As Mississippi ditches the summer heat and welcomes the refreshing coolness of fall, pesky wild animals are beginning to seek shelter where they may not belong.
Mike McDowell, a licensed nuisance wildlife operator and owner of The Critter Catcher in central Mississippi, warns the public that unwelcome visitors could soon be finding any possible means of lodging in residences across the Magnolia State.
“Animals are going crazy,” McDowell said on MidDays with Gerard Gibert. “They’re getting their nests and their dens ready. They’re looking for any way they can to get into homes.”
With Mississippi being home to a multitude of what are considered nuisance species, McDowell urges homeowners to examine their houses and seal possible entryways underneath the residence, in the roof, or any soft spots wild animals could exploit and use as a pathway inside.
The pest control expert warns that it just takes one female wild animal to give birth in a home to kickstart a wildfire of houses being infiltrated by unwanted guests.
“Once you find one female animal, whether it’s a raccoon, opossum, squirrel, or rat, it doesn’t matter. Once they’ve found a way to get into that house, had a litter of young, and taught those litter how to get into that house, they’re now knowledgeable. When they get older, they’re going to go to some other house and they’re going to find a way to get in,” McDowell continued.
“It’s just a whole process and it doesn’t take very long … Eventually you have a subdivision full of animals getting in houses. People don’t realize what is that’s what’s happening. They’ve taught those animals to get into houses.”
But for those who have already experienced an intrusion, McDowell recommends calling an expert to flush the animals out instead of taking matters into their own hands.
“We have issues nowadays where people are trying to do their own thing — the [do it yourself] stuff — and they’re catching the animals, taking them out, letting them somewhere else, and educating the animals about the traps and being caught,” McDowell added. “So, when I get there, if they’ve already been caught, it’s even harder for me. Now I’ve got to up my game level to try to find a way to get those animals out of there.”
