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Common Pest & Wildlife Problems
The specific situations we get called about most across rural Northeast Wisconsin — with a straight answer and what it actually takes to fix each one.
Rodents
Mice in the Pole Barn: How to Get Them Out and Keep Them Out
Pole barns get mice because they're built for equipment, not a tight seal — gaps under doors, open ribbed-panel ends, an…
Mice in a Cabin Closed for Winter
A cabin left empty over winter is a mouse's dream: warm cavities, no people, and often stored food. They move in during …
Mice in the Kitchen and Walls
Droppings behind the toaster and scratching in the wall at night mean mice have found the warmest, best-fed room in the …
Rats in a Farm Outbuilding
Rats in a Wisconsin outbuilding are Norway rats — burrowing rodents drawn to steady feed, water, and cover. They're bigg…
Deer Mice and Hantavirus: Safe Cleanup in Rural Wisconsin
Deer mice are the primary hantavirus carrier, and the risk comes from breathing dust when dried droppings and nests are …
Wildlife
Bats in the Attic: What to Do in Wisconsin
Bats in a Wisconsin attic get removed by humane exclusion — one-way doors at the exits so bats leave to feed and can't r…
Bats in the Barn
Bats in a barn are usually a maternity colony roosting in the loft or peak, and they're doing you a favor eating insects…
Raccoon in the Chimney
A raccoon in the chimney is almost always a mother denning with kits in spring — a chimney reads as a hollow tree to her…
Squirrels in the Attic
Squirrels get into Northeast Wisconsin attics through soffit gaps, gable vents, and chewed fascia, usually to den and ra…
Skunk Under the Deck or Shed
Skunks den under Northeast Wisconsin decks, sheds, and porches — especially in late winter before kits are born in May. …
Moles Tearing Up the Lawn
Moles ridge and mound Northeast Wisconsin lawns while hunting earthworms and grubs — not your plants. Because they eat a…
Bat Guano Cleanup and Attic Decontamination
After bats are gone, an attic full of guano is a health and structural problem: droppings can harbor the histoplasmosis …
A Bird Has Nested in My Dryer Vent
Starlings and house sparrows nest in Northeast Wisconsin dryer, bath and stove vents every spring, and the packed nest b…
Something Runs in the Attic Right at Dusk
Attic noise that starts within minutes of sunset and runs all night is almost always flying squirrels, not gray squirrel…
A Woodpecker Is Drilling Holes in My Siding
A woodpecker working the same spot on cedar siding or fascia is usually telling you there are insect larvae in the wood …
Winding Trails All Over My Lawn After the Snow Melted
Shallow surface runways appearing across a Northeast Wisconsin lawn at snowmelt are voles, not moles — voles tunnel at g…
Something Killed My Whole Flock in One Night
Multiple birds killed in a single night, mostly uneaten, with no obvious way in, is a weasel or mink. They get through a…
Something Is Chewing My Deck Rails, Tool Handles and Truck Tires
Chewing that makes no sense as animal behavior — plywood, axe handles, deck rails, tires, brake lines — is a porcupine a…
Chipmunks Have Tunnelled Under My Patio and Retaining Wall
One chipmunk is charming. Six of them tunnelling under a stoop, patio or retaining wall is a structural problem — the bu…
Fall Invaders
Cluster Flies Swarming the Windows
Cluster flies gather at Northeast Wisconsin windows in fall and again on warm winter days because they overwinter in wal…
Boxelder Bugs Covering the Siding
Boxelder bugs stack by the hundreds on warm south and west siding in fall, basking before they slip into wall voids to o…
Asian Lady Beetles Getting Indoors
Asian lady beetles swarm warm Northeast Wisconsin walls in October, then push into wall voids to overwinter and reappear…
Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs Indoors
Brown marmorated stink bugs slip into Wisconsin homes in September and October to overwinter, then wake on warm days and…
Stinging Insects
Wasp Nest in the Soffit or Eaves
A steady stream of wasps flying in and out of one spot under your soffit or eave means a hidden nest inside the void. Ne…
Yellowjackets Nesting in the Ground
Yellowjackets often nest underground in old rodent burrows, betrayed by a steady stream of wasps flying in and out of a …
Bald-Faced Hornet Nest in a Tree or on the House
The big gray, football-shaped paper nest hanging in a tree or on your house is a bald-faced hornet colony — a large, agg…
Wasps or Yellowjackets in a Wall Void
Wasps flying in and out of a gap in the siding, and a faint buzzing behind the wall, mean a colony is nesting inside the…
Ants & Other
Carpenter Ants in the Deck or Porch
Big black ants swarming a deck or porch mean carpenter ants are tunneling moisture-softened wood — posts, joists, ledger…
Pantry Pests in the Cupboard
Little moths or tiny beetles and webbing in the flour mean pantry pests — usually Indianmeal moths or grain beetles — br…
Wood-Destroying
Moisture Pests
Tiny Jumping Bugs Around the Bathroom Floor
Clouds of tiny specks that vanish when you touch them, around a damp bathroom or basement floor, are almost always sprin…
Hundreds of Curled-Up Bugs on the Basement Floor
Dozens or hundreds of dark coiled arthropods appearing on a Northeast Wisconsin basement floor over a night or two in au…
Got a pest or wildlife problem? Talk to Brian.
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