Get Ready to Reclaim Your Shed When Spring Arrives

Ask anyone who lives in an area where wildlife is abundant, or even only semi-abundant, and they will usually have a story or two about wildlife invasions. The red squirrels that destroyed the attic or the stinky skunk who took up residence beneath the old foundation, and so on. While these stories can bring a chuckle or help people to feel less upset by the damages done, they also point out the need for professional wildlife removal services during the winter and spring seasons.

In fact, if you have a shed in the garden or yard, and it has been left untouched for most of the winter, it is likely that you will have at least a few mice who have decided to accept your unspoken offer of a cozy winter shelter. While mice are not extremely challenging to eliminate one by one, if there is a solid invasion at hand, it takes experts.

The list of “new tenants” who might need to be evicted from your shed as the winter season ends includes bats, birds, raccoons, squirrels, rats, opossums, skunks and mice. Each requires a different tactic, and you may need to be aware of hazards that can range from ill animals taking shelter to animals with nests or offspring (which can make adults particularly aggressive). And while animals change coats for the winter and can look softer and fuzzier (especially if living inside and sheltered), they are quite cranky and dangerous at the end of the winter months.

Getting Started

As a reminder, if you are among the many who have no reason to putter around the garden shed during the winter months, it is never wise to just bustle inside without taking a few precautionary measures. They include:

• Wait until you can do a full perimeter walk around the shed to look for signs of burrowing beneath or around the foundation
• Look at the roof and rafters outside of the structure to see if there are signs of nests or droppings on the walls from birds or bats
• Opening the door gently and leaving it propped open for a few hours before you actually step inside as this will give an animal a chance to get out, and maybe even take their young with them (if there are any inside) It may take a day or two of this to eliminate the pest, but they may also refuse to budge
• Don’t just waltz in and stomp around. Walk gently to the door and take a good look around – look from top to bottom and in every corner. Sniff the air, and if there is a definite animal smell, use caution

If an animal is inside, don’t attempt to swat or sweep it out of the space. Instead, get in touch with experts who can safely remove the animals and keep your shed from further harm.

Getting Help ASAP

If your shed has been invaded by one or more varieties of local wildlife over the winter, contact SWAT Wildlife for animal removal and prevention services in Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, Oakville, Markham, Thornhill, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa.