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Black Snake Removal

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Black Snake Caught In A Bush In Orlando

Sometimes snakes can be a pain to find.  A lot of times they will make their way under a slab of cement, shed, or other obstacle.  Sometimes, like today, they’re just really well hidden.  I was called out to a house in Orlando.  The customer had been seeing what he was pretty sure was just a common black snake.  He didn’t really mind snakes but wasn’t a fan either and decided it was time for it to go.  I got there and started looking for the snake around the back pool cage where he had been seeing it.  I looked and looked and looked for an hour or so and couldn’t find it.  I sat and watched for a little while as I’ve noticed sometimes they’ll pop out of wherever they’re hiding if left alone.  Still no snake.  I started looking again through all the bushes and trees as I occasionally find them there.  Sure enough, I spotted a little bit of black movement in the middle of a bush.  I watched it as the snake slowly moved upward towards the top of the bush and popped its head out.  Finally, I had found it.

Black Racer In Bush In Orlando
Black Racer In Bush In Orlando
Black Snake In Bush Orlando Removal
Black Snake In Bush Orlando Removal
Black Snake Removed From Orlando Shrub
Black Snake Removed From Orlando Shrub

Raccoons Escaped

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Raccoons Escaped

We were called out today to find out what was running around in a customer’s attic.  I pulled up to the house and immediately had suspicions of it being an issue with raccoons in the attic as I could see a large hole in the soffit at the roof joint.  I went through my usual routine of trying to find out how long the animal has been there, what the customer is hearing, when they hear it, and any other interesting details.

People have described what they’re hearing in a lot of colorful ways but this was probably my favorite.

The customer said, “every night it sounds like someone is bowling in my attic.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.  She went on to describe how it sounds like a really heavy ball rolling across the ceiling to the other end of a room or the house and slamming into something.  Then it would go another way, over and over.  It definitely sounded like she had raccoons in her attic.  I grabbed my camera, flashlights, and respirator as I prepared to check the attic out for damage and to confirm that it was raccoons she was hearing.  Sometimes they’re still in the attic when I go in but unless you corner them or get near their babies, they stay clear.

The Raccoon Search Begins

I popped open the attic access and instantly heard something scamper across the attic and out of the hole in the soffit I saw earlier.  I walked outside with my camera to try and find the animal and after a couple minutes spotted two juvenile raccoons behind the house fifteen feet or so into the tree line.  I walked a little closer to get clear of the brush and limbs to get some pictures.  One of them took off deeper into the wooded area.  The other stayed put, clung to a tree, as raccoons are great climbers.  I snapped a couple pictures and went back to finish the attic and exterior inspection.

Luckily, the raccoons hadn’t done any damage to the HVAC system or wiring in the attic.  You could definitely see where they had been “bowling” though.  Insulation was thrown everywhere as they ran back and forth, playing just like dogs do with one another.

Orlando Raccoon in attic found nesting in tree
Juvenile Raccoon in Tree 
Orlando Raccoon in attic found nesting in tree
Orlando Raccoon in attic found nesting in tree

Rat Snake From Orlando Pool

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A Rat Snake Extraction From A Pool In Orlando

A customer called today about a snake with stripes hanging out around their pool today.  They were very worried that it was venomous because of the stripes.  I got to the house as quickly as possible and asked the customer what the snake looked like and where they last saw it.  I like to have an idea of what I’m dealing with.  They said it was a yellow or orange snake with dark stripes running down its back from head to tail, an immediate sign that it was not venomous.  Anytime stripes are running vertically down the snake instead of across the width of the snake, it’s nonvenomous.  Knowing what I was dealing with, it was time to find the snake.

It had been twenty or thirty minutes since the customer initially called and nobody had been outside so there was a good chance the snake was still very close, probably somewhere in the pool enclosure.  I looked under planters, in the pool filter, and several other areas I typically find them with no luck.  I noticed the customer had a built in stainless steel corner grill and sink with cabinets underneath.  I opened one of the cabinets and looked around and didn’t see anything so I crawled in a little so I could get my head around the corner to see the area where there are no cabinets and voila, there was the snake.  It was a little too far for me to grab it with my hand and too tight an area to get my snake tongs in to reach it.  So I crawled out, grabbed my snake tongs and banged on the end the snake was under to scare it my way.  Once it came around the corner I swung the tongs around and nabbed it.  It was exactly how the customer described it, a harmless rat snake.

Snake Facts To Ponder

A lot of snakes look very menacing and dangerous if you don’t know what to look for.  Most people, whether they’re scared of them or not, know that a black snake is nonvenomous and essentially harmless.  Most people also could also spot a rattle snake because of its distinctive rattle and know that it is a very dangerous, venomous snake.  Beyond these two snakes, a lot of people don’t have the ability to tell whether a snake is venomous or nonvenomous.  A bright or multicolored snake, a snake with stripes, or a snake with rings or patterns down its back can very easily be mistaken for a venomous snake when it’s not.

 

snake removal from kitchen in Orlando
Snake Removal in Orlando

 

 

Bees In Tree Brings Stings

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Bee Hive Treatment Followup

Today I went out to check on a bee hive that we had sprayed yesterday in order to clean out the hive and seal the hole.  An Orlando customer and her two kids had been stung several times by bees over the last few days.  The customer noticed the bees flying in and out of a hole fifteen to twenty feet off the ground in a tree.  I donned my bee keeper suit and sprayed the bees and hive yesterday.

Bees Are Gone And The Customer Is Happy

Today, the only thing left is the empty bee hive.  I will clean out as much of the hive as possible and seal the hole in the tree to prevent another swarm of bees from starting another colony in the same hole.

 

Finely Tuned Auditory Systems

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The Creation Abounds With The Wonder Of Hearing

The sense of hearing, otherwise known as the auditory sense, is something shared between humans and most other animals. The questions that most often arise on this topic are: which animal has the best hearing, and for what purpose do most animals use their auditory senses? Understanding how and why animals use their ears in their natural environment can help create a deeper understanding of the natural world, as well as of each creature’s place in it.

picture of an owl head

Owls

The eardrum of an owl allows them to find small animals – like mice – in the darkest nighttime conditions. The owl will rarely have to worry about suffering from hearing loss thanks to its large ear holes, which are slightly staggered for optimal auditory understanding and maximum protection.

An owl can hear the smallest sounds in the dark and uses the minor difference in the ears to translate the sound and find its location. It takes an owl less than one second to hear a sound, determine the location of the sound, and determine if the sound is from prey. After that slight period of time, the owl can attack the sound of a mouse or other small animal. Due to this sharp sense of sound, owls are exceptionally effective nighttime predators.

Dolphins

Another animal that will never need to worry about hearing aid prices is the dolphin. Dolphins are like submarines (or perhaps, submarines are like dolphins) in that they use echolocation (also called sonar) to map the area around them and navigate through murky water that is difficult to see through.

The dolphins will make a chirping or clicking sound in the water. When the sound is reflected back at them, they are able to determine the size, location and nature of an object around them. The dolphin can even identify other animals through echolocation and determine if the creature is a threat, a food source, a potential mate, or some other animal they are indifferent towards. A dolphin’s hearing is so sharp that even an object as small as a coin is identifiable from up to 70 meters away.

bat spread out on table

Bats

Like dolphins, bats are known to use echolocation to find the insects and fruits that they like to eat. However, unlike dolphins – which use echolocation in murky waters – bats use echolocation in the air as their primary way of seeing. Bats are nocturnal, and the sound of their chirps bouncing off plants, other animals, and insects allows a bat to find and locate insects from up to 20 feet away in complete darkness. Since bats are constantly using sound to find their way around, they naturally require strong auditory senses. This helps them locate and determine the distance to their prey all through the night.

Cats

Cats of all sizes, from the small house cat to the largest tigers and lions, are among the animals with the best hearing. Not only are cats able to pick up on much higher frequencies than most other animals, they even are able to move their ears to catch the sound better! Cats can rotate their ears 180 degrees, making it possible to locate and distinguish different sounds with the utmost precision. By rotating their ears, cats pick up the sound much better than most other animals. It provides them with the ability to locate prey and determine whether to attack or whether the animal may be too large.

image of an elephant

Elephants

Many might expect elephants to have excellent hearing due to the notoriously large size of their ears. The fact is, elephants do have excellent senses, including their auditory sense. Elephants not only hear sounds at very low frequencies, they are also able to hear through their whole body! The elephant’s trunk, ears and feet are all part of the system that makes up an elephant’s auditory senses. The receptors in the trunk and feet allow elephants to sense vibrations that are so low that the sound is almost impossible to distinguish for most observers, like humans. By having these low receptors, elephants are able to pick up the sound of thunder storms and rain from miles away. This allows the elephants to find and move towards water, an essential trait for survival in hot climates.

Tiger Moths

Many species of moth have developed an acute sense of hearing which allows them to determine when a bat is locating them. The sound of a bat’s chirping for echolocation alerts most moths and allows them a chance to try and escape before being eaten. Unlike most other moths, however, the tiger moth in particular has taken this defense a step further. Upon hearing a bat’s echolocation chirps, the tiger moth will make clicking sounds to break up the echolocation and make it difficult for bats to locate them. The clicking noises disrupt the initial sound so that bats become confused with the sound and miss the moth. In modern parlance, you could say that the tiger moth “jams” the echolocation signal of the bat.

The animals with the best hearing in the world have a truly amazing auditory sense. Despite the fact that animals around the world have better hearing that most humans, the animal who has the best hearing of all is generally considered to be the owl, with dolphins placed second.

Empty House Inviting To Rats

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Rats Move In Very Quickly

Homes left vacant for extended periods of time are prime breeding ground for animals, especially rats. Whether it’s a foreclosed, inherited, or vacation home, if steps aren’t taken to seal the entire structure off from animals prior to vacating the home, the owner is asking for an infestation of rats or another animals upon returning.

Today was the perfect example. A couple from northern Georgia inherited a home from a recently deceased relative. They removed most everything inside and simply locked up and left it until the following year. They also had the water and power shut off, a big mistake.

I was let in by a neighbor and immediately was overwhelmed with the stench of feces, urine, and a dead animal. The carpet was covered in rat feces and chewed throughout the house. Drywall had been chewed through and a dead rat was found in the toilet. With the water being off the rats were free to run through the plumbing from the sewer and come up through toilets and sinks.

The outside of the home also showed evidence of the rats traveling between the inside and outside where vents and other entry points were not covered or covered poorly with thin mesh that was simply chewed through.

 

A Good Rat Ousting Is In Order

An extensive cleaning will need to be done on the inside, an exclusion done on the outside, the water turned back on, and a plumber will need to be out to see if the integrity of the plumbing has been compromised.

 

Black Snake Terrifies Customer

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Black Snake Education Settles Terrified Customer

A lot of people are terrified of snakes.  To some customers a harmless black snake, king snake, rat snake, or other non-venomous snake is a slithering terror waiting to attack.  I had one such run in a couple days ago.

A Harmless Black Snake Can Seem Dangerous To Some

The customer called in to the office in hysterics.  She had just seen a huge snake moving across her patio when she was leaving for work.  No longer was she going to work, or outside the house for that matter.  Not with certain death waiting just outside her door.  I pulled up to the house not sure what kind of snake it would be.  It was huge, that’s all I knew.  I walked around the house and found the massive, extremely deadly predator!  It turned out to be a completely harmless black snake.  I snapped a couple pictures and put the snake in my snake bag.  I then went in to talk to the customer.  She was extremely relieved to know I had caught it.  I eventually was able to convince her that it was harmless after showing her pictures of the snakes that are venomous and a picture of a black snake.  After some more coaxing, she even consented to letting me show her the snake while still in the bag.  After being around it for a few minutes and being educated on the harmlessness of this particular snake and most others, while still uncomfortable, she wanted a closer look.  I took it out of the bag and continued talking about how they are a fundamental part of the ecosystem, just as every other animal has its purpose.  After answering all her questions and putting most of her fears to rest, I left with her once deadly menace.

 

 

Rat vs Mold

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A Tall Of Rats And Mold

I received a frantic call from a homeowner that had a rat running around her condo on Siesta Key. The rat had been:

  • eating her fruit on the counter,
  • getting into her trash,
  • chewing on the couch &
  • leaving droppings and urine everywhere.

We responded and did a complete inspection of the condo.  It appeared as though the rat was coming and going thru a hole under the dishwasher in the slab. We tried to take the dishwasher out so we could seal the entry point but the tile had been installed after the dishwasher, so it was basically built-in.  We finally got the dishwasher’s feet turned down enough to clear the counter and tile, allowing it to clear enough to be slid out.  Or so we thought as the copper water line had no slack for us to pull the dishwasher out. So, again we are at a stand still.  A plumber was called to remove the dishwasher so we could seal the entry points.

Since we could not seal the entry point right away we set numerous rat traps throughout the condo to capture and remove the unwanted pest.  Continuing the inspection of the condo, we went into the guest bedroom where the home owner was concerned that there might be something in the water turn off area since we found an opening under the dishwasher already .  She opened the closet and went to move a few items that were stored in the closet and wow, were we surprised.

It appeared as though there was a leak of some sort coming from the water turn off area.  The wall was covered in black mold. We removed the panel to the water turn off area and there was definitely a leak, and it was still leaking. Water was just running out of the cast iron pipe.  I advised the homeowner that she needed to call the management company and also a plumber again.

Everyone Working On A Solution To Be Rat And Mold Free

At this point the rodent was the least of their concern.  This leak had been going on for sometime because unfortunately it was in a closet in an unoccupied room, used only as storage and rarely looked at.  The management company sent out a mold specialist and a plumber and everyone is working together to get this homeowner “back-to-normal!”


 

 

Pocket Gophers

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Pocket Gophers Digging Away In Davenport Florida

Today we were sent out to an apartment complex in Davenport.  They informed us that they had some kind of animal digging up their beautiful, expensive Zoysia grass and leaving unsightly mounds of dirt in their wake.  On the way to the property it was evident that the surrounding area around the complex was completely overrun by pocket gophers.  Dozens and dozens of gopher mounds beyond the property line could be seen in every direction from each corner of the property.

After talking with management and maintenance we decided the best action would be to immediately trap the gophers that were tearing the landscape apart within the property and to begin trapping just outside the property to prevent movement of the gophers from outside to inside the property line.  I started poking and prodding the ground to find the gopher tunnels in various locations in and around the property.

I set two traps in each gopher tunnel, one facing one way and one the other way as the gopher may come from either direction.  I’ll be back tomorrow and every couple days after that until we rid the lawn and property of these nuisance gophers.

 

 

 A Return Visit To Check On The Gopher Problem

Today is the third time I’ve been back to check on the gopher activity in Davenport.  The first trip to check the traps resulted in eight out of nine tunnels producing a trapped gopher.  The second produced another half dozen.  The gopher activity within the property has completely stopped with the third trap check.  No longer do the annoying, lawn destroying gopher mounds dot the expensive landscape.  Gopher activity has diminished substantially outside the property as well.  A few more trips and the activity should be completely eradicated in and immediately around the apartment complex.

Noisey Sarasota Attic

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A Rodent Nightmare In Sarasota

Rodents like rats and mice can be a serious nuisance.  A Sarasota home I was called out to last week was a rodent nightmare.  The family complained about hearing scratching and tapping coming from above their ceiling. I knew right away it was a rodent issue. Sure enough after taking a quick glance in the attic, I saw rat droppings everywhere.

Where Were The Rodents Getting In?

The first step was to figure out where they were getting in to the home.  I noticed two small holes in the corner of the attic where sunlight was shining through, so I plugged those holes and set numerous traps.

A Call Back To Finish The Rodent Problem

On my return service visit, I found that every trap had been successful.  It is important to remove the trapped rats as soon as possible to avoid sitting in the heat of the attic.

The family was at ease knowing the smalls holes in their home’s attic where filled professionally and the rats we’re gone for good!

CALL 866-263-WILD (9453)