Professional Wildlife Removal Services

Armadillos

Appearance
The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), named for the nine breaks in the creature's leathery armor that allow it to flex its stiff hide, is an odd-looking mammal about the size of a cat.

Habitat
Armadillos are not native to Florida, but are now common over most of the state. Armadillos like forested or semi-open habitats with loose textured soil that allows them to dig easily. They eat many insects, or other invertebrates, and some plants. They most often feed at night, and have very poor eyesight.

Behavior
Armadillos dig burrows for homes or to escape predators, and a single armadillo can have several different burrows with multiple entrances. A mature armadillo is 15 to 17 inches long (not counting the tail) with a weight of eight to 17 pounds. Pregnant females always give birth to identical quadruplets. She produces one egg that splits into four identical offspring that are either all female or all male. This trait differs from most other mammals.

Armadillos are fascinating in other respects. When they need to cross narrow water bodies, they often walk on the bottom under water. If it is a wide body of water, they will inflate their stomach to twice its normal size, allowing for enough buoyancy to swim across. When startled, armadillos often leap high into the air, and then run quickly to a nearby burrow.

Armadillos prolific rooting and burrowing can severely damage lawns and flower-beds. To reduce armadillo damage to your lawn keep watering and fertilization to a minimum. Moist soil and lush vegetation bring earth worms and insect larvae (armadillo candy!) to the surface of the soil. Armadillos can sometimes be enticed to move by watering areas adjacent to the damage site. Also, watering gardens in the morning is preferable since the soil can dry out in the afternoon and not be as easily detected by night-foraging armadillos. Armadillos can also be excluded from small areas of extensive damage with fencing at least 2 feet high and with bottom buried at least 18 inches deep.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

We inspect the property for the animal entry points, trap all armadillos over a 10 day period, close the entry points so no new armadillos can enter, and add a deterrent.

Appearance
Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, which means "handwing". They are the only mammal that can truly fly. Florida has 13 resident bat species. Contrary to popular belief, bats are not blind. Their vision is adapted for low light levels. However, bats can maneuver in complete darkness using echolocation. Echolocation is the use of sound waves to detect objects. Bats emit high pitched sounds and listen for them to echo back. The length of time it takes the echo to return tells the bat how far away it is from an object. This allows the bat to fly in the dark and hunt for food. Bats' feet are uniquely adapted for grasping structures so that they can rest while hanging upside down. Bats undergo a state of torpor in the daytime; their heart rate and body temperature decrease so that they can conserve energy. Because of this, bats are reluctant to fly in the daytime even when disturbed. If they are forced to fly, they must first raise their body temperature and heart rate.

For their size, bats have the longest lifespan of any mammal. Some can live for more than thirty years.

Habitat
Bats live in many different habitats across Florida. They can be found from sandhills to the hardwood forests along the banks of rivers, and probably even in your neighborhood! For bats, one of the most important parts of their habitat is an area to roost. Some bats, like the Brazilian free-tailed bat, the evening bat, and the big brown bat are colonial, meaning they gather together in a colony to roost during the day. Other species, like the Seminole bat and the tricolored bat, are solitary, meaning that they roost by themselves. In Florida, natural roosting sites can be cracks, crevices, and hollows of trees, caves, dead fronds of palm trees, Spanish moss, and tree foliage. Bats also use manmade structures including buildings, bridges, culverts, tile roofs, and bat houses.

Behavior
Florida's native bats are insectivorous, meaning they eat insects including beetles, mosquitoes, moths, and other agriculture and garden pests. In fact, bats are the most important controller of night flying insects because a single bat can eat hundreds of insects a night!

In Florida, bats mostly mate in the fall and winter. The female does not usually ovulate until the spring when the insect population increases, but she can retain sperm for months before ovulation occurs. Most female bats only have one pup per year. For their size, bats are the slowest reproducing mammals. Pregnant females of some species will gather together in nursery colonies. Bats do not build nests. They normally give birth from mid-April through July, and their young begin to fly within 3 to 6 weeks. Juveniles are then weaned from their mothers and by mid-August the young are able to forage and fly on their own. Bats will not reach reproductive maturity until they are about one year old. This is considerably longer than most small mammals.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

Bats CANNOT be removed from April 15th-August 15th due to Florida State law.
All removal needs to take place between August 16th-April 14th.

Inspecting, deterrent netting, and exclusions can take anywhere from 2-14 days depending on how quickly the bats vacate the property. This is frequently covered by HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE and only requires you to pay your deductible.

Background Information
The domestic cat (Felis catus) is a beloved house pet, with over 77 million pet cats nationwide. Of these, about 43 million spend some time outside. Additionally, there may be 60 to 100 million homeless stray and feral cats. Domestic cats are becoming a common feature not only of our backyards and city streets but also of our parks and other wild lands.

Domestic cats are descended from the wild cat of Africa and southwestern Asia and were domesticated by the Egyptians about 4,000 years ago. Animal behavior experts note that cats will hunt and kill even if well fed. Domestic cats are very effective predators on rabbits, squirrels, mice, lizards, snakes, and many species of wild birds.

Domestic cats can have impacts on native wildlife

• Domestic cats are not a part of natural ecosystem. A single individual free-ranging cat may kill 100 or more birds and mammals per year. Scientists in Wisconsin estimate that cats kill at least 7.8 million birds per year in that state alone. Even cats with bells on their collars kill birds and small mammals.
• Cats compete with native predators and spread disease.
• Domestic cats can be a nuisance and cause damage in many of the same ways that wild animals do, such as killing poultry and other small domestic stock.
• Homeless cats may compete with pets for food.
• Free-ranging cats can kill birds at bird feeders.
• Cats can be a nuisance in gardens when they defecate and cover their feces by digging.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

Appearance
Florida's only marsupial (a mammal of the order Marsupialia having a pouch containing the mammary glands and serving as a receptacle for the young) is the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Opossums are about the size of a house cat, have long naked tails and small ears.

Habitat
Opossums are attracted to virtually any type of available food, including garbage, pet food, or cultivated fruits and vegetables. To prevent attraction of opossums garbage cans should be secured with rubber straps, and pet food should be taken in at night.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

We inspect the property for the animal entry points, trap all opossums over a 7 day period, close the entry points so no new opossums can enter, and add a deterrent

Appearance
The river otter (Lutra canadensis) is a long, elongated water-loving animal found throughout Florida except the Keys. Its legs are short and has webbed toes for swimming. The ears are appear large on it's small flattened head.

Otters have five toes but occasionally only four show in the track. The heel pad tends to be somewhat "horseshoe" shaped.

Habitat
River otters seem to prefer fresh water, and can be in rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds, and swamps. Otters live in burrows on the bank of the water body, often under the roots of a tree. They may dig their own burrow, or remodel the burrow of a beaver.

Behavior
They normally feed on animals such as crayfish and fish. If you have a fish pond an otter may find it. The best way to control the otter is to exclude the otter from pond with fencing or a cover. This will also prevent other animals such as raccoons, or some birds from finding the goldfish, which are an easy prey item for many species.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

We inspect the property for otter evidence, trap all otters over a two week period, and add a deterrent to prevent new otters from entering the property.

Appearance
The raccoon (Procyon lotor) is about the size of a small dog, and is most notable for its black mask and bushy ringed tail.

Habitat
Raccoons are common throughout the state and occur everywhere there are trees, the cavities of which they often use.

Behavior
Raccoons are omnivorous feeding on fruits, plant material, eggs, crustaceans, small animals, and garbage. Raccoons usually become active in the late afternoon and throughout the night.

Problem raccoons are usually the result of chronic feeding by humans. Wild raccoons accustomed to being fed will generally lose their natural fear of humans and seek to move closer to their food source--your house. Once raccoons take up residence in your attic or outbuildings they can become very destructive and difficult to remove.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

We inspect the property for the animal entry points, trap all raccoons over a seven day period, close the entry points so no new raccoons can enter, and add a deterrent.

Appearance
Both skunk species are about the size of a house cat with a small head, short legs, and a bushy tail.

Habitat

Florida is home to both the Eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius) and the Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). They occur throughout Florida except for the Keys. Both species occur in brushy fields, weedy pastures, disturbed areas, and in residential and suburban areas.

Behavior

Skunks are usually active at night. Skunks are omnivorous, meaning they eat both animal and vegetable substances. They may be attracted by insects commonly found in lawns, fruit trees, gardens, or wherever food scraps are kept. They will den in vacant armadillo or gopher tortoise burrows (though they can dig their own) or brush piles, wood piles, areas with high grass, and similar sources of shelter.

Female skunks generally give birth to a litter of 4-7 babies in the spring. Newborns are blind and have very fine hair with the same black and white pattern as they would have as adults. When they are about six weeks old, the young follow their mother on food forays, searching for small mammals, insects, bird eggs, and amphibians, as well as roots, seeds, fruit and other plant parts. The mother and young stay together for several months, emerging from their underground burrows at night.

In addition to teaching their young how to find food, mother skunks also model defensive strategies, the most effective of these being a pungent spray of oily musk from scent glands located near the anus. The spray is effectively aimed at targets up to 15 feet away. The spray deters predators such as foxes, bobcats, coyotes and domestic dogs. Their chief predator is the great horned owl.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

We inspect the property for the animal entry points, trap all skunks over a 7 day period, close the entry points so no new skunks can enter, and add a deterrent.

Appearance
During late summer squirrels may be seen rolling on the ground, biting themselves, and jumping up and down. This is usually due to skin irritations from bot fly larvae, which are parasites that appear as bumps on the skin, often in places where the squirrel cannot scratch. The parasite is located only in the skin and does not affect edibility of the meat in harvested squirrels.

Habitat
Florida is home to three species of squirrels, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carlinensis), the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), and the southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans). The most common in urban areas is the eastern gray squirrel. Squirrels occur in woodland and urban areas, especially near oaks and hickories, and are active during the day, often feeding on the ground.

Behavior

Squirrels can cause problems by chewing on plants, tree bark and ornamentals as well as plastic items, like electrical wiring insulation or even wood siding on houses and out-buildings. It is often impossible or impractical to eliminate the source of their chewing. Potted plants can often be moved out of reach. PVC pipes and electrical wires can sometimes be covered with a insulation material that is soft and, therefore, less attractive to chew.

(Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

We inspect the property for the squirrel evidence and trap all squirrels over a 7 day period.