Critter Control of Providence, RI

Raccoons are cute, with their black masks and striped tails. Their human-like hands make them great climbers. They are also opportunistic omnivores, meaning they eat anything they find, such as plants and meat, including insects, small rodents, fish, garbage, pet feed, and table scraps. They eat chickens, eggs, birds, fruits, nuts, and grains. They destroy coops, feeders, decks, porches, and other structures to get food. If you have a raccoon causing problems on your property, it won't be cute for long.

Raccoons love to occupy attic spaces, especially when it is time to give birth, usually mid to late Spring. Getting into your attic is not a problem for a raccoon. If it sees a small hole or a crack in your roof, it will make it bigger and push its way inside. Raccoons will also tear off shingles and remove vent screens and caps to access the attic space.

Once inside, raccoons designate an area for nesting and the other as a latrine. They build nests out of materials they find inside your home, like drywall, insulation, and sentimental items lying around.

Raccoons chew on electrical wiring, clog vents and pipes, and scratch and shred drywall and insulation. Outside, they dig holes in your lawn, destroy gardens, raid bird feeders, leave smudge marks on your siding, break shingles, and tear bark from trees.

 Hiring a wildlife expert to trap raccoons is always recommended since raccoons carry many diseases, including rabies, tularemia, roundworm, and trichinosis.

The brown and black rats are in abundance throughout Rhode Island, but it is the brown rat that you will most likely find on your property. If you have an issue with mice, the odds are they are house mice. However, field mice and deer mice occasionally enter a Providence home. To get rid of rats and mice, you must first know which species is causing the nuisance.

Rats are larger than mice, and with brown and black rats, their fur color can help you identify them. Deer and field mice both have white feet, but field mice typically have gray fur, while deer mice are brown. These two mice species do not adapt well to being around humans, unlike the house mouse, which thrives around humans, so the latter is the kind of mouse you are likely to find in your attics, walls, ceilings, and crawlspaces.

Rats like to burrow underground, digging tunnels under your home, driveway, shed, or other structure. Burrows make anything above them unstable. When not digging underground, rats may enter your home using cracks and holes, even those as small as a quarter. Mice can enter through holes the size of a dime. There are plenty of secret spaces in your home for these animals to live comfortably.

Rats and mice cause extensive damage to your property. They chew electrical wires and build nests in your insulation, vents, or pipes. They can chew through thin metals, siding, shingles, wood, plastic, and drywall. They contaminate pets, livestock, and human food, costing you extra money to replace your groceries. 

Rats and mice carry numerous diseases, including tularemia, salmonellosis, rat bite fever, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis, a few diseases that can be transmitted to humans and other animals. They carry parasites like ticks and fleas that can transmit bacterial infections like Lyme disease to humans.

If you see one rat or mouse, there are others nearby. Both species reproduce six or more times each year. With each litter, they have six or more pups. The female pups are ready to breed at three months old. Within six months, you can have an infestation. Trapping one mouse is easy. Getting rid of a rodent infestation requires professional help and may take several weeks. Also, using the wrong bait or traps can lead to more damage and a larger infestation. Hiring a professional for pest removal is crucial.

 The squirrel, can be seen daily in Providence. The Easter gray squirrel is the one you find most in your yard or attic. The red squirrel tends to avoid urban areas. The flying Southern squirrel, which doesn't fly but glides, is nocturnal and prefers rural areas.

Squirrels are fun to watch as they scurry around your property. If you watch closely, they are always on a mission to collect food and nesting materials. These mini collectors store their treasures for winter since they are not true hibernators. They collect grains, nuts, flowers, buds, berries, fruits, insects, bird eggs, mushrooms, and garden crops. Some will eat human scraps if available.

As you continue watching squirrels, you will notice their behaviors are causing damage to your home and property. They have teeth that constantly grow and which these rodents must keep filed to avoid pain. Squirrels chew on any hard materials to file down their teeth. They chew holes in vinyl siding, shingles, drywall, wood, and plastic. Some will even chew concrete.

Inside an attic, where they prefer to nest, squirrels will chew electrical wires and will use any sentimental items left lying around for nests. They shred insulation and build nests in ducts or pipes, creating fire hazards for you and your family. They chew wooden beams and trusses, altering the structure of your roof. Squirrels also leave urine and feces that produce foul odors and can grow mold spores harmful to humans.

Unlike other rodents, squirrels are protected furbearers, and anyone hunting or trapping them must have proper permits and licenses. Removing a squirrel with newborns requires immediate reunification. Relocation is illegal. Homeowners can benefit from hiring a professional who understands the laws and can secure the space from future squirrel activity.

Rhode Island has at least eight bat species, but the ones you find roosting in your attic are likely the big or little brown bats. If you see a bat on your property, your first instinct may be to panic. However, bats are harmless when left alone. They have no desire to interact with humans. The only time they become a threat to humans is when you try catching and handling them.

They have simple goals, like finding food and roosting. Bats consume thousands of insects every night. They are an essential part of our ecosystem balance and save farmers billions by eating insects that would have to be killed with insecticides if it weren't for bats.

Bats become a nuisance because their guano or feces and urine contains acids and grows mold spores that, if ingested by humans, can cause respiratory problems. Bats defecate even when they sleep. As the piles grow, they stain and corrode a structure's wood flooring, walls, and beams. The foul odors and mold spores can travel through your vents into your living spaces.

Bats are protected as threatened and endangered due to diseases like the white-nose syndrome sweeping through colonies. Other reasons for their protection include population reduction caused by wind turbines and climate change. Laws regarding bat removal state that no bat can be removed or harassed out of its roost during the maternity season, from late Spring to early Fall. Also, newborns must be given enough time to grow and fly out independently.

Bats can carry diseases, including rabies, and although rare, you don't want to take a chance with your health by trying to capture a bat without the right equipment.

Woodchucks are part of the squirrel family, a rodent that will make a home by burrowing under homes, sheds, hedgerows, and gardens. They are much larger than other rodents, weighing up to ten pounds and averaging 20 inches long. Their size means the burrows they dig are likewise large, causing instability in the foundations on which homes and buildings are built. If these critters burrow under roads or driveways, expect to see cracks and holes shortly.

Woodchucks cover the entrances to their burrows so well that humans don't often see them. A person falling into a burrow can break a bone. The same is true for horses or livestock. Farmers suffer expensive equipment damage when woodchucks dig holes in crop fields, and the farmers unknowingly drive over them.

Woodchucks hibernate in winter and spend much time preparing by collecting grains, grasses, fruits, and berries. It can seem impossible to get rid of a woodchuck. You may fill its burrow with dirt, but the woodchuck will dig it out again. The tunnel systems woodchucks create are often quite extensive, and you may not find every entrance, leaving the whole structure open to various wildlife even if your resident woodchuck is extracted.

A professional can effectively remove and prevent a woodchuck from returning without breaking furbearer regulations. Specific trapping methods and relocation are outlawed.