animals
Critters in Your Garden
Los Altos Main Library, 13 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, 94022
Questions about controlling gophers, moles, squirrels and other critters in your garden? Master Gardeners Gil Patrick and Bonnie Wagner will discuss these and any other animals pests that you have questions about.
Rats & Mice
Last updated: Feb-2004
Including:
- Roof Rats (alias: Black Rat, Tree Rat)
- Norwegian Rats (alias: Sewer Rat, Brown Rat, Wharf Rat)
- Mice
What You Can Do
- Thin or remove possible shelter, such as ivy
- Re-landscape using ground covers that do not encourage rats or mice
- Keep premises clean - no pet food, bird seed, dropped fruits or nuts, trash
- Stack firewood off the ground and away from the house
- Close all access points into the house (rodents have the ability to squeeze through small holes!)
- Traps
- Poisons
What Doesn’t Work
- Although electronic, sound, magnetic, or vibration devices are perfectly legal, they are not effective methods of control.
Resources
- The House Mouse: Prevention and Control, Illinois Department of Public Health
- Rodents, Santa Clara County Vector Control
Opossums
Last updated: Feb-2004
Opossums are nocturnal scavengers and eat anything, rarely causing damage. They are beneficial to us by eating mice, snail, slugs and insects.
What You Can Do
- Discourage access to rooftops by removing overhanging branches and topping all bushes at least 18 inches below the roofline.
- Install a spark arrester on chimneys to prevent access into house.
- Secure all pet doors at night.
- Remove all pet food at night.
- Repair all vent screens at the base of the house with _ inch hardware cloth.
- Store garbage in metal or tough plastic garbage cans with tight fitting lids.
- Remove all trash piles.
- Electric fence.
What You Can’t Do
- State Law prohibits poisoning.
- If none of the above measures solves the problem satisfactorily, contact the Vector Control District for further assistance.
Resources
Pigs
Last updated: Feb-2004
Wild pigs have become so numerous and destructive to natural resources, agricultural crops, and private property, that hunting regulations have been relaxed in recent years.
Raccoons
Updated: Feb-2004
What You Can Do
“Make your yard inhospitable to raccoons”
- Remove all pet food, accumulated trash, and overhanging vegetation.
- Top bushes at least 24 inches below the roofline.
- Repair any damaged vent screens using half-inch hardware cloth.
- Install spark arresters on chimneys.
- Secure pet doors at night.
- Store garbage in metal or tough plastic cans with tight fitting lids.
- Close off all open areas leading under decks using half-inch hardware cloth, which covers the open areas & extends 1 foot below soil level and 1 foot outward.
- Throw rocks to scare them away.
- Electric fence.
- Use beneficial nematodes in the spring to kill grubs in lawn areas.
What You Can’t Do
- State law prohibits poisoning raccoons.
- If an animal is causing depredation or poses a health risk, call Vector Control District to evaluate the problem. 408-792-5010 or 1-800-675-1155
- Law prohibits trapping and relocating ANY wild animal without approval from California Fish & Game. 831-479-9389 or 831-649-2870.
Resources
- UC Pest Note on Raccoons
- Raccoons: The Humane Society
- UC Pest Note: TurfGrass Masked Chafers (White Grubs) Digging by vertebrate predators, such as crows, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes, is a common indication of high grub populations
Snakes
Last updated: Jan-2004
Most of the 33 species of snakes in California are harmless and very useful in keeping the rodent population under control. However, there are six species of rattlesnakes in the state and they are poisonous. Therefore, it is wise to be careful when outdoors and watch where one is walking or placing one’s hands and where one sits. Leave snakes alone.
Poisonous snakes have triangular shaped heads and elliptical eyes. Nonpoisonous snakes have rounded heads and round eyes. Poisonous snake bites show two puncture holes made by fangs. Nonpoisonous snake bites look like upside down horseshoes.
Rattlesnakes do not always rattle. In fact baby rattlers can’t rattle until their first molt but can bite and are poisonous.
What One Can Do
- If bitten, remain calm and quiet. Immobilize the bitten area. Draw on puncture mark with syringe or rubber suction kit from snake bit kit. Seek medical attention immediately.
What One Should Never Do
- Cut on bite site. Never suck bite with mouth.. Never apply a tourniquet (it could result in amputation).
Resources
Ground Squirrels
By Sandra Todd
Ground Squirrels are classified as non-game mammals by the California Fish and Game Code. As such, they may be controlled in any legal manner. However, their range overlaps in some areas with other animals classified as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, such as the Mohave ground squirrel, the San Joaquin antelope squirrel, kit fox, kangaroo rats, the riparian brush rabbit, the riparian wood rat, as well as some endangered amphibians and reptiles. These animals are protected. As their existence could be impacted by some squirrel control techniques, it is important to contact your county agricultural commissioner for additional information before using such methods as fumigation and baiting.
Voles
By: Sandra Todd
Last updated: Jan-2004
Voles are small, mouse-like rodents similar in appearance and diet to gophers. However, voles additionally gnaw the bark of tree trunks from a few inches above ground to a few inches below ground. If they girdle the tree, it will die.
Voles do not invade homes, and should not be confused with the house mouse.
What You Can Do
Voles are classified as nongame mammals by the California Fish and Game Code. They may be controlled at any time and in any legal manner.
Moles
Last updated: Feb-2004
Moles are 6”-12” insectivores that feed on grubs, millipedes, ants and earthworms. They do not hibernate and have a high metabolic rate so require lots of food. Their main foods are grubs and earthworms. Signs of mole infestation are mounded soil and heaved runways which are most visible in fall and spring. They do not eat roots or bulbs but their tunneling disfigures lawn and gardens.
What You Can Do
- Trapping is the most effective method of control.
- Less effective methods include baiting, gassing and repellents.
Biology / Identification
Moles have velvety blue-black to gray mohair-like fur, a slender snout, needle like teeth, with flattened feet ,claws and inconspicuous ears. They can grow from 6'-12" long depending on species. Moles may be distinguished from meadow voles, gophers, and shrews by their naked, pointed nose that extends well in front of the mouth. Small eyes and ears are concealed by fur. Their spade like forefeet are wider than they are long. Discharged mounded soil and heaved runways are indicators of this pest's presence. The Eastern mole is the most common mole found in the eastern US, the most troublesome species on the coast of Oregon and Washington is the Townsend's mole , the Broad-footed mole can be found in California.
The Eastern can be found from the Atlantic to the foothills of the Rockies and from Southern Canada to the panhandle of Florida. All moles can be damaging but the Eastern mole is by far the most widespread. It is better described as the common or grey mole. It is the strongest of the group and is most often associated with tunnels and or mole mounds by residential homeowners. Moles are not rodents, but belong to a group of mammals called insectivores. Moles have a very high metabolic rate and, therefore, have to consume large amounts of food.
