Even if you love animals, you may have to deal with the unwelcomed critters. Animals seeking for shelter will make their way to your house garden or yard. Deers, opossums, raccoons, skunks and squirrels may look absolutely picturesque in the backdrop of Mother Nature, but trust us these very same beings when ensconced in your home or even in the back or front yard of your house can unleash a trail of destruction! Gharpedia shares tips to get rid of critters out of your house yard.
‘Bill Zak’ says, (author of the Book – A Field Guide to Texas Critters: Common Household and Garden Pests) there are many diverse plants and creatures in the environment around us. Size, shape, and colour variations are nearly unimaginable.
Wildlife is beautiful, but only on television channels! When wildlife encroaches on our living space, it can be unnerving at the least and physically dangerous at the worst. Trapping and moving animals from your yard generally don’t do the trick, as new ones will soon take their place. So, it is very important to know a few tips to get rid of the critters. The only thing you can do is seal any openings to your house so that the wild animals can’t come inside. Skunks, squirrels, opossums and raccoons might have found a friend in Elly May of ‘The Beverly Hill billies’, but they can wreak havoc in your yard. They can also camp out in your attic, crawl space or chimney off those areas that aren’t sealed off.
Tips to Get Rid of Critters
Let’s have a look at some of their characteristics and tips to get rid of critters to leave your house in peace!
01. Get rid of Critters – Raccoons
Well, raccoons will go where they can find food and to add to this they have a terrific memory too! So a good thing is that if they can’t find food in your yard, they’ll remember and won’t come back. Raccoons come out a couple of hours after the sun goes down and are generally not afraid of people. You can temporarily scare them away with motion sensor lights, but to discourage them from visiting in the future, try one of these techniques. –
- Place bowls of water and ammonia around the yard where raccoons visit. They don’t like the smell. Keep these bowls off the grass though as ammonia will damage it
- Secure the lids to your trash cans with rubber straps or get locking lids
- If raccoons are digging up your sod looking for worms, sprinkle a generous amount of cayenne pepper on the lawn
- If a raccoon has taken up residence under your house, put a loud radio – with an annoying station of your choice – near the nest and keep it there all day. Sprinkle some flour around the entrance to the crawl space and wait until you see footprints leading away from the door. Then block off the opening (do this only if you suspect one adult raccoon, in case there are babies then refer to the point below)
- Chimneys and attics are favourite places for raccoons to give birth. Wait a few weeks until the babies are mobile and then blast a radio to get them out. A mother with babies may take several days to evacuate, so don’t block her entry until you know she’s got moved out each and every one of her kiddos.
02. Get Rid of Critters – Skunks
The advice above also applies to skunks. But while skunks will go after your garbage they are mostly interested in rodents and insects. Again, keep the openings to your crawl space sealed, even small holes. Skunks will follow rodents in there.
Skunks don’t like water, so motion sensor sprinklers can help you get rid of skunks.
A good point to remember here is that unlike raccoons, skunks don’t climb. So you can fence off a problematic area and bury chicken wire underneath the fence to prevent them from digging under it.
Keep your pets inside at night to avoid having them getting into a scuffle with a skunk and coming home stinky.
03. Get Rid of Critters – Opossums
These cat-sized creatures with long tail come out at night and create mayhem just like raccoons and skunks. They like fruit trees and vegetable gardens, but will eat your garbage as well. Luckily, opossums are wanderers and generally don’t revisit the same place. Use the same tricks recommended for skunks to get rid of opossums.
04. Get Rid of Critters – Squirrels
Don’t be fooled by those cute fuzzy tails! Squirrels are rodents and rodents are born to chew. When squirrels get in your house they can go nuts chewing on electrical wires, wood or anything else they find.
A common problem in the case of squirrels is that they get stuck in your chimney. First, shame on you for not having a chimney cap! That said, you can try hanging a rope that’s secured to something on the roof down the chimney. Squirrels only go out during the day, so after a few daylight hours, the squirrel will hopefully climb up the rope and leave. Then, quickly get that chimney cap installed.
Don’t try to smoke the squirrel out, as the mother and babies may die and then you will have another problem on your hands. If the squirrel won’t leave, close all the interior doors in the room and open a nearby exterior door or window. Then open the damper and the fireplace doors and the squirrel should instinctively head for the outdoors.
Squirrels that get into attics can cause real damage…Red squirrels are tough and are difficult to deal with. If you hire a professional exterminator, make sure he or she has experience with the same. This is how you can get rid of squirrels.
05. Get Rid of Critters – Deer
An interesting thing about deer is that they have a penchant for hostas. For the unversed, ‘Hostas are herbaceous perennial plants, growing from rhizomes or stolons, with broad lanceolate or ovate leaves varying widely in size by species from 1–18 in (3–45 cm) long and 0.75–12 in (2–30 cm) broad’ (Wikipedia)
Whatever folklore claims, trust us, deer cannot be put off from hostas either by – stinky-smelling mulch; or by hair sweepings from a barbershop. You can of course try spraying the leaves of your dear hostas with commercial deer repellent, but don’t swoon from shock if, despite the repellent, deer continue to munch happily on your hostas!
A sure-shot solution to get rid of deer miles away from your cherished hostas, besides of course having tall fences erected around your yard is to use a fertilizer product called Milorganite… trust us it works like magic in deterring deer from hostas or for that matter any other plant or shrub.
On a concluding note, here’s hoping that the pointers given in this blog will help you get rid of critters like – deer, opossums, raccoons, skunks and squirrels from your house yard and you can enjoy a cup of tea sitting in your courtyard without bothering about the ‘uninvited guests’!
Having known about the tips to get rid of critters, there are also some creepy crawlies which would love entering your homes in monsoon. Here are some home remedies for pest control as well:
25 Home Remedies for Pest Control in Monsoon
Author Bio
Huta Raval – An English Literature and Journalism Topper, Huta Raval has graduated from the L D Arts College, Ahmedabad. Post serving for 23 years in the NBFC and Public Library Sectors her desire for ‘writing the unwritten’ brought her to the creative field of content writing. Her clientele comprises of NGOs, Blogging Platforms, Newspapers, Academic Institutions, et al.