Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday Closed
Sunday Closed
By County: Marin and Southern Sonoma Counties
Finding evidence of pests or nuisance wildlife is alarming. Pests and animals disrupt your life, damage your home, and introduce health risks to you and your family.
Nuisance wildlife like raccoons, squirrels, rats, mice, opossums, bats, and birds are some of the most common household pests. Typical signs of pests and nuisance wildlife include unusual noises, strange odors, damage to the exterior of buildings, and paw prints or tracks.
For over forty years, we have been trusted to solve nuisance wildlife infestations, restore and repair their property, and protect their home from future infestations.
Critter Control is here for you every step of the way in the wildlife removal process. We were instrumental in defining the humane process to get rid of pests and wildlife. Over four decades, we have refined the process to safely and humanely remove wildlife from people’s property. We have the services you need to get rid of raccoons, squirrels, bats, rodents, and other pests effectively and efficiently.
Our inspections cover the entire house. Based on what you have seen, heard and smelled, we start the inspection where you have noticed signs of animal activity. The inspection process identifies the target pests, the size of the infestation, and animal entry points.
We develop a custom animal trapping and removal plan based on our whole home inspection. Humane wildlife strategies include animal traps, one-way doors, harassments techniques, pest repellents, and habitat modifications. Once we guarantee the animal is gone, we install exclusions for long-lasting pest control.
Exclusion techniques repair animal entry holes and strengthen potential ones. Exclusions provide immediate animal and pest control to your home.
Pests and nuisance wildlife damage your home. Inside your home, animals build nests and dens. They will create runs through the insulation and gnaw on electrical wires and pipes. Animals can also spread diseases. We apply sanitation agents to clean up feces and urine. Mammals can host pests like fleas, ticks, and mites. Ectoparasite treatments exterminate those pests so you don’t become their next host.
Raccoons are prevalent throughout Marin and Sonoma Counties. They are nocturnal masked bandits and they can cause significant damage to homes, offices, retail shops, restaurants, and other buildings. Their goal is to enter your home or building and create a safe place to sleep and have their offspring.
Raccoon maternity season is February to March so residents are most likely to notice raccoons in their attic from March to October.
They break vents, fencing, and screens that lead to the interior of your home. Once inside, they can destroy ductwork, rip insulation, scratch, and shred drywall and wood. They also leave large amounts of feces and urine that can stain the floors and walls.
Raccoons dig up your yard looking for insects, raid your garden, tip over trash cans and root through your garbage, and steal pet food that is not stored correctly. Here’s how we can help.
During the inspection, we determine the severity of the raccoon infestation. We look for physical evidence like footprints in or around the home, stains from raccoon feces and urine. On the exterior of the house, we look for damage like scratches on boards, broken vents and screens, ripped apart shingles, destroyed soffits, and every possible entry point.
Live trapping is one of the most efficient ways to get rid of a raccoon. Depending on the situation, a one-way door or excluder valve can be installed. An excluder valve works by allowing the raccoon to leave but blocks its reentry. The choice of device is largely dependent on the season and location of the raccoons on your property. Direct capture is not commonly used because raccoons are a rabies vector species. If we must trap, we place traps strategically to safely catch the raccoons and we check traps frequently, based on state laws.
We provide a wide range of repair and restoration services. We can repair raccoon damage like broken screens on vents and chimneys and broken boards on decks and porches. It is essential to apply cleaning agents and ectoparasite treatments on areas inhabited by raccoons.
Opossums are more of a nuisance than a real danger. They are very common in urban and suburban settings and will eat practically anything. Opossums will use attics, crawlspaces and the areas under sheds and porches as dens. We can install barriers to keep these North American marsupials out of your home and from under the foundations of your sheds, decks and patios. Please contact us to find out how.
Opossums can be found inside attics and basements or outside under decks and sheds. Common signs include unique paw prints and feces. Opossums are docile and usually easy to spot.
Opossums can be lured into cages for live capture. If it is maternity season, we follow all guidelines for removing mother and newborn opossums. We will seal entryways into the building to prevent opossums from reentering in the future. Opossums can be kept from getting under sheds and decks by installing fencing around the bottom edges and burying the fence underground.
Broken screens on chimney and roof vents are replaced with sturdier materials, and we properly seal all entry points, including crawlspaces. We clean and deodorize areas of opossum activity. Exclusion may include eliminating sources that attract bugs, like nighttime lighting, stagnant water, and livestock poop.
Various species of squirrel can be seen daily in our area: the Eastern gray squirrel, Eastern fox squirrel, Douglas squirrel, and the Western gray squirrel, which are the only native squirrels. Even squirrels like the west coast better.
Squirrels can do a lot of damage to your yard and home. Squirrels stay busy collecting items to build their nest or to store for the winter months. The problem is that too often, they are using your home as a nesting and storage site.
In their hoarding activities, squirrels break vents and screens climbing in and out of your chimney or attic. They tear shingles, dent gutters and spouting, raid your garden, gnaw on cables, strip bark from trees, and dig holes. Inside your home, they gnaw on wood, wires and use insulation for nests. They also leave feces and urine wherever they travel. We can get rid of your squirrel problem.
Wildlife specialists look for signs such as chewing on, in, or around your home, small openings leading to the attic or the crawl space, droppings, and debris like nuts or nesting material. Beams, wires, pipes, and insulation may all show signs of damage from squirrels.
Live trapping or one-way doors are the most effective and humane ways to get rid of squirrels. One-way doors should never be used during birthing seasons (Spring & Fall), so our specialists will decide which is the best tool for the job. If we have to trap, we place traps strategically to safely catch the squirrels and check those according to state laws.
We can restore your home or office by squirrel proofing all entry points after we have removed the offenders. We can also clean-up the nesting sites and remove any debris, food, feces and soiled insulation.
With nearly 50 species of snakes throughout California, including 6 rattlesnake species, you’re likely to encounter one on your property. All snakes will bite when they feel threatened. While you may not be envenomated, you can still be infected with bacteria. It is much wiser to leave a snake alone until we can get there to help.
Snakes found on your property are likely seeking food or water. They are attracted to rodents, frogs, spiders, insects and eggs. Snakes cause fear in many people until they know it is gone. That’s where we can help.
Snakes are excellent at avoiding detection. We inspect your home for potential entry points and look for signs like snake skin and feces. Because a snake typically enters a home hunting for food, our wildlife inspector also looks for signs of a rodent infestation.
We have a humane and safe way to trap and handle snakes. We relocate the snakes back into the wild.
In addition to dealing with any possible rodent problem drawing snakes to your property, a specialist will assist with sealing possible entry points and also encourage you to remove any debris where snakes can easily take up residence.
With 25 species of bats in California, there are plenty of places you can go to watch them. Sometimes you can walk outside at night, and there they are, flying around pole lights, consuming insects. They eat thousands of insects every night, which is why they are an essential factor in our ecosystem.
You might not notice bats living in your attic, barn or outbuildings if it weren’t for two major flaws: their loud noises and their guano. One bat is not that noisy, but it will become a nuisance if you have a colony on your property. Bat guano, or feces, is heavy and smells awful. Bats allow guano to run down their bodies as they roost upside down. Because guano can grow mold spores, it can be harmful to humans if inhaled.
Touching a bat puts you in direct contact with guano since their fur is covered in it. Instead of trying to remove a bat yourself and putting yourself at risk, call our experts.
We perform a full interior and exterior inspection and search for signs such as rub marks, guano, a strong scent of ammonia, and small openings. The most common sign is the accumulation of guano (feces).
The most effective and humane way to remove bats is by utilizing a bat valve in conjunction with a full home exclusion. A bat valve allows for bats to exit your home but not re-enter. We follow all local ordinances for humane bat removal. We will never abandon flightless pups in your attic.
After removing the bat valves, we seal the entrance hole(s) so bats can no longer enter your home. If there is substantial guano in your attic, you should consider taking advantage of our attic remediation services to remove the soiled insulation and replace it with a new layer of fresh insulation, which also can increase the R-value of your attic insulation.
We most commonly experience issues with bats, birds, racoons, squirrels, opossums and snakes.
Depending on the season, different wildlife become a nuisance. We experience far more issue with offspring in the spring months than the summer or fall months.
Signs of nuisance wildlife may be scratching, tracks, droppings, bite marks, rub marks, nests, and tracks. If you see signs of wildlife, call immediately before more damage occurs.
To prioritize your safety and to prevent extended damage to your home, we recommend you call Critter Control immediately to come inspect your home. Our long term animal control solutions include trapping, excluding, removing and repairs.
Call immediately if you hear, see any animals or signs of animals on your property. Getting rid of the variety of animals you may encounter is not an easy task, there are different rules and regulations for each animal. To avoid problems, allow our experts to help.
This franchise is independently licensed and operated by Nicole Coachingg LLC, dba Critter Control of Novato.
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