What to Do When You Encounter Injured Wildlife

There will be times when you will encounter injured wildlife. You must know the necessary things to do before you try to help or move an injured animal.

You may come across injured wildlife when you live beside a wooded area or near hills,mountains or riverbanks. These animals often leave their territory to find shelter from the cold or to forage for food. They often encounter injuries through run-ins with other animals, by getting into traffic or even getting caught in inhumane forms of animal control (traps and cages that purposely injure wildlife).

Before you decide to help or move it, there are a few things that you should take note of.

Signs of Injured Wildlife

One of the most obvious signs of an injured animal is bleeding and wounds. An injured animal may have one or more of these symptoms:

• May have swollen body parts where a wound is located.
• May be covered in flies, fleas or other parasites that feed on blood
• May be lethargic
• May be cold to the touch
• May have lost a significant amount of fur or feathers
• May have dangling limbs or wings when you find them
• May be wheezing as it is lying on the street

What should you do when you encounter injured wildlife?

Animals tend to be more aggressive when they are hurt or threatened. By getting near an injured animal, you may end up hurting it or yourself. Threatened injured animals bite and scratch whoever approaches them. Trying to help a trapped animal can lead to further injuries to the animal or to you. Avoid taking injured animals home, because these animals belong in the wild and do not make good pets.

But if the injured animal you found is unaggressive, there are ways you can help alleviate some of its pain. Before you touch an injured animal be sure to wear gloves. You may never know what kinds of bacteria an injured animal may transmit to you if you use your bare hands to move the injured animal. You can also place the injured animal in a box or container so that you can take it to the nearest veterinarian. If the animal you find is seriously injured, it is best to leave it where it is and just call for help.

The best choice is always to call for help immediately. Wildlife professionals will know exactly what to do when they see an injured animal. Professionals can expertly move and treat injured animals on the spot without risking its life or spreading any disease that the animal may have. Professional animal control experts know what kind of gear to wear to move or treat injured animals. With the help of trained animal experts, the injured animal you found will have a greater chance of being returned to the wild.

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Preventing Wildlife from Entering Your Property

Urban wildlife will look for food and shelter once winter starts. They will look for a warm place to raise their children and storage for the food they forage.

Lurking wildlife will find a way to enter a home as long as there is food and warm shelter. Squirrels, mice, raccoons, bats, and other urban wildlife can become a nuisance once they enter your home. Aside from the sanitation issue (they leave urine and feces everywhere), they are also potential carriers of diseases that can be fatal to household members and pets. Even worse, they may make your home into their den or nest and reproduce there creating even bigger infestation problems for you.

Urban Wildlife Problems

Urban wildlife in your property can cause a variety of problems. Mice leave behind a trail of urine and feces that can spread harmful diseases. The feces and urine of mice also emit a pungent smell that can spread throughout the area where they are found. Mice reproduce at a fast rate that can lead to dozens of babies in just a few months.

Raccoons are a handful once they make a home in your chimney or attic. The babies of raccoons squeal late into the night. These noises can keep you up till the wee hours of the morning. Raccoons also make a fine mess of things because of their nimble hands. These animals can open food containers and garbage bins. They can also spread harmful viruses like rabies.

Despite their small size, squirrels can cause a lot of trouble for homeowners. These small creatures can chew on electrical wires that can trigger fires and power outages. Aside from wires, squirrels gnaw on wood used to frame your home, causing structural damage in the walls and ceilings.

Skunks emit a pungent smell when they feel threatened. This smell can cling onto your skin or clothes for a long time. They can also transmit harmful diseases when allowed to populate your property.

Preventing Urban Wildlife from Entering Your Property

Keeping animals away from your property is easy. Make sure that garbage bins are locked so that animals will be unable to open them. Food containers should be carefully closed or stored. Raccoons have adroit hands that can open latches, windows, and locks. Remove piles of wood, leaves, or compost so that skunks, squirrels, or raccoons cannot use them to make their dens. Sealing and repairing holes and walls in your house will stop squirrels, raccoons, and mice from entering.

To prevent skunks from accessing garbage bins, place oil of mustard at the base of the garbage bin. If you have a garden, you can spray a mixture of hot pepper and water on the plants to prevent skunks from approaching them. You can use pepper spray around your home to keep squirrels away. It is best to implement preventive methods to stop urban wildlife from entering your property.

If the wildlife continues to enter your property through other means, it may be time to put fences and other exclusion methods in place. This is where professionals can help. Get a wildlife control company to assess the situation. They can help you identify where the entry points are and help you seal them off. Animal control experts can also give you more tips for permanent and effective wildlife exclusion.

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Preventing Wildlife from Entering Your Property

Lurking wildlife will find a way to enter a home as long as there is food and warm shelter. Squirrels, mice, raccoons, bats, and other urban wildlife can become a nuisance once they enter your home. Aside from the sanitation issue (they leave urine and feces everywhere), they are also potential carriers of diseases that can be fatal to household members and pets. Even worse, they may make your home into their den or nest and reproduce there creating even bigger infestation problems for you.


Urban Wildlife Problems

Urban wildlife in your property can cause a variety of problems. Mice leave behind a trail of urine and feces that can spread harmful diseases. The feces and urine of mice also emit a pungent smell that can spread throughout the area where they are found. Mice reproduce at a fast rate that can lead to dozens of babies in just a few months.

Raccoons are a handful once they make a home in your chimney or attic. The babies of raccoons squeal late into the night. These noises can keep you up till the wee hours of the morning. Raccoons also make a fine mess of things because of their nimble hands. These animals can open food containers and garbage bins. They can also spread harmful viruses like rabies.

Despite their small size, squirrels can cause a lot of trouble for homeowners. These small creatures can chew on electrical wires that can trigger fires and power outages. Aside from wires, squirrels gnaw on wood used to frame your home, causing structural damage in the walls and ceilings.

Skunks emit a pungent smell when they feel threatened. This smell can cling onto your skin or clothes for a long time. They can also transmit harmful diseases when allowed to populate your property.


Preventing Urban Wildlife from Entering Your Property 

Keeping animals away from your property is easy. Make sure that garbage bins are locked so that animals will be unable to open them. Food containers should be carefully closed or stored. Raccoons have adroit hands that can open latches, windows, and locks. Remove piles of wood, leaves, or compost so that skunks, squirrels, or raccoons cannot use them to make their dens. Sealing and repairing holes and walls in your house will stop squirrels, raccoons, and mice from entering.

To prevent skunks from accessing garbage bins, place oil of mustard at the base of the garbage bin. If you have a garden, you can spray a mixture of hot pepper and water on the plants to prevent skunks from approaching them. You can use pepper spray around your home to keep squirrels away. It is best to implement preventive methods to stop urban wildlife from entering your property.

If the wildlife continues to enter your property through other means, it may be time to put fences and other exclusion methods in place. This is where professionals can help. Get a wildlife control company to assess the situation. They can help you identify where the entry points are and help you seal them off. Animal control experts can also give you more tips for permanent and effective wildlife exclusion.

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Common Entry Points for Small Wildlife

While furry, four-footed creatures may seem like cute, harmless animals, the damage they can wreak on your home belies their seemingly wholesome nature. Knowing their common entry points and taking measures to properly seal and secure them can prevent a world of stress and potential health hazards. Here are a few places in your home you should monitor and protect.

Areas in which different material comes together like window wells, dryer exhaust vents, and water damaged fascia. Animals like bats, rats, mice, and squirrels often gain entry through these points.

Attic gable vents are also prime points of entry. Always check your attic to see if there are any animal droppings. Turn off attic lights to see if there’s any outside light leaking in. Those could turn out to be where the wildlife is coming through. Other vulnerable areas are loose vent screens, holes in the roof, chimneys, gaps in bricks or house structure.

Be sure to periodically check cables for damage. Squirrels like to chew on them and this could be a potential fire hazard. If there are any holes in or around your home that are smaller than a few inches, caulk them or stuff with copper mesh or expandable foam.

Always make sure before sealing any holes that there are no animals inside. If you’re unsure, place a cloth or paper in the suspected area and check back in a few days to see if it’s been moved. If it hasn’t, then go about properly sealing the hole with screening or the appropriate barrier.

Do note that wildlife living in your home can be a potentially dangerous situation. Even more so if it has grown into an infestation. If this is the case, it is best to call the professionals to handle it. They are trained to catch and release wildlife and protect your home from re-entry. 

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Choosing Your Exclusion Barriers

Every once in a while, despite your best efforts in keeping your house clean, unwanted house guests still find ways of getting in. Whether it’s squirrels in the attic, birds nesting in exhaust vents, or bats in the chimney, knowing how to properly keep wildlife out can save you time and money needed for repairs and removal.

Setting up exclusion barriers in and around your home ensures a practical, humane, and environmentally safe way of dealing with wildlife. Using exclusion barriers like fences or sealing potential entry points keeps animals out and is the best way of preventing any harm from coming to you, your family, or the animal itself.

Assess all potential entry points and determine which types of animals could possibly get in. Seal tubes or vents with hardware cloth or copper wool, but makes sure you’re not covering anything that shouldn’t be covered, like gas appliance vents such as high-powered furnaces, doing so creates a fire hazard.

If you’re having issues with animals that are digging up your yard (such as gophers), apron or L-shaped fences will work well for this purpose. These are also great for decks and crawl spaces.

For flying animals such as bats and birds, the chimney is a potential entry point that can be protected with a chimney cap. These are widely available in home and hardware stores and can be installed easily.

Your trash bin is also a prime attractant for wildlife like raccoons, skunks, squirrels and even bears. If you suspect that any of these animals are roaming your neighborhood, make sure that you have critter-proof containers (the ones with screw-on lids) or tie them up with a bungee cord at night.

Before sealing up entry points, do ensure that there are no existing small animals already taking shelter in these areas. It would be best to test it by placing a piece of paper or cloth in the possible entry point and checking in a few days later to see if it has been moved.

Physical exclusion of animals using barriers ensures that animals are able to stay in their own environment and can relocate to other natural nesting sites or shelter. The type of exclusion barrier you will need to install largely depends on the type of wildlife you are excluding.If you’re unsure of how to go about setting up exclusions barriers for your home, contact professionals who can do it for you.

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