A critter is an undomesticated wild animal that is not normally kept as a pet. Common critters include rats, squirrels, raccoons, opossum, armadillos, and bats. Such critters are often drawn to residential homes in search of warm shelter and available food. Once inside your home, invasive critters will nest, cause extensive damage, and spread harmful diseases. Fortunately, there are a few precautionary wildlife removal tactics that you can implement to keep critters out of your home.
Common Reasons Wild Animals Infest Homes
Here are seven reasons why neighborhood critters are infesting your home and what you can do to get rid of them.
- You leave food lying around.
Because critters are not considered pets, no one feeds them. However, critters get hungry. If you leave food lying around inside or outside of your house, then wild animals will naturally be attracted to it. If you don’t want critters in your house, then keep your food and leftovers where they can’t find them and stop ringing the dinner bell by leaving pet food bowls on front porches and fallen fruits and vegetables on the ground around your trees and garden.
- You don’t clean your home regularly.
If critters are still around, then perhaps your home can use some tidying up? Don’t wait until spring or that once-a-year general cleaning day that you schedule only when you feel like it. Sweep, vacuum, and clean your house regularly. There might be something hiding under the couch or right on your patio that hungry critters can feed on.
- You don’t have pets to keep them away.
Not all households are too welcoming of pets, and that’s quite understandable. Pet ownership is optional and you shouldn’t be forced into it just to keep critters away. But ask anyone who has a dog or a cat inside the house if they still have roaches or rats around and the answer would probably be no. Cats are especially adept at rat control and rat removal!
- There are holes, cracks and other tiny spaces where critters can enter.
These critters don’t need doors or open windows to enter your home. All they need are tiny little holes or cracks where they would fit. It would be best if you check on walls, screens, ceilings and other areas in your home where they could have entered. Seal these holes or fix them right away. And if you have a major problem with critters it would be recommended to call a professional critter control company to perform an entire seal of your home.
- There are dark, dank, and cluttered areas of your home where critters can nest.
Some critters, like rats and roaches, like dark or poorly lighted spaces mainly because it’s a great place to hide. While you probably don’t want to waste expensive electricity to light up your home at all times, a great solution to this is by lighting natural sunlight in. Use light curtains in the attic instead of dark ones. Open the windows when you can.
- Your home has one or a few empty rooms.
Rooms that are not occupied by humans are also considered a great habitat by critters. If you have one in your home, especially if you have an attic, make it a habit to check on those areas every now and then, keep them clean and well lighted, if possible.
- You don’t invest in animal removal services.
Lastly, these critters choose to stay in your home simply because you let them. You don’t drive them away. You might wait days or weeks to finally call pest control to get rid of those squeaking mice that are starting to breed in your attic. Truth be told, the best way for these critters to finally stop choosing your home is by getting rid of them! Word will spread around in the little critter community that they are not welcome in your home, and most probably, you won’t see a lot of them anymore.
Stop the Spread of Disease with Professional Animal Removal Services
Don’t wait until these deadly diseases infect your family and loved ones. By allowing rats to linger in your home, you give them time to nest, breed, and spread disease behind your ceilings and walls. At the first sign of a rat infestation, call the rat control professionals at Animal Wildlife Trappers to get rid of invasive pests before the critters take over your house and compromise your family’s safety.
Rely on Your Local Wildlife Removal Experts
At Animal Wildlife Trappers, our team of licensed professionals have the experience and training to quickly, efficiently, and permanently remove nuisance critters and unwanted pests from your home or commercial building. Call us today at 352-267-0546 to schedule an inspection and receive a free estimate.