Best practices for nuisance wildlife control operators in New York State

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Balancing the needs of people and wildlife

Six questions to consider - 3

Is it practical?

Even if you could afford everything on the market, how would you fit it into your truck? Here's a simple answer to a situation that called for a covered trap. Solutions don't have to be fancy to work.

Some methods sound great until you actually try to make them work. And some methods are great, but customers balk at the cost. Many factors will affect whether you can actually use a certain approach, ranging from your skill levels, the available gear, weather conditions, timing, and cost.

Of course, your solution has to fix the problem. After you've determined which species to target and placed your devices so they'll most likely capture the offending animals and no others, you still need to figure out how many animals are probably there. If there are six and you've caught three, chances are that's not good enough.

And have you provided a long term solution or just temporary relief? You may want to avoid quick-fix jobs because no matter what the customers say when they hire you, they might not be happy later, and might blame you. (Well-written contracts may help, especially if the paperwork includes descriptions of the options offered, the recommended actions, and the likely consequences.)

Sites sometimes present unexpected challenges. The area you really want to get to may be inaccessible. Or maybe the neighbors are feeding the squirrels that are overrunning your customer's yard. Without their cooperation, your options are limited. Your traps might be vandalized or stolen. And some sites, because of their location or use, suffer from a curse: people think the area is a good place for animals, and don't consider the landowners' needs. Some farms suffer from this problem. Many people abandon animals at farms, and over time, it can become overwhelming.

Timing can present practical problems, too. What if no one knows who owns the potential release site? Will you tell your customer to wait while someone does the research? (Who?) Or what if the owner refuses to give you permission to release animals onto that land, and it would take hours to drive to another suitable site? Or if the customer wants you to deal with the problem right now, but certain techniques require federal and state permits?

Then there's the dilemma of the mysterious "someone." Your customer asks, "isn't there someone you can just take it to?" In nearly all cases, the answer is "no." Wildlife rehabilitators accept injured, sick, and orphaned wildlife, not healthy adult animals. And they don't want you to routinely drop off baby animals, either. Consider this a matter of professional responsibility: you should work in a way that minimizes the chance of creating wildlife orphans. (Another thing to keep in mind is that not all wildlife rehabilitators handle the same animals. They must have special training and additional permits to handle rabies vector species, for example.)

One last practical point to consider as you choose a method for capturing, handling, evicting, transporting, or disposing of wild animals is, could you make things worse? Expect to get a few calls where this has already happened, because your customers followed some bad advice or just had bad luck. Perhaps they thought the animal had left, so they closed up the hole to keep it from getting back in, only to trap the animal inside. Or maybe they had a raccoon family in the attic. Their neighbors had one in their chimney and used a loud radio and a pan of ammonia to harass the female so she'd move her young. They did the same, and it worked...but not quite the way they wanted. The female did feel threatened and did move her young—to a much more secure place—in the wall. In both cases, the job becomes much harder.

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