Our local wildlife are finally warming up and leaving their winter dens. For most mammals, that means looking for food and a mate, not necessarily in that order. At this time of year, you may find unwelcome visitors on your property. If you are feeding the visitors, either accidentally or on purpose, you could have
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Groundhog Day is one of the stranger American celebrations, if you can call it that. It’s more of a media event. Old guys dressed up in top hats and tails grab poor Punxsutawney Phil from his den. Phil blinks sleepily into the cameras. Words are said, weather predictions are made, and the event is over
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We recently moved into a new house in a suburban area and have been enjoying feeding birds. We have a feeder pole in the backyard with four different feeders on it. My neighbor said bird feeders attract rats and even snakes into your yard and we should consider taking it down. I think he’s really
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Ever wonder what our local wild animals are doing during the winter months? Are they hunkered down, hibernating, half asleep, just waiting for spring? Some are, some aren’t. Out of all the different wildlife species in New Hampshire, for example, only seven sleep the winter away to some degree. Three of these (bats, woodchucks, jumping
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I have a problem with pigeons sitting on the ledge outside my apartment window. They really make a mess, I’m always cleaning the window. I try to scare them off but they’re right back. Is there anything I can do to keep them off of the ledge? E. G., Boston, MA Pigeons are one of
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Raccoons can be charming and fun to watch but they can also be harmful to your health. Besides the risk of rabies, raccoons pose another health risk that few people are aware of – raccoon roundworm (see Raccoons Can Be Hazardous to Your Health). People acquire the roundworm parasite from raccoon feces. The parasite, Baylisascaris
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We’ve had a big raccoon hanging around our yard for some time and getting into our garbage cans. Apparently she’s now a mom because we saw her with 3 baby raccoons yesterday. We’re not sure where her nest is. Does this mean that we’re now going to have 4 raccoons fighting over our garbage or
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Rodent-proofing, or rodent exclusion, is the process of sealing up all of the small openings that mice or rats use to enter a building. Typical rodent-proofing steps are screening vents, caulking around openings where conduits enter, patching cracks around the foundation, repairing roof soffits, adding door sweeps or thresholds, caulking around foundation vents, and reinforcing
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Lately when I’ve been working at the back of our yard, I’ve been noticing some strange-looking poop that must be from some wild animal. That’s not a problem, but I’ve also seen what might be a burrow behind the shed. I think it might be a raccoon. How can I tell whether it’s nesting there
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