process. In many cases, such as bat or rodent control, the job cannot be performed without detailed repairs, and in all cases, sealing the entry holes shut ensures that no future wildlife will ever enter your home.
- 100% of the entry holes must be found, and sealed shut, or the job is not complete.
- Our repairs are professional contractor grade, look good, and when applicable we use steel, which rodents such as rats or squirrels are unable to chew through.
- We give a written guarantee on our repairs against any future animal entry.
ATTIC DECONTAMINATION SERVICES: It may be desirable to clean your attic after we've removed the animals. They can leave behind large amounts of droppings, urine, hair, oils, food, nesting material, and so on. These remnants can attract insects like cockroaches, and the scent left behind can encourage new animals to chew their way into your house. You might experience odor problems from the waste. It's possible that mold will grow on waste areas.
- We remove or vacuum all droppings, or remove all the soiled insulation.
- We fog the attic with a special enzyme-based cleaner that destroys any organic matter and deodorizes the space.
- We repair damage, such as ductwork, electrical wires, pipes, insulation, and more.
Here in the east bay we have a variety of nuisance wildlife species. Urban encroachment on the local wildlife habitat has forced animals into people's homes. Our company deals primarily with raccoons, skunks, squirrels, opossums, chipmunks, groundhogs, and more. We also perform poison-free rodent control services. Oakland has a documented rat problem in buildings. Pigeons are also common in Oakland, and our bird control techniques prevent them from roosting on your building. We are courteous and take the time to address your wildlife issue completely. We service the the entire Oakland CA metropolitan region, including all of Alameda County. We also service the towns and suburbs of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, Union City, Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, San Lorenzo, Sunol, and more. To learn more about our services, visit the Oakland wildlife control home page.
This month's wildlife how-to article: Rat trapping – how to catch rats with traps
Rats are horrible creatures, especially when you have them in your home. When you spot one, or at least think you may have a home full of them, the first thing that will enter your head is that you must get rid of them, and pronto! You have two main option s- you can either call on the help of a pest control company to do all of the hard work for you, or you can save money, add more effort and try a spot of rat trapping yourself. The only problem with the latter is that rat trapping is hard work, and there are so many things to think about!
Did you know that a rat can grow up to nine inches in length? Can you imagine how you would feel if you bumped into a nine-inch long rat in your kitchen in the middle of the night? I’m sure a scream or two would escape, that’s for sure! On top of that, rats can crawl through the smallest of spaces, even at this size, which will give you an impression of what kind of trap that you are going to need.
Rats are never alone – they always bring a family or at least an army of friends with them! This means that you will need to buy more than one trap, and take preventative methods at the same time; otherwise you will be trying to empty the ocean with a tea cup, literally! Ideally, a pest control company is the best way to rid yourself of your rat problem, but if you would rather do the job yourself, you will need information and good luck! Of course, in a bid to persuade you that you should be using a pest control company, you should look at what rats bring with them, a definite concern if you have other pets or small children to care about.
The sheer amount of diseases that rats bring can be incredible – Tularemia Plague Adenoviruses Rat-bite fever Hemorrhagic fever Renal Syndrome
These can be bought into your home in many ways. The rat can contaminate your food, leave parasites in your family pet or within the destruction it can leave in the walls, rafters or floors of your home, even in the urine that it will spread all over your home – is that something that you would like your family to be walking in or coming into contact with?
Still, if you want to spare the expense of using a company to rid your rats, you can always try rat trapping yourself. You will need to look at three main points – 1. What animal do you want to trap? (The answer to this question right now is the rat) 2. How big of a trap are you going to need? (Between baby rat sized and nine inches) 3. What features do you want? (Do you want a snap trap that will kill the rat, a double door trap; there a lot of state of the art features out there on the market)
Of course, there are a vast number of traps to choose from, from the snap-trap that we have just mentioned that will kill or maim your rat, to a double-door one that gives the rat the impression he or she is crawling through a tunnel, to the most basic of traps with one door.
Other Oakland animal pest control topics:
About Groundhogs
Mouse Prevention Techniques
Opossum Repellent
Wildlife in the Chimney
