I wouldn’t mind to have the opportunity to monitor our skunks a bit more. After doing some research I learned that skunks are intelligent and usually good natured which is something that validated our experience with them. Our neighbours primary concern is that their smell. Also, it was the issue of rabies. A lot of skunks, more so than raccoons, can carry rabies. In that sense I agreed to have them removed from our area.

Skunks are primarily nocturnal animals, preferring to hunt at night for grubs, insects, small rodents, carrion, fruit, berries and other food items. In urban areas, they can feed on pet food, garbage, fruit that has fallen from trees, and garden vegetables. After we had our garden protected it wasn’t that much of my concern if they would get into it again.

I wasn’t sure if they lived near by or they traveled from further away and just learned that there was food in our back yard. I know that skunks are burrowing animals that choose to make their dens under porches, decks, sheds, in wood or rock piles and are capable of digging a den a foot underground. While I didn’t find any such burrow in our backyard I didn’t really search in the ravine so I am not 100% sure about where they stayed.

Skunks are well-known for the way they defend themselves and our neighbours dog found out first hand. Skunks have a special gland in their butts that sprays a foul-smelling liquid. Since our neighbours dog got sprayed there wasn’t much we can do to convince them not to call wildlife control Toronto officers to remove them.

Oh well, maybe next year we will see some skunks again.

The reason why we seriously considered getting an animal control Toronto technician visit our property and trap the squirrels is because they started damaging our garden and tried to make their way into  our attic.

While squirrels are definitely cute, no one can contest that, they can slowly dominate or even destroy our bird feeders. Every time we placed seeds in the feeder squirrels made their way to have an easy lunch. This defeated the purpose of having a feeder as all the birds were scared away.

In the spring and summer months my wife also cares for our garden. We plant several different types of flowers, and as many Toronto residents too we plant a small tomato and lettuce garden for fresh salad. Well as you can imagine the cute squirrels wreaked havoc on our garden, flowers, shrubs in their search for food. While squirrels can become a nuisance around bird feeders, frightening birds and scattering seeds they damaged our garden too.

We solved the garden problem by building a little fence. The bird feeder issue was dealt with by limiting the feedings with less food and on certain times. We also made an effort to keep the feeder clean to deter any animals.

We decided not to have our squirrels captured and removed with traps by an animal control Toronto technician. Even though we were told that the trapping wont harm the animals we decided to adjust our backyard setup instead.

I did some research on raccoons and I was amazed by how adaptable and capable these creatures are. They are considered to be a generalist species and can be found nearly wherever food, water, and shelter are available. Including of course my backyard. Even though historically raccoons are known to live in wooded river bottoms and they have easily made their way to more populated areas.

I discovered through research that the raccoon was widely known for its habit of “washing” food in water. In fact, I had no idea, until I took some time every Sunday to follow the raccoon family to the river in our lot. Since the raccoon is a nocturnal animal I had to do some night crawling myself which was very exciting. I managed to do so during the summer nights when the temperature is higher and they are most active.

I was also amazed by how comfortable these animals are during the night. It is one thing to read that raccoons are nocturnal and another to actually see with my own eyes how easy it is for them to move around in complete darkness. Apparently, the raccoon’s eyes are rich in light sensitive rods which generate visual perception in the low light conditions of the night but with limited acuity or color perception.

If you too have raccoons visiting your property, you might want to make yourself aware of the fact that raccoons can carry parasites and rabies. It is best to always keep your distance and if you have very young children you might want to consider consulting an animal controlToronto expert.