Best practices for nuisance wildlife control operators in New York State

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Ch 4: Section one: Risks faced by your customers

Risks that may come with the pests

Has a giant alien worm invaded the lawn, ready to strike your customer's child? No, of course not. These are mole tunnels, made by a creature that poses few health or safety risks to people. If this happened to the greens of a golf course, the manager might consider it as a financial risk. Whether or not your customers call this a nuisance depends on their perspectives.

When some wild species move in, they can put your customers and their property at risk. Some people don't understand the possibilities until it's too late. Others overreact. By offering credible information in a professional manner, you can help your customers make sensible decisions.

There are safety risks. Rodents, raccoons, and birds can cause fires by chewing wires or blocking vents or fans with their nests (fan motors might overheat and ignite the highly flammable nest materials). If a nest blocks a chimney, dangerous fumes could be trapped inside. Chewed wires may also cause electronic systems to fail—imagine the consequences in a jail or hospital. As previously mentioned, wildlife may collide with airplanes and cars.

And health risks. You, your customers, their pets and livestock might be bitten, scratched, or exposed to a wildlife disease, such as rabies. NWCOs are more likely to encounter a wildlife disease than the average person, because they often handle wild animals, and spend a lot of time in disease hot spots such as attics and crawl spaces. The close presence of wild animals (and their fur, dander, droppings, or parasites) can also trigger allergies in some people. Wild animals are often noisy at night, which might deprive your customers of sleep. That doesn't sound too bad, until it's happened night after night after night.

Nuisance wildlife poses financial risks. To gain entrance to a building, some animals might destroy parts of the exterior. Once inside, they might chew or soil woodwork and many other materials; items stored in attics are particularly vulnerable. Raccoons and mice often ruin insulation, causing heating and cooling bills to rise. Chewed wires, of course, might need replacement, which can be expensive. Remember some of the estimates of damage to crops, landscapes, dams, and roads mentioned in the introduction?

They may threaten other wildlife or change habitats. A nuisance animal may introduce a disease to another species. In large numbers, the nuisance species might kill and eat many of that other species, or destroy their habitat.

Some of the removal methods present their own dangers to people and the environment. An improperly set trap may capture or injure the wrong species, and could even be hazardous to people. If misused, pesticides can contaminate water, soil, and air. They can kill other species too, including beneficial organisms that help control pest populations. Certain pesticides and euthanasia products can also be dangerous to people. Even exclusion, one of the favored methods, has risks associated with it, because a highly motivated animal may damage the building to get back in, especially if it has young inside.

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