With summer finally in full effect again, Mississauga residents are back to enjoying all of the goodness that summer brings such as fresh produce from their gardens and delicious BBQ’s with family and friends. At the same time, wildlife pests in Mississauga are once again lurking, coming into our neighborhoods in search of easy access to food and safe places to call home.
With such an abundance of nature in Mississauga, there are a wide variety of wildlife species in the city. While most of them do stay in the wild, there is still a large number of them that eventually come into our neighborhoods, sometimes by accident, but for the most part, in search of food and shelter.
Although these wildlife species are a beautiful part of the natural environment, they can also pose threats to humans, both physically and financially. As a result we should try to avoid attracting them to our neighborhoods and let them live freely in the wild where they belong. If they do invade your property, we highly recommend hiring a pest control company like Pestend Pest Control Mississauga to ensure the animals are removed safely and within the law.
Below we will talk about the most common wildlife pests in Mississauga and give tips on some things you can do to reduce the chance of having an invasion on your property.
Raccoons
We’ve all seen them roaming our neighborhood streets at some point in our life, especially around garbage day. Raccoons are incredibly smart creatures with a great sense of smell which can guide them to some easy food sources such as BBQ left overs, fresh produce in our gardens and green bin contents.
Once they find these easy food sources, they will try to find a dwelling nearby so they can always be near it. Often times this means they will invade parts of your property that are both sheltered and easily accessible such as your attic, garage or under your porch.
Here are some tips to deter raccoons from coming onto your property and moving in:
- Minimize attractive scents – several things you can do are seal your garbage and compost bins with locking lids, spray diluted hot sauce on your garden and clean up BBQ scraps immediately.
- Eliminate potential dwellings – make it difficult for raccoons to move onto your property by sealing any entrances to your garage or shed, making it impossible for them to climb to your roof and putting a barrier around the bottom of your porch.
Skunks
Although not as prevalent as raccoons, skunks are also a wildlife pest often found in Mississauga neighborhoods. They too are attracted to easy food sources such as green bin and BBQ scraps or fresh produce from your garden.
Like raccoons, skunks will also look for places that they can raise their young near these easy food sources but will also try to find a place with minimal noise. They are not good climbers like raccoons, but are great diggers, therefore they tend to look for areas that they can access by burrowing their way under it such as under decks, sheds and above ground pools. If a skunk does move in, you will no rather quickly due to their horrible smell.
Here are some tips for deterring skunks from coming onto your property and moving in:
- Eliminate food sources – just like with raccoons, keep your compost and garbage bins tightly sealed and inside a garage until garbage day and spray your garden with diluted hot sauce to eliminate attractive scents.
- Make potential dwellings inaccessible – since they burrow to get under protective objects, dig a 1 ft trench around any potential dwelling and place an L-shaped mesh wire in the trench. Cover this mesh up with soil so when they try to dig they will not be able to pass the barrier.
Squirrels
These are definitely the least threatening of wildlife pests in Mississauga neighborhoods but also the most abundant. Squirrels main food staple is nuts and seeds so they are primarily attracted to residential properties that have bird feeders which they can easily climb up to steal some seeds.
Like other pests, squirrels will look for a safe place to live near their food source and away from predators. Since they are incredible climbers, their ideal living space in homes is in the attic which they can gain access to through vents, loose shingles and any other hole as small as a golf ball.
Here are some tips for keeping squirrels away from your property and home:
- Protect attractive foods – if you have a bird feeder on your property, place a sheet 1 ft high metal barrier around the base of the object that it is hanging from so that they can’t climb up to access it, or remove the bird feeder all together.
- Seal dwelling access points – check your roof and eaves trough for any small holes that squirrels may be able to squeeze through. Also place galvanized steel mesh behind your vents so they cant get through. Make sure there aren’t any squirrels already living in your attic before doing this or you will trap them inside.
Sources:
City of Mississauga Website – City Wildlife – Squirrels
City of Mississauga Website – City Wildlife – Skunks
