Posted by Janet Harriett on Jun.30, 2010

Photo Credit: Joe Martin/US Fish and Wildlife Service

Throughout June, Wildlife Wednesday has discussed how to develop a wildlife-friendly landscape to encourage birds and other animals to share nature. Watching animals up close can be a fun hobby and a wonderful opportunity to teach kids about the critters around them. Even young children can learn to identify some of the brightly colored birds that frequent the birdbath, like cardinals or goldfinches.

However, wild animals are not great at respecting boundaries, so they can occasionally get too close for comfort. A couple of summers ago, I was pleased to observe squirrel scampering about on the deck outside my kitchen. I was less pleased a few minutes later when a commotion I heard from the kitchen turned out to be the squirrel launching itself off my coffeemaker, hitting the closed kitchen window, falling into the sink and climbing back onto the coffeemaker to try again. If you plan to attract wildlife, you also need to take measures to keep them safely out in nature.

When an Animal Gets In, Get Them Out

As soon as I came into the kitchen, the squirrel went running the other direction and, after a minute or two, worked its way out the same way it came in, through a previously unknown hole in the exterior wall. I filled the hole with expanding foam sealer. Animals that get into the house - rather than ones who take up residency - generally don’t want to be in an enclosed space any more than you want them to be in your home. Most of the time, they’ll go out on their own if they provide an opening. For birds and small critters like squirrels, opening a door or window and, if necessary, nudging them toward it with a broom will suffice. With wasps and bees, placing a cup over them and sliding a heavy piece of paper under the cup allows for a catch-and-release.

The key with getting a critter out of the house is to keep your distance, and not look too threatening. Ideally, you want the animal to run away from you, not get defensive. This is especially important if they’ve got a nasty defense mechanism like a beak or musk glands. All wild animals are potentially dangerous, and a defensive animal is even more so.

If an animal has hunkered down in a corner, or doesn’t show an inclination to leave on its own, removal is best left to wildlife removal experts, who are often found under a listing like “pest removal” in the phone book. Don’t risk an animal bite trying to remove an unwilling or defensive animal yourself.

Block Entry Points

Animals can get in through surprisingly small holes. A bat needs a gap about half an inch by an inch. Some common entry points in the house are the chimney, eaves and vents. Make sure your vents have mesh screens, and properly cap your chimney. Ensure that your dryer vent enables air to escape, but doesn’t provide access inside. Seal any other access points as you observe them. This has the added side benefit of reducing energy loss through gaps in walls.

Remove Access

Animals can’t get in what they can’t reach. Trim back tree branches that overhang the roof. These provide natural highways for squirrels to get onto the roof and into the roofspace, plus they drop leaves or needles that can clog gutters in autumn. Prune back foundation shrubs so they don’t quite contact the house; this discourages critters, maintains air circulation to prevent diseases in the shrubs and ensures that rootballs don’t pressure the foundation. Make sure basement well windows have an enclosure to keep the wildlife from falling in and getting trapped.

Discourage Denning Near Buildings

Burrowing animals often establish dens under or near buildings, including sheds, detached garages, decks and even the home itself. These dens can undermine the structure, in addition to keeping wild animals - often mothers protecting young - uncomfortably close to high-traffic areas, increasing the chances of a dangerous human-animal interaction. Hardware mesh can keep animals from digging too close to structures. Lay the mesh, using landscape pins to hold it flat against the ground, and let the grass grow up through it to hide it.

Guard the Ornamentals

Hardware mesh is also useful for keeping animals from eating ornamental plants. One potential negative of planning a landscape to feed animals is that they eat the landscape, and they don’t always stop with the plants that are meant for wildlife forage. The chipmunk or chipmunks around my house seem to find my tulips as tasty as I find them beautiful. To keep animals from digging up bulbs, place sheets of hardware mesh over the bulb garden after planting, and cover with mulch. The flowers grow up through the mesh, but animals are discouraged from digging through it.

The pretty border edging fence doesn’t do much to keep rabbits out of flower beds, but you can attach chicken wire to the back side of the ornamental border panels, with very little loss of aesthetics, to steer rabbits away. This only works if the bed is completely enclosed, though.

Share

Posted under Living, Nature and Environment.