Jacob Lehman runs Destination Wildlife Control, a Northern Virginia-based wildlife control company that performs emergency service calls, nuisance animal removal, dead animal removal, exclusion services, cleanup services, handyman services, home inspections, termite inspections, and general pest control.
As the consumer, it is important for you to know what services a wildlife removal company performs. You may not be aware, for example, that we not only trap nuisance animals, we perform clean-ups, repair, and home inspections. Here are services available at Destination Wildlife Control:
1. Emergency service calls: If you have an animal in your living space, it’s an emergency. Wildlife belongs outside. If you have any wildlife inside your house, leave it alone, shut it in a room, and pack a damp towel under the door. Calmly call your local animal control office. Locahttp://www.yodlemarketingsolution.com/articles/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=11875l government animal control agencies can remove animals from your living space — and at no cost. If the animal is in the attic, on the roof, in the chimney, or any place other than the living space, you may simply be loaned a trap and told to check it every hour. But what they won’t do is figure out where the animal got in or how to keep other animals out. For that, you need a qualified wildlife control specialist.
2. Nuisance animal removal: When we receive a call about a nuisance animal, we try to determine over the phone what the animal may be. This helps us decide on the equipment we may need on the job. Once we get to your house, we look for clues to the animal’s identity if we have not yet figured it out. Our inspection may take a while because we not only look for the entrance, but also where other animals could possibly get in later. We set traps near the animal’s entrance to lessen the chance of catching a non-target animal and then check the traps every day for about a week.
3. Dead animal removal: Men, if your wife says she smells something dead, she’s probably right. If you don’t smell it today, you will in another day or two. For 99% of the time, we can figure out where the dead animal is and get it out. But everything that smells like dead animal is not necessarily a dead animal. When the insulation is slowly melting on a wire that is shorting, it smells like a dead mouse. Often, the only way to remove the offending dead animal is to cut a hole in the wall. (Don’t worry, if we cut it open, we’ll fix it too!)
4. Exclusion services: We don’t want you to have any animals visiting you after we are done. So we work hard to find every vulnerable spot in your house. It is up to you to decide which repairs you want us to perform, if there are any to do after we are done with the job. If an animal gets through our repairs during the warranty period (usually three years), we will come back to remove the new animal and perform the new repairs at no expense to you. But, in eight years I have only had two calls where animals beat my repairs — and these were early in my career.
5. Cleanup services: Just because an animal is gone doesn’t mean the job is necessarily complete. Many animals (especially bats) leave significant amounts of feces that can cause health problems for your family. We can take care of removing the accessible feces, treating for parasites, and replacing insulation removed because of the feces.
6. Handyman services: We perform many handyman services, such as drywall repairs, light carpentry, some plumbing, light electric, gutter cleaning, and others. If we can’t do it, we probably know someone who can.
7. Home inspections: If you are getting ready to purchase a house, whether it is 100 years old or brand new, you should have it inspected. A home seller can also benefit from a home inspection by learning about issues that may need to be addressed before the home goes on the market. We perform a thorough inspection. Unless it is windy, rainy, or there is snow on the ground, we actually get on the roof to inspect it. We take pictures of any potential issues and include them in a computer-generated inspection report. No parties in a home inspection should fear the outcome. The inspector is only there to give an assessment of the condition of the home and major systems. He is on the side of the house, not the buyer or seller.
8. Termite inspections/pest control: We can perform a termite inspection as a stand-alone service or it can be included in the home inspection and a WDI (Wood Destroying Insect) report generated for the mortgage company. We can also take care of any bugs that bug you.
