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While the roles of wildlife removal and animal control look similar at first, the responsibilities between the two are vastly different. So, who do you call to get an animal out of your house? There are several key factors to consider when you are deciding who to contact. Gauge your situation by answering the following questions:
- Are you dealing with a wild animal?
- Is the animal living in your walls or attic?
- Is the animal trapped?
- Do you need to clean up or sanitize the area occupied by a wild animal?
- Do you need to prevent this situation from happening again?
- Do you need a professional to help you reach the animal?
If you answered yes to the majority of questions above, it’s likely a job for wildlife removal. Knowing these answers can help you gain perspective on the type of service you need, but every situation is different. Explore the differences between animal control and wildlife removal to pinpoint which service fits your needs the best.
Table of Contents:
Should I Call Wildlife Removal?
Types of Services Wildlife Removal Provides
How Much Does It Cost to Remove Wild Animals?
Types of Services Animal Control Provides
Does Animal Control Handle Wild Animals?
What Is Wildlife Removal?
Wildlife management services, or wildlife removal, entails the safe removal of wildlife from homes and animals that pose a nuisance or danger to your property, pets, children and neighbors. Wildlife removal services apply to selective species*. For the containment and relocation of a domesticated animal like a stray dog or cat, you could contact a local animal shelter instead of a wildlife removal specialist.
*Note: While there is some service overlap, wildlife removal is also different from pest control.
If you suspect a wild animal is living in or on your property, the first action you should take is to call a professional. Avoid trying to scare away or remove a wild animal by yourself. Privately owned businesses, like Urban Jungle Wildlife Removal, hire trained individuals to handle removing wild animals. These specialists are college-educated with degrees in biology or other related fields. Their backgrounds give them a better understanding of how to handle all kinds of wild animal species, including:
Should I Call Wildlife Removal?
Unusual noises, foul smells or other signs of intruding wild animals can lead to bigger problems if you avoid addressing them. Contact wildlife removal if you notice any of the signs listed below:
- Scratching noises: If you hear scratching or movement in your walls, attic, basement or crawl spaces, an animal might be living inside. The sound of creatures moving around can be all the confirmation you need to get a wildlife removal expert to your house right away.
- Weird smell: If you notice a foul odor in a certain area of your home, an animal could be trapped or dead in a hard-to-reach place.
- Holes in the yard: If you find dirt spots or holes in your yard or around your house’s foundation, moles or other rodents might be living on your property. Holes in the ground act as entry points into the basement or crawl spaces of your home, too.
- Evidence of unwanted pests: If birds, bats, rodents or other pesky wildlife leave droppings regularly, they probably occupy your property. Never handle urine or droppings without the proper equipment — the area should be cleaned by a professional.
- Animal sighting: If you see an animal enter or exit a crawl space or find it in your living areas, you have visual confirmation of an intruder. Although you could try to get rid of that one yourself, others might enter later.
Allowing a wild animal to share space with you is bad for wildlife and humans. If possible under state laws, credible wildlife removal professionals will transport the animal humanely and give it a chance to live back in the wild. Whether it is an animal trapped in your attic space, a wildlife infestation crawling in your walls or a nuisance invading your yard, calling a wildlife removal professional is your safest option.
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Types of Services Wildlife Removal Provides
When you’re dealing with an animal you ordinarily have little contact with, you might be unaware of certain behavioral cues. A wildlife removal professional can determine any special circumstances, like a mother trying to protect her young, and take well-informed actions to get the animal into a safe, natural environment.
The types of services wildlife removal provide include:
1. Inspection
When you call a wildlife removal specialist, the process begins with a thorough inspection of the space. First, they will look around your property to identify and evaluate the wildlife situation. These specialists have the equipment and training to reach attics, crawl spaces and other areas of your home that are difficult to reach on your own.
Once the specialist finds the root cause of the issue, they will develop a wildlife removal plan designed to trap the animal and prevent it from returning. The specialist might have formal training or college degrees, like the staff at Urban Jungle, allowing them to make educated decisions based on the species they are handling. Then, they will work with you to finalize the removal process, estimate the cost and schedule their plan of action.
2. Traps and Removal
Generally, wildlife removal uses traps to capture and relocate a wild animal. Trapping and removing unwanted creatures from your space is the most effective method. The appropriate trapping procedure will ensure the animal is safely removed with minimal damage to your property.
This process may take a couple of weeks for the traps to capture the animal. In that time, specialists will return to check the traps every couple of days, which also gives them time to inspect and set more traps, if needed. Once the trap catches the animal, the wildlife removal specialist will safely remove it to prevent the issue from happening again.
3. Repairs and Prevention
Your home or property may be animal-free but how do you keep creatures from coming back again? An integral aspect of the wildlife removal process is exclusion and repairs to prevent unwanted wildlife from re-entering your space. Specialists are there to ensure those wild creatures are gone for good.
Wildlife removal offers long-term solutions to avoid any other issues. After trapping and relocating the animal, your specialist will inspect the property again. They will make repairs to the damage caused by the infestation, including sealing access points and openings around your home, fixing damage caused by the animals and reinforcing potential points of entry. This exclusion process prevents another infestation and makes your home animal-proof.
4. Cleanup and Sanitation
Even after removing a wild animal from your home and having entry points properly repaired or excluded, wildlife can leave behind unwanted and sometimes harmful signs it was there. Wildlife removal offers cleanup and sanitation done by a specialist to preserve your health and safety. This process is just as crucial as removing the wild animal itself. The affected area of your home will be sanitized and deodorized until the trace of unwanted creatures disappears. Cleaning up helps dissipate any pheromones the animal left and avoids the spread of disease caused by the droppings of bats, birds and other species. If the insulation has been damaged, Urban Jungle can install new insulation to restore your attic to the proper condidtions.
If your situation involves a dead wild animal, wildlife removal can also help. Specialists protect themselves in these situations with the right tools and uniforms. Avoid exposure to diseases and bacteria by hiring a professional to remove the animal and lower the risk of property damage.
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How Much Does It Cost to Remove Wild Animals?
Wildlife removal services vary in cost depending on what is needed. Each wild animal removal situation is different, although you can always call for a rough estimate. Once a specialist inspects your house or property, they will provide a specific quote. A plan of action that includes traps, exclusion, clean up, and insulation will help determine the cost.
What Does Animal Control Do?
Unlike wildlife removal, animal control is a government service. It is responsible for the protection of domesticated animals in your community. Trained local officers use their skills and resources to ensure the safety of animals and the people around them. Most officers have backgrounds and degrees in veterinary service, law enforcement or other related fields.
What Kinds of Animals Does Animal Control Take?
If you’re asking if animal control deals with wild animals, the answer is they are only equipped to handle animals that are commonly kept as pets. While animal control creates a safe environment for all, they will only remove a domesticated animal if necessary.
Unlike with wildlife removal professionals, wild animals and infestations are beyond animal control — and they are unable to provide repairs, sanitation or prevention services for your home or property. Although they turn away calls about wild or exotic animals, the animal control in your community will assist with calls regarding domestic animals, such as:
- Dogs
- Cats
- Ferrets
- Other domesticated pets
What Can You Call Animal Control For?
Contact animal control if your situation involves a domesticated animal, like a dog or cat. Always allow trained professionals to handle unsafe or potentially harmful situations to protect the humans and animals involved. Call animal control for any of the circumstances below:
- Strays: If an animal in your neighborhood looks hurt, sick or uncared for, it could be a stray.
- Aggressive animals: If a dog or another animal seems aggressive or causes harm in your community, animal control can prevent an attack.
- Signs of rabies: If an animal shows any signs of being rabid, it needs to be removed from its environment.
- Rabies bites: If a pet has been bitten by an animal that may be rabid, the bite will need examination by a professional.
- Animal abuse or neglect: If you witness or suspect abuse or neglect of an animal in your community, then animal control can investigate.
- Animal vaccination: If you’re looking for low-cost rabies vaccination for a pet, animal control might be able to provide this service.
- Sterilization procedures: If you need access to affordable procedures, animal control can spay or neuter a pet.
- Adoption services: If you want to become a pet owner, animal control can sign you up to adopt a pet who needs a new home.
Types of Services Animal Control Provides
For handling stray domestic animals in need of help, animal control is your best option. Below are some common animal control services:
1. Animal Protection
Usually, animal control relies on the community to notify them of instances where animals may be in abusive or negligent environments. People will call animal control to give them tips about these situations. Then, animal control will investigate and evaluate the pet’s home. With enough evidence of an inhumane situation, the officer can remove the pet.
Within the care of animal control, the pet is brought to a local shelter and looked after. Protecting animals is one of the most important responsibilities of animal control. If you suspect a pet is being treated poorly, contact your local animal control service right away.
2. Shelter
Animal control provides shelter to the domesticated animals who have come into their care. They also house any stray cats and dogs found in the community that may need medical attention. In many ways, the animal control shelter acts as a second chance for domesticated animals that need new homes.
Along with adoption opportunities, these facilities often provide medical care and grooming services for all pets. They make sure all adoptable animals have their vaccinations and are spayed or neutered before leaving their care. If you or someone you know is looking for a new pet to adopt, check your local animal control shelter for healthy animals that need a good home.
3. Rabies Shots
Your local animal control will provide affordable rabies vaccinations to any pet that needs one. Protecting all animals in the community includes the pets that already have a loving home, too. Animal control officers are trained to evaluate and treat sick animals that have signs of rabies. Reach out to your local animal service to find their vaccination schedule.
If you come across a dog, cat, ferret or other domesticated animals with signs of rabies, alert your local animal control service — and never approach the animal yourself. Although it is rare, rabies outbreaks still happen in the United States. By hosting vaccination clinics and educating the community on prevention, animal control can limit the number of cases to keep everyone healthy and safe.
4. Population Control
Animal control offers sterilization procedures at an affordable price to lower the number of unwanted animals or strays in your community. Any pet owner can inquire and have their pet spayed or neutered. Animal control recognizes these kinds of surgical procedures can be expensive. They offer this service at a lower price to ensure the protection of all animals.
The safest long-term choice is to have your pet spayed or neutered. Along with caring for your pet, this procedure can help reduce the risk of spreading diseases transmitted by animals and overpopulation in your neighborhood. Contact your local animal control for more information on the affordable options to sterilize your pet.
5. Animal Bite Investigation
Animal bites on their own can be severe, especially if they carry the threat of rabies. If you, someone you know or a pet has been bitten by an animal that may have rabies, animal control can help. Officers’ training allows them to investigate the bite and behavior of the bitten animal. Contact animal control if you notice the following signs in the biter or the bitten pet:
- Extreme aggression
- Excessive drooling
- Foaming of the mouth
- Staggered movements
- Hypersensitivity to their environment
Animal control uses its best resources to investigate animal bites because of the seriousness of rabies and take the right precautions to ensure the safety of the animals and humans involved.
Does Animal Control Handle Wild Animals?
Animal control will sometimes handle wild animals if they appear to be rabid. Whereas animal control mainly deals with healthy animals living in your spaces, wildlife control will pick up the small wild animals that appear aggressive, harmful or potentially rabid — like squirrels or raccoons.
Contact Urban Jungle for Your Wildlife Removal Needs
Overall, wildlife removal and animal control serve two different roles. Choose a trained wildlife removal professional to remove a wild animal from your residential or commercial property. At Urban Jungle, our specialists inspect, trap, repair and clean your space to resolve your animal issue. Plus, our exclusion services ensure the problem doesn’t reoccur.
Contact us today for wildlife removal services. We are located around the Austin, Houston and San Antonio areas. Our quick and efficient wildlife removal services will leave you feeling safe and confident in your home once again!