From Bats to Bobcats

Bats in homes have been a problem since the very first home was constructed. More and more, however, other types of wildlife, such as raccoons, bobcats, rattlesnakes and coyotes are finding unwanted shelter in the yards of many homeowners, increasing the need for wildlife control services. Controlling wildlife is “a potential upsell and a growing industry in our area. We’ve got a lot of nuisance wildlife in Tulsa and surrounding suburbs,” says Justin Buckmaster, general manager of Mother Nature's Pest and Lawn in Oklahoma. As a result, for the past five years Mother Nature’s has expanded beyond offering traditional pest control services to now offer additional wildlife trapping and exclusion services for many types of animals, mostly opossums, skunks, and raccoons, but also ground hogs, beavers and sometimes coyotes.

 

“Urban area development pushes wildlife into suburbs and metro areas,” says Buckmaster. As wildlife migrates into residential areas due to development occurring in natural animal habitats, homeowners become fearful and concerned with potential diseases, attacks or damage to their homes. “As urban areas grow,” says Buckmaster, the public demand for wildlife control increases, and therefore, “business owners need to be attentive” and offer solutions.

 

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. Dana Berg, technical director of Northwest Exterminating in Arizona, explains that her company entered into the wildlife control market in January 2018 because they “needed to expand to offer a faster response time; we couldn’t subcontract to companies that would respond as quickly as our contracts required.” Berg’s company mostly receives calls for rattlesnakes and bats, but sometimes also bobcats, and lengthy response times schedule subcontractors is unacceptable to customers with these wildlife problems. The need to have control over response time and meeting customers’ needs, while also realizing that some of the company’s larger accounts desired all-inclusive services, resulted in the decision for Northwest Exterminating to bring wildlife control in-house. Berg’s company now offers a “one-stop-shop” shop for pest control: traditional pest management combined with trapping and exclusion work for wildlife (as well as some additional services).

 

Andrew Sievers, owner and certified entomologist of Northeast Pro-Con Solutions in Massachusetts, explains that his company has grown from a one-man operation to a team of 13 employees since starting in 2011. “As you add more people, there is more time availability and more opportunities to venture into different streams of revenue,” he says. Venturing into wildlife control just this year, Sievers states that his tactics are “hardcore IPM.” Helping homeowners with animals such as skunks, raccoons, squirrels and bats, Sievers explains that, “Our goal is not to go out there and kill; our goal is to exclude so that we don’t have to kill.” As a result, his company employs environmentally friendly and proactive wildlife services for customers.