How We Solve Santa Barbara County 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.
If you're looking for a wildlife control company that will treat both you and the animals courteously and with respect, you've come to the right place. That's what we promise to do, and seeing as we've been voted as the #1 wildlife control company for three years in a row, we reckon we're doing a good job at delivering that service. Our customers are happy, and that's because we do the full job. We will use a 32-point inspection process to look over your home and identify holes and cracks that are being used as doorways. Exclusion devices and live cage traps will be used to get the animals out so they can't get back in again, and once we're sure there is nothing left in your building that should be there - residential or commercial - we'll seal up all the holes so tightly, those wild animals will never be able to back inside your home again. Isn't that the kind of job you're looking for? That's not all though - we do so much more than that. We'll repair any damage the wild animal will have left for you, and we'll clean up any waste matter to eradicate the threat of disease. We'll even educate you as to how you can further protect your home, and we'll do all of that smiling too! When you see our prices, you'll be smiling too - they're very competitive. Give us a call today to find out what our wildlife control services can do for you and your home or business.
We service Kern County, San Luis Obispo County, Ventura County, and more. We also service Buellton, Lompoc, Carpinteria, Goleta, Santa Maria, Guadalupe, Solvang, Ballard, Los Alamos, New Cuyama, Toro Canyon, Casmalia, Los Olivos, Orcutt, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Garey, Mission Hills, Mission Canyon, Santa Ynze, Vandenburg Village, Isla Vista, Montecito, Summerland, Sisquoc, Gaviota, Hollister Ranch, Hope Ranch, Painted Cave, Surf, Ventucopa, and more. To learn more about our services, visit the Santa Barbara County wildlife control home page.
This month's wildlife how-to article: How do you remove a wild animal stuck in the dumpster
You're walking alone down the driveway to your dumpster because you forgot to take the trash out during the day. You hear something banging around in the dumpster and notice the door is slightly open. Once you get past your hallucinations of large scary monsters, you look inside and find a wild animal is trapped. What do you do? First, don't panic and scare the animal, it's already caught so it can become aggressive when startled.
One thing you don't want to do is get into the dumpster with the wild animal to try and get it out. It can become aggressive or scared and injure you before you can get away. You don't know if the animal is sick plus you don't really want to get into a dumpster with a wild animal. Don't poke at it with a stick or try to capture it in a bag. You don't want to do anything that might allow the animal to attack you or come in contact with you. Many diseases can be transmitted to humans from wild animals, so it's not worth the risk.
Something you can do to try and help the animal out of the dumpster is put a branch or something they can climb up onto from trash. For smaller animals, a large piece of cardboard or board will work too. A ladder will also work to help an animal climb out if you have one handy. Just put the item in the dumpster and go back in the house. Once the animal feels safe, it will use this method to get out. This should work for most animals.
If it seems like the animal can't grasp or climb you can tip the dumpster over, but you'll probably need help and shouldn't do it if it's too heavy. Tipping it over might scare the animal more especially if it makes a loud noise.
If you go back the next day and notice the animal is still in the dumpster, then it might be hurt. If this seems to be the case or if they just don't seem to want to come out of the trash then you'll need to call animal control. They can quickly come out and remove the animal in a safe and humane way.
Once you get the animal out of your dumpster, you can take some steps to make sure they don't get in there again. Keep the door closed. If it's easily opened, then raccoons will be able to pull it open. In this case, you may need to add a latch to it or find a way to keep it closed.
