Skunks in Your Cellar? Call a NWCO!
by Neil Soderstrom

Last October, at the onset of a rainy week, our lawn displayed a meandering network of grassy ridges that sank underfoot like sponges. No doubt, we had a mole. Although I owned two big, fierce-looking mole traps, I hoped to avoid using them. Coincidentally that week, we were awaiting arrival of plumbers with our new furnace. As their truck backed up our driveway, it veered errantly onto grass. Later, in those tire tracks, my wife and I were surprised to see a nearly flattened mole.

Rain continued a few days, causing the soggy ridges to settle to ground level. As I later learned, a single mole can tunnel up to 18 feet per hour, creating a crazy network of ridges that suggest a battalion of moles. Instead, moles are territorial and drive out other moles. So if you're lucky, removal of one mole may solve the tunneling problem—at least for a while.

This anecdote isn't meant to suggest that you attempt to solve a mole problem by inviting a plumber to back carelessly up your driveway. On the other hand, our plumber unwittingly demonstrated why New York's licensed Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators (NWCOs) may set mole traps along driveways and other lawn barriers that guide a mole's main runways in fairly straight lines. Ridges branching from main runways represent feeding tunnels that might be used only once. So the pros set their traps in main runways.

That mole experience accelerated my research for a book on outwitting nuisance mammals. My research led to fascinating interviews with several of our region's wildlife control professionals, all licensed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). To obtain a license, it's necessary to pass a written test based a formidable training manual that covers a vast range of subjects from wildlife law to animal biology and behaviors, as well as animal tracks and diseases, along with recommended means for solving problems indoors and out.

The pros I interviewed emphasize that animal removal is usually only a temporary fix. The goal is to eliminate food, if that's the attractant, as well as shelter. After removal of problem animals, these guys then seal off access. Here are a few nuggets from my interviews:

Millbrook's Tony DeBonis handles all types of animals but has a special interest in bats, which occur in spring in attic colonies of anywhere from ten to hundreds. Key, he says, is to seal every gap 1/4-inch or larger except the point of main access. Next he waits until August, when the young can fly out with their parents through the special one-way door before he seals that opening. Then comes major attic clean-up. DeBonis cautions that mere departure of bats in August won't solve your problem long-term. That is, bats don't winter in attics where they were born. Instead, they may winter in caves hundreds of miles away before returning to their birth attic—unless access is sealed.

For most mammals, DeBonis prefers not to use bait because baiting "can attract all the skunks or raccoons in the neighborhood." Instead, he positions unbaited live-traps so animals must pass through them when entering or exiting their burrow. As part of his preventive service, he also installs chimney caps with metal grills that exclude raccoons and squirrels, while keeping out rain and snow that can damage flues during freeze-thaw cycles.

DeBonis says lawsuits result when people sell their house without informing the buyer that bats, squirrels, or raccoons are in the attic. So real-estate companies now may request wildlife inspections.

Hyde Park's Colin Burgess says spring is his busy time for skunks, which complete their often stinky mating period in early March and give birth in May. By June, mother skunks lead their babies over lawns, where they grub for earthworms and insect larvae, sometimes sending scent through open windows. If skunks nest under a porch, Burgess tries to live-trap entire families and release them together.

His most interesting assignment began as a routine call to investigate "raccoon sounds" in a cellar. When he opened the cellar door, a bobcat bounded up toward him. He slammed the door and retrieved a "catchpole" from his truck (a short pole with a loop at the end that can be tightened like a collar over an animal's neck). With his foot holding the cellar door partially shut, Burgess strove half an hour before he collared that bobcat and removed it. An adult bobcat would probably be too much for most people to handle at the end of a catchpole. But Colin is 6 foot 8 and 250 pounds.

Beekman's Dermot O'Connor serves Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester counties, his exclusive territory with the Critter Control franchise. Besides knowledge of wildlife, O'Connor credits his earlier experience in house construction in helping him diagnose problems and propose solutions. These include animal removal as well as vital follow-up exclusion sealing gaps, plugging holes, and installing flashing and mesh barriers around porches and decks. O'Connor handles all kinds of birds and animals, including muskrats and beavers. He says muskrats burrow into banks of landscaped ponds, and beavers chew down fruit trees for their dams and lodges. Removal of muskrats and beavers requires special permits from the DEC.

O'Connor cautions against feeding or handling stray cats, which aren't considered controllable wildlife and can't legally be handled by dog control officers. Stray cats, he says, are a prime vector of rabies, along with raccoons, skunks, and bats. In a recent case, 20 people were required to get rabies vaccinations after handling a sick kitten that turned out to have rabies.

Colin Burgess, Mid-Hudson Wildlife Management, Hyde Park
(845) 229-1282, nysrs95@optonline.net

Tony DeBonis, Wildlife Control Services, PO Box 1322, Millbrook
(845) 489-6148, tony@wildlifecontrolservices.com

Dermot O'Connor, Critter Control, Beekman
(845) 221-1224, crittercontrolny@yahoo.com