1st Response Wildlife - Tucson's Humane Animal Trapping & Removal Services

Rock Squirrel Families Removed and Area Cleaned Up by 1st Response Wildlife

Rock Squirrels are really busy in the Sonoran Desert during the summer.  They search for food in new areas; they create significant damage burrowing under sheds, patios, hot tub slabs, and foundations.  They also start and raise new families.

One homeowner in Tucson experienced not one but two families of rock squirrels this summer.  The first family moved in, dug their burrows and began raising their family in the back yard.  The burrow seen below is an example of the damage to the area and, as you can see, has exposed an underground pipe which could be a gas line.  Not only is the burrow entrance hole large enough for a pet or a child to step in and possibly break a leg, but it has exposed a pipe. 

1^st Response Wildlife was called and trapped the whole family.  Below, you can see the members of the family peering out of their respective traps.  1^st Response Wildlife trapped and held family members in a protected environment until all of the family had been caught and reunited.  Together, they were moved well over a dozen miles away and released back into the wild as a family unit.

Unfortunately for the homeowner, however, the backyard invasion, for the summer was not over.  Within a short period of time, a rock squirrel scout was observed-probably the male of a new family, and a whole new family moved into the back yard area.  Soon burrowing under a shed revealed a family of rock squirrels again was creating a nuisance.

1^st Response Wildlife was called again and, once again, the entire family was trapped, held until all members were caught and accounted for, reunited, and released back into the wild.

Below are some of the pictures of this new family, one even eating raspberries while being held until all family members were caught.

Here we see the burrow entrance under the shed and then, following the removal of the rock squirrels, the clean up that returns the shed foundation back to normal.

Finally, with the dirt replaced, a cement block over the area, helps and future rock squirrels from choosing this area for burrowing.

 

If you have rock squirrels burrowing in your yard, under foundations, patios, or sheds, please give 1^st Response Wildlife a call to have them removed.  1^st Response Wildlife is experienced in trapping and humanely releasing individual rock squirrels or, as you can see from this and other posts, whole families back into the wild.

Thanks for considering 1st Response Wildlife 

Josh's Cell (24/7 Hours): 520-260-9517

Josh Waling is a humane Licensed Animal Trapper who catches and releases wildlife, removing animals including bobcats (lince), snakes, rattlesnakes (serpiente de cascabel), raccoons (mapache), coyotes, rock squirrels, pack rats, gila monsters (monstruos de gila), rabbits (canejo), gophers, owls, bats, hawks, ducks, ground squirrels (ardilla), peacocks, coatimundi (gato solo), skunks (mofeta), exotics, pigeons, and domestic cats and dogs. He delivers service that is professional and fast and he is available 24/7.  Give him a call the next time you hear unusual noises in the attic or crawl spaces in your home or if you see wildlife eating your vegetation, creating nests, and raising their young too close to your pets or children or have an exotic sighting in your neighborhood. 520-260-9517 Thanks!

Bats where they shouldn’t be? Call 1st Response Wildlife!

Summer in the Tucson, Green Valley, Oro Valley, Catalina, Saddlebrooke Ranch, Picture Rocks, and other areas of the Sonoran Desert is a time when bats by the 10's of thousands help reduce the insect population and keeps homeowners, visitors, and pets, pretty much protected from mosquitoes.  We are blessed to have over 2 dozen species of bats that help us in the summer.

In the evening, if you have the time to park and watch the area around major bridges-over-washes, you will see thousands of bats leave on their evening hunt.  If you are sitting on your patio or in your courtyard at dusk, you may also see a few or a group of bats suddenly drop from roof top hideaways and fly off to feed for the night.

Bats in and of themselves, avoid contact with people, pets, and major objects, using  sound to navigate and find their food. (Using a technique called echolocation-like ultrasound).  Unless a bat encounters netting, is sick, gets lost by inadvertently entering an open garage door, or is one of the species that feeds on grasshoppers, scorpions, centipedes, and crickets on the ground and gets stranded, one rarely sees a single bat isolated and/or away from a common roosting area.

Each summer, 1^st Response Wildlife receives calls about a single bat in a business, a home, or from a homeowner that has discovered significant amounts of droppings (guano) beneath a tiled roof,  Viga joints  (Heavy round timbers/beams that protrude through exterior walls of Santé Fe style homes), or the joints of a wall and exterior ceiling.  One of the reasons for calls is that it is pretty common knowledge that bats carry disease-of primary concern, rabies.  Since only a licensed Animal Trapper, a representative of Animal Control, or the Arizona Game and Fish Department should deal with bats, it is extremely important that a homeowner or business owner, have bats dealt with professionally.

1^st Response Wildlife has years of experience helping homeowners and businesses deal with bats.  In many cases, after an evaluation of the situation is completed, education on what the options are to deal with a bat issue is all that is needed.  If, however, there is a lone bat in a business or home, or if a homeowner has a significant guano problem, then 1^st Response Wildlife has equipment, materials, and techniques that can help remove a single bat and/or encourage a family of bats to find another place to call home.

Pictured below are a few examples of activity where a business or homeowner worked with 1^st Response Wildlife to deal with bat problems. (It should be noted that one method bats use to get into small cracks or openings in homes or businesses is to land on a wall and then, using what amounts to small finger nails on the tips of their wings, they will crawl up a wall and squeeze into an opening that, to a homeowner, looks impossible for anything to be able to access.)

Here are a couple of examples where a homeowner had enough bat guano that they wanted to have their family of bats find elsewhere to roost.

 

Here is an entry point bats were using at the joint where the Viga meets the wall in a Santé Fe style home (Note the flashlight.  Peering deep into the entrance, I could see a family of bats roosting.)

 

Here is a single bat in a business that found its way into the business overnight and the employees found it the next morning.

 

Here is a close up of that bat (Medium sized) in a transfer container

 

A Mexican Free Tailed bat (extremely small-can fit into very small cracks) Picture enlarged

 

If you encounter a bat in your home, business, see a bat on the ground in the daytime; please remember it is best not to touch it!  Since bats do carry diseases, primary among them being rabies, make sure you get your pets vaccinated regularly and, for goodness sake, keep any children or others from touching or picking one up.  Rabies can be spread by saliva, not just from a bite.  Remember, many of the bats we have here in the summer have extremely small mouths and may not be able to actually open their mouth wide enough to bite a medium or larger animal, or even an adult finger.  However, if a child, person, or an animal finds a sick bat and handles or plays with it, the saliva can be transferred and cause serious problems.  In the case of a pet, particularly one that has not been vaccinated for rabies, the saliva from the pet’s mouth can mix with that of the bat and rabies can be transmitted even more easily. Rabies can be deadly to humans and animals, so bats are not to be taken lightly!

Please call 1^st Response Wildlife if you have bats that you find in your home or business, guano under eaves or overhanging roof tiles or Viga.

Thanks for considering 1st Response Wildlife 

Josh's Cell (24/7 Hours): 520-260-9517

Josh Waling is a humane Licensed Animal Trapper who catches and releases wildlife, removing animals including bobcats (lince), coyotes, snakes, rattlesnakes (serpiente de cascabel), raccoons (mapache), pack rats, gila monsters (monstruos de gila), rabbits (canejo), owls, bats, pigeons, hawks, ducks, squirrels (ardilla), peacocks, coatimundi (gato solo), skunks (mofeta), exotics, and domestic cats and dogs. He delivers service that is professional and fast and he is available 24/7.  Give him a call the next time you hear unusual noises in the attic or crawl spaces in your home or if you see wildlife eating your vegetation, creating nests, and raising their young too close to your pets or children or have an exotic sighting in your neighborhood. 520-260-9517 Thanks!