Hibernation Habits

As we progress into the colder months, it’s important to be aware of animals to look out for. Some animals will be entering hibernation and searching for warmer spots to migrate to. On the other hand, some animals do not hibernate at all.

We’ll go over common animals we see in the winter, their hibernation habits, and telltale signs to watch out for.

Opossums

To start off, opossums do not hibernate due to their low body fat content, but they do search for warm shelter. This includes venturing indoors into your attic, chimney, or crawlspace.

Opossums move around throughout the winter to avoid predators. A male opossum, fitted with a tracking device, visited over 19 different dens in 5 months according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Bats

Bats such as little brown bats and big brown bats can hibernate for more than 6 months waiting for the return of insects. They prefer caves, mines, rock crevices, attics, and chimneys. However, bats do not stay asleep the whole time. A common sign of bats in your attic includes noise or rustling. If an area gets too cold, it’ll move to a warmer area or vice versa.

Moles

While it may appear that moles have disappeared from your property, they have only burrowed further below the frozen surface during the winter. Their molehills may not be present, but as the ground thaws in the spring, the mounds will reappear.

Raccoons

Similar to the opossum, raccoons do not hibernate but search for warm dens. However, in extreme temperatures, they can sleep up to a month. Although they are usually solitary creatures, some will den in groups during the coldest days of the winter.

Squirrels

During the warmer months, squirrels gather and stash their food for the winter season because they do not enter hibernation sleep. Throughout the day, they are active outside. However, they do stay in their nests during extreme weather conditions. If you hear rustling coming from your attic during the day, squirrels may be nested in your attic!

Groundhogs

Groundhogs are one of the few critters we deal with that do hibernate from the first frost until April. The first frost usually happens between October and November, they then retreat to their burrows. The colder weather triggers a hormone that helps them sleep for the duration of winter.

Removal and Preventative Services

While winter is a less active season for animals, it is the perfect opportunity to have your home inspected and sealed prior to their reappearance in springtime. Chimney caps, vent guards, and custom screening protect their most common entry points.

If you believe animals have made their way into your home for the winter, give us a call or use our contact form for removal and remediation!

7 Signs You Should Call an Animal Removal Professional

We’ll highlight some telltale signs that you might need assistance from an experienced wildlife technician

1. Seeing an animal in your home, or around your porch, garden, or shed.

If there is a bat present in your home, it may indicate a maternal colony living in your attic! Furthermore, it informs us there are entry points, or weak spots, around the exterior of your home allowing the bats to enter. Squirrels enter through unprotected chimneys or chew through components of the home. Other common animals lurking around your property include raccoons, opossums, mice, and birds.

2. Noticing damaged elements around your home.

Fascia, wooden components, gutters, and vents are a few examples that are exploited by a variety of animals.

3. The presence of animal droppings or nesting materials in the home.

Many animal droppings are highly hazardous, and cleanup should be handled by a professional wildlife technician. Moreover, bat droppings (guano), mice droppings, and opossum droppings are just a few common examples we often observe inside homes.

4. Burrows or tunneling in your yard or garden.

Moles and voles are usually responsible for tunneling and burrowing. In addition, moles will tear up your yard and create a large mess of molehills throughout your yard, destroying grassroots and plant roots along the way.

5. Pets sprayed by a skunk multiple times.

This usually indicates a skunk or a family of skunks are living on or near your property. For skunk removal, we only use traps and methods approved by the PA Game Commission.

6. Trash dug through on multiple occasions

The culprits behind this are usually raccoons or opossums, they will eat anything! Opossums also carry EPM which affects the spinal cords of horses.

7. Chirping or scratching sounds coming from attics or walls.

Bats, squirrels, and mice are just a few animals that cause noises like this in your home. Mice can get into walls and in some cases, trapped. Bats often cause scratching and chirping noises.

Spotted Lanternfly in Pennsylvania

We’re sure you’ve heard about the spotted lanternfly and the damage they cause. While we don’t handle bug issues, we’ll highlight a few facts about them and what you should be doing to protect your trees and plants!

What does the spotted lanternfly look like?

Spotted lanternflies look different depending on their stages of growth. There are three stages of growth for a spotted lanternfly: early nymphs, late nymphs, and adults.

The early nymphs are very small, they are all black with white spots. A late nymph is slightly larger in size and begins to show their vibrant red color on its body.

Adult spotted lanternflies are the only stage that can fly; they are extremely noticeable due to their colorful wings. These adults emerge in July and stick around until late fall.

Where did they come from and what do they do?

The spotted lantern fly is an invasive plant hopper from Asia. They negatively impact crops such as grapes, hopes, and hardwoods. They are technically a plant stressor-they do not kill all plants or trees.

Moreover, the eggs they lay in the fall hatch in the spring. Egg masses are laid on hard surfaces like trees, decks, houses, et cetera.

Signs of an infected tree or plant include oozing sap from trees, wilting, leaf curling, and tree dieback.

What should I do if I see them?

Penn State University states five steps for spotted lanternfly control:

Stop the spread
Scrape egg masses
Use tree traps to catch nymphs
Remove host plants
Apply insecticides

Scraping and destroying an egg mass prevents 30-50 eggs from being hatched. Furthermore, we highly recommend using bands or traps on trees with a screening system in place to prevent squirrels or other animals from being stuck to the strips.

Look out for their host plants and trees! Their preferred tree is the tree of heaven. They also like pine trees, apple trees, grapevines, and other various fruit-producing trees. A full list can be found here.

As of Summer 2021, Penn State also recommends an effective trapping method that operates by trapping immature lanternflies. By studying their behavior patterns for a few years, they are able to predict where the nymphs will fly out.

Registered insecticides are also available. All insecticides used must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. We do not use pesticides or repellant sprays, so a pest control company would be the best to contact for spotted lanternfly control.

Vent Guards and Gutter Guards

We are finally into the warmer months of the year which are active seasons for most animals in Central Pennsylvania! We offer custom solutions to seal and protect your home.

Some animals search from top to bottom for any weak spots. Once they find one, they will turn it into their new front door!

We’ll highlight the benefits of our gutter cleaning services, custom vent screening, vent guards, and gutter guards. Additionally, we also install chimney caps that protect your home from a variety of issues.

Vent Guards and Custom Screening

Some vents come with built-in screening. However, most of these built-in screens are not strong enough, which allows animals to chew through them.

The vent guards we use cover typical vents such as dryer vents and bathroom vents. For other vents that are custom to each home like dormer and gable vents, we create a custom screening solution that prevents animals from entering your home. We create a cover out of heavy gauge wire and aluminum for a perfect fit and protection.

Different Animals that Exploit Vents

Birds find vents to be optimal nesting areas due to the protection and warmth. Raccoons, squirrels, and mice are excellent climbers. Moreover, mice use brick, stucco, stone, and other textured exterior elements to scale your home. Bats will often use vents and other small openings to gain access to your attic or living space.

Our custom screening solutions not only seal your home but match your home’s aesthetics to create a unified, finished look.

Gutter Cleaning and Gutter Guards

Typically, without any gutter guards, gutters should be cleaned out a few times a year. Gutter guards are not a permanent solution, but they significantly reduce the number of cleanings. With gutter guards, gutters should be cleaned once every 1-2 years. They act as a filter that is installed over your gutters that prevent debris from entering your gutters. Ultimately, this prevents clogging and allows rainwater to be drawn away from the roof.

We offer regular gutter cleaning services as well as gutter guard installations.

Backyard Wildlife Solutions has over 15 years of experience installing chimney caps, gutter guards, and custom vent screening. Please give us a call or use our contact form to find out more about our exclusion methods!

Woodpeckers in Pennsylvania

Protect Your Home from Woodpeckers with Backyard Wildlife Solutions

While woodpeckers are beautiful and majestic birds, they can cause serious damage to homes. At Backyard Wildlife Solutions, we offer preventative methods to keep woodpeckers away from your home!

What Do Woodpeckers Look Like?

In Pennsylvania, we see seven different species of woodpeckers that range from 6 to 18 inches long. They also have a chiseled-like beak used for drilling into trees and other structures. Most male woodpeckers have red markings on the tops of their heads and a mixture of white and brown feathers on their body.

What Do They Do?

Woodpeckers are most commonly known for drumming and their undulating flight. While woodpeckers drill into trees to find food, “drumming” is a rhythmic pecking where they drill into the wood when no insects are present. They drum to mark territory, nest, and communicate with other species of woodpeckers.

Moreover, drumming is performed on wooden components of a home, like siding, shingles, and trim. They will also go after wooden decks and fences. Surprisingly, woodpeckers will choose unhealthy trees to drill into. They strip bark from dead or dying trees, preventing pests from spreading to nearby healthy trees. However, if the area has a low number of unhealthy trees, they will drill into healthy ones.

Food Storage Habits

Woodpeckers in Pennsylvania, such as the Red-bellied Woodpecker and the Downy Woodpecker, do engage in food storage behavior, but they do not typically hide nuts in trees in the same way as the acorn woodpecker does. Instead, they may store food in crevices in tree bark or other small cavities.

One woodpecker species that does store food in this manner is the Red-bellied Woodpecker. They are known to store acorns and other nuts, as well as insects, in tree crevices and even in the wooden structures of houses or utility poles. This behavior helps them ensure a food supply during the winter months when food is scarce.

Overall, while woodpeckers in Pennsylvania do store food, their methods and habits differ from those of the acorn woodpecker, which creates extensive granaries by drilling holes in trees specifically to store acorns.

What Diseases Do They Carry?

As we have highlighted before, birds make very large messes. They leave nesting debris and their droppings contain many diseases. Histoplasmosis, which is fatal to humans, is found in their droppings. West Nile Virus, E. Coli, and Salmonella are also found in their droppings.

How Do We Deal with Woodpeckers?

Woodpeckers are a protected species. If they are in your home, we can use one-way doors to flush them out when eggs or young ones aren’t present. One-way doors are placed in their common entry points. These doors allow the birds to leave, but not return. Once they have left, we seal the home to prevent birds or other animals from entering. We also offer custom solutions to protect or cover the wood elements of your home. In some cases, we use a visual deterrent to discourage them from returning.

If you’re hearing a woodpecker drilling on your home or believe they may be in your home, please call us or use our contact form. We’re your licensed wildlife control technicians for woodpeckers and other animals in Central PA! We are currently serving all of Central PA: ‎Lancaster, Lebanon, Harrisburg, York, and surrounding counties.