Another catch awaited me. This time it was a woodpecker in a trap. Here in Colorado, woodpeckers can be very destructive to a home. In short order, a home can be hammered with holes and the poor homeowner left with no idea of how they are going to deal with the problem.
With woodpeckers being a protected bird, I had to go through the proper channels before we could do a control program.
I pulled up to the house and could see the bird in a trap. This trap was the end of the road for the woodpecker as there was no relocation for these guys. They are territorial and would be right back to the home again and continue damaging it.
I removed the bird, reset the trap and loaded the truck back up. I identified the bird and sexed it, documented the capture and what the disposition would be. We took all of our birds to a sanitary landfill and that met the legal requirements of disposal.
After the paperwork was done, I quickly checked my schedule to figure out where I needed to be next. As I was doing so, the phone rang. It was someone with a lost dog. I couldn't help them with that, so I referred them over to the proper agency. Sometimes people think that a wildlife guy is the dog catcher, too!
I put the truck in gear and headed to the next job. This one was going to be fun. The owners heard something in a wall. It was scratching and they were concerned that it was going to come through the wall and eat them. Everything is going to eat them or jump on them or attack them. It was my job to assure them that this was not going to happen and make things right in their world.
It was another 20 minute ride down the road to the next stop and I arrived again ahead of schedule. I was never one to be late. My client's time was just as valuable as mine and I held myself to that standard and called them if I was going to be late.
I came to the client's home and looked it over from the outside. It seemed to be pretty tight fitting and nothing obvious.
I rang the bell and waited for someone to answer. It wasn't long before the door swung open and the lady said, "I am so glad to see you! This thing is driving me crazy!"
It was not the first time that I had heard that response before. Sometimes people would be so frustrated by just trying to find you that they would be about ready to burst when you came in the door.
She invited me in and took me over to the place in the wall where the noise was coming from. I asked her when was the last time she had heard it and she replied "About 2 days ago". "Two days, huh" I replied. Thinking out loud," it has either gotten out of the wall void or has died."
I retreated to my truck to gather my tools for what was going to be an interesting inspection. Carving holes in someone's wall was always interesting! I brought all my stuff inside and rolled out a drop cloth, scanned the wall, pulled out my drywall saw and started to make a cut with the precision of a surgeon. I opened up a hole large enough to inspect what was inside (this was before we had the fancy scopes that we have today) and didn't find anything!
This is the time that always makes you a little ancy, as well as your client. Time to make a new hole! I moved over a stud, scanned again and pierced the drywall. I popped a small hole in and there it was! A rat that was in the process of decaying. Fortunately for me and her, it had only been dead a day or so.
With the dead rat in the wall, there was only one thing to do and that was to remove it. It came out easily enough. I then buttoned up the wall. My client was about to go into hysterics by this time and asked me if I thought there were more. I told her that it was possible and asked her if she would mind if I took a look around the place. Without hesitation, she agreed and I inspected the house. It was a very neatly kept house and not the sort of place that one would think a rat would live.
But these things happen to the best of homes. I didn't find any further evidence of an infestation, but decided to leave a few traps around just in case. The news that it didn't look like a major infestation was a relief to my client and she thanked me for my "heroic" efforts. I wasn't really feeling like a hero, but what the heck, I could live with that compliment.
It was time to start wrapping things up and get onto the next job. I gathered all my tools together, did some paperwork and told the lady I would be back in a week to check the house again.
The sun seemed to be moving faster than I was today. I paused for a moment to reflect on my day. There was always a variety in my field of work and that variety consistently challenged me. There are never two situations that are exactly alike. It is always someone new that you are meeting and their problem is unique to them. How fortunate I felt to be living my life doing exactly what I wanted to do. To be taking an age old craft and applying it to the 20th century. I was on top of my world!
It was time to come down out of the clouds and get back on my schedule. I pulled out my planner to see what was next on the agenda. It looks like an appointment with some gophers was going to be next on the list. There were not a lot of gophers in the Denver area. Usually they would be found in sandy soil areas of the surrounding cities. This one happened to be at the Denver/Aurora line. When the area was being formed, sand must have been deposited in this area because there is not a lot of sand to be found in Denver.
As usual, I grabbed my map, took a quick glance and was on my way again. The weather was beautiful and the traffic was light. Within about fifteen minutes, I was pulling in the driveway of a nice two story home with a very well manicured lawn.
I grabbed some business.educationeasy.net business cards and headed to the front door. I rang the bell and waited. And waited. No one answered. I went to the side yard and peered around to the back. There was a man in the backyard watering the lawn. I said "hello" from a distance as I didn't want to startle him. I walked up and introduced myself and he said, "Man, am I glad to see you!" I looked around at his yard and said, "I bet you are!" His backyard was full of sand mounds and some of his shrubbery was dying.
He told me that the gophers moved in a couple months ago and he had finally had enough of them. I let him know that I would be ridding his property of these current intruders and he could rest assured of that!
I went to the truck and picked out some gopher traps, put them in my bucket along with my shovel, probe and gloves and made my way to the backyard again.
I pulled out the probe and started locating the tunnels in the sandy soil. Thank goodness it was sand as it made it so much easier to work in than clay. I probed around and found 3 really good tunnels. Each tunnel would be set with a trap and the removal process would begin. Trapping gophers is an interesting task. They are not too difficult to trap and are rather neat animals to study. In my line of work, it makes your job so much easier if you know the habits of the animals you are after. I suspect it would be much like a police officer trying to catch a criminal. He would need to know where that criminal usually hung out and at what times of day or night.
The traps were all set. It was time to do a little paperwork with my client and get a move on.
I wonder what is going to be next I thought. The planner revealed another squirrel in an attic call. Well, I have done a hundred of those, so off I went. The address area looked familiar, so I could get by without using the map for this client. I turned the key and started the truck, shifted into gear and rolled the old truck on down the road again.
Traffic was still pretty light and it would be no time till I made it to my client's house. Another squirrel job. I just hope this one didn't do any damage in the attic. It always amazed me how the squirrels could chew on live electrical wires in the attic and survive it. Well, I was about to find out soon enough.
I was coming down the street that my client lived on and noticed it was one of those houses with a back alley and a pull in out back. I came down the alley and parked the truck there. Often it was much easier to work on the home from the back yard and eliminate a gate or two in the process. It is not a lot of fun opening gates when you are carrying a ladder!
My client saw me pull up and was waiting for me outside the back door. "Cool", I said to myself. "This will save me a little time." She was a middle aged professional looking lady. I said hello and she said "Are you the man who is going to save me from these squirrels?" I said "Yes, maam". Off we went on a quick tour of the home and she gave me a very thorough idea of what I was up against. I let her know I needed to suit up and get my gear and would be right back.
I started this inspection from the inside out. Sometimes starting there helps in the investigation and leads to more clues. The attic had plenty of clues in it and there was even a squirrel in residence. It ran out as soon as I neared where it was trying to hide in a ball of insulation. Now, I had a respirator on. How can a squirrel live in an attic and not be annoyed by the insulation? I may never know the answer to that.
I bounced down out of the attic and buttoned it up. I made my way downstairs and out the back door. After retrieving the ladder and putting it onto the roof edge, I clambered up it and onto the roof. Since I saw the squirrel exiting, it wasn't that hard to figure this house out. It had made a small hole on a roofline on the front of the home. The rest of the house looked to be in good shape.
I grabbed some cages, baited them and set them up for the intruding squirrels. Did the usual paperwork with my client and instructed her about the program. She was worried that there might be babies. I asked her if she had heard more than one squirrel in the attic and she thought she did. It would not be uncommon to have more than one. Time would tell.
Speaking of time, I was doing quite well today and I needed to keep moving and the rest of the day would be all downhill from here.
My next stop was one of my fun ones. A raccoon was coming in the pet door and eating the cat's food. The owner didn't think it was too funny, but it always was to me. I can just imagine standing there watching this raccoon eating all of your pet's food. The cat sure wasn't going to do anything about it! Neither was the owner!
I had about 15 miles to get to this stop in the south metro area. There was a reservoir that I passed along the way and I was wishing I had time to do a little fishing. One benefit of being self employed was being able to take a little time off in the middle of the day...and wet a line every now and then.
But the fishing was going to have to wait today. I headed on down the road and was at the next stop in no time. I rang the bell and waited. In short order the door flung open and a nice older gentleman invited me in. He started right in on his story about how this raccoon was driving him nuts and he told me what I was going to do to solve the problem. I thought to myself, I thought I was the expert here? He asked me to go get my equipment and "we" would get started.
I quickly removed two cages out of the truck and returned. I then asked him, how "we" should set them up. He was more than eager to tell me how to do it. I set them up exactly the way he asked. Right on the nice wood floor in the sun room. So I said to the man "Do you suppose that this raccoon might scratch that nice floor when it gets caught?" "Oh" he says, "I didn't think about that. Maybe we should put something under it". I said "Yeah, that might be a good idea". He went to the garage and retrieved some cardboard and "we" put it under the cages. "We" thought that would do the job. He said he would get in touch with me right away when "we" had caught the raccoon. I said, "No problem".
I really like working with the older people. They wanted to get right in there with you and help solve the problem. I think it was in their nature and how they were brought up that made them want to help. And the stories they could tell. They were great!
I didn't have time for stories today and had one last stop to make. This last stop was close to home and that was going to be an easy one. I had to remove a skunk from a window well. I didn't recognize the street so I pulled out the map and researched it. It was in an old section of the suburbs in a town called Thornton. Thornton was mostly lower middle class residents and was a stones throw from the house.
I made it to the house on time just as the owner was pulling up. Perfect timing I thought! A young lady stepped out of the car and she knew who I was right away. She said, "I have something that I need you to take with you! "I laughed and said, "I bet!" She told me which window well the skunk was in and I was on my way to check it out. I slowly peered over into the well and didn't see the skunk. Did it get out? Then I saw the sign of digging. It had dug under the well liner and was hiding. Well, this takes all the fun out of it, but it makes it a lot easier. I went back to the truck and baited a cage, carried it to the window well and placed it inside.
I knocked on the door and the young lady came to it. I let her know what the situation was and told her I would be back tomorrow to "collect" the skunk. She wasn't thrilled that I couldn't get it today, but I assured her that it would be better to take it away tomorrow than to have it spray in there today. She agreed. The normal paperwork was taken care of and then I was off to the house.
It had been a pretty long day, but it had been a great one too. In this line of business, almost all of our clients are happy to see us. We are eagerly sought out to solve their wildlife problem and give them their home or business back again. If only all careers had people eager to see them. I bet those lined up to meet with the IRS agent are not happy to see them!
It was time to relax, finish some paperwork and wait for another fun day ahead. And to think, I get paid to do this!
Mark E. Dotson is the Chief Executive Officer of A All Animal Control, a Nuisance Wildlife Management firm with offices nationwide.
Mark brings twenty years of expertise to the field of Wildlife Management and Animal Damage Control.
Mark is a Certified Wildlife Control Professional, Certified Wildlife Professional, Academy Certified Professional, Certified Bird Control Expert, Certified Geese Management Professional, Certified Marksman and a BCI Certified Bat Removal Specialist.
Mark lives in Charleston, West Virginia, with his wife, Alisa, and stepsons, Trey and Marc. He works out of the corporate location in the city and a satellite office neatly tucked away in the woods. Mark is also the corporate trainer and consultant for A All Animal Control franchises.
Have you ever wanted to work with wildlife but didn't know how to get started? To learn how you can become a Wildlife Management Professional, visit aallanimalcontrol.com/franchise.cfm aallanimalcontrol.com/franchise.cfm for more information.
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