How to Know When You Need Live Traps

If you are noticing a disturbance in your yard or garden, you might be wondering what has invaded your property. There can be many reasons why your vegetation might be damaged or your trash may be disturbed, and it can sometimes be hard to determine if it is caused by insect pests, environmental factors, or pest animals. But there are signs that will help you confirm if you are dealing with a wild animal on your property.

There are many ways to control wild animals, and all are safe options if done correctly. Live traps in particular are safe, effective, and reusable. You can use different kinds of bait for a variety of wild animals and place it where activity is at its highest. 

If you are considering using a live trap to control the pest animals on your property, read our DIY guide for signs of wild animals.

What to Look For

If you suspect that you are dealing with a wild animal on your property, it is important to remain vigilent and keep an eye out for any of these signs. 

Noise and Activity

Take note of when you are noticing the most activity from the wild animal. When you check your garden in the morning, do you find your produce eaten or destroyed? You most likely are dealing with a nocturnal animal. Most common pest animals such as raccoons, skunks, and opossums are nocturnal, meaning they are most active at night. Other animals such as squirrels are most active during the day.

Raccoons, opossums, and other larger animals can be aggressive foragers. So if you are noticing your trash cans tipped over or trash strewn around the cans, then itis likely activity from one of these pest animals. You can also check the contents of your trash to see if anything is missing. If you remember throwing out last night's chicken and it's gone the next morning, that is a dead giveaway that an animal rummaged through your garbage.

Droppings

If a wild animal is on your property long enough, they're most likely leaving droppings behind. It may be unpleasant, but do your best to observe and note the size, shape, and arrangement of the droppings. This can help you not only confirm animal activity, but will help you with identifying which pest animal you are dealing with.

Large, clumped piles of droppings similar to dog droppings are likely from a raccoon or opossum, even potentially a stray dog. You will typically know you have something like raccoon droppings over a dog's if you can spot undigested food, like berries or nuts. Small droppings, typically the size of large rice and that are scattered around the area, could be from a squirrel, chipmunk or similar rodent. Piles of circular or pellet-like dropping may indicate you have a rabbit visiting the property.

Tracks

With the right conditions, you might be able to spot tracks from wild animals. Keep an eye out for tracks when you are inspecting the property, especially after wet or rainy conditions. You may see the track's depression in the soil or muddy paw prints on patios, decks, or in garages.

Each wild animal has a different set of tracks. Tracks from deer hooves are split in two. Raccoons will leave tracks that look like human hands with five digits. A rabbit will have long, thin footprints.

Vegetation Damage

Pay attention to your plants, looking for chew marks or more obvious signs of damage, like ripped up grass or broken plant limbs and twigs. Chew marks are unique to the animal they belong to. If your garden has visible damage, take a closer look at the markings. If the tops of your plants, fruits, or vegetables are the only things missing, you are most likely dealing with a deer. When it comes to smaller pest animals such as rabbits, they will chew at a 45 degree angle or eat plants closer to the ground. 

Some pest animals like skunks will even destroy your turf grass in search of food. Skunks will dig for grubs, worms, or other insect pests and will destroy your yard to get to them. Even squirrels can cause damage to turf grasses and vegetable gardens. They will tear through grass looking for acorns and seeds. If left unchecked, you may see small spots of damage throughout the yard.

What's Next

Now that you know some signs to look for, you can use this to help you identify your pest animal. Correctly identifying which animal you have on your property will determine the type of bait you will place in your live trap, as well as where and when you will place the trap.

Using humane live animal traps is a safe and easy option to remove these pest animals from your property. Traps are offered in three different sizes to help you get control of any animal. but keep in mind, most humane live animal traps are intended for catching larger rodents and animals; they are typically less effective for rodent control. When inspecting your property, there is one more thing to consider:

Is it a Rat, or Something Else?

Smaller rodents such as rats and mice are common pests that can intrude inside and outside of the home. When temperatures drop, rodents are looking for ways to come inside, get warm, and look for food. Rats and mice are most active at night. If you hear shuffling and scurrying once it gets dark, these are most likely signs of rodent activity. Their droppings are less than an inch long and they will leave oil marks where they travel due to their oily skin.

If you believe you have a rodent issue, check out our DIY guide for instructions and product recommendations on how to repel rodents.

Key Takaways

There are several key things to look for to help you know when you need live animal traps:

• Noise and Activity: are there signs of animal activity, such as disturbed trash cans or bumps in the night?
• Droppings: are there unexplained animal droppings on your property?
• Animal Tracks: are there paw prints left behind in wet soil or on patios?
• Vegetation Damage: is your grass damaged or have ornamental and food-bearing plants been chewed on?

If you are seeing some or all of these signs, then you will know if it is time to use live animal traps to catch your pest animal.