Chickarees (aka Douglas tree squirrels) took advantage of a rarely occupied home in the Strawberry California (Tuolumne County) area to store their pine cones. The house has a pier foundation, meaning there was no perimeter foundation wall. The chickarees easily burrowed under the siding, gaining entrance to the subarea.

From there, they followed the plumbing, unrestrained, to the where the washing machine’s water exit passed, and had an unblocked entrance to the house.

The chickarees stored pine cones throughout various locations within the multiple story house.

Photos by Jason Mink, 9 October 2018.

1. cone remnants on pillow. Chickarees at work.

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17. Chickarees dug under here!

18. Chickarees dug under the foundation to get under the house.

19. Roof damage, but we are not sure if this is eather related or squirrel damage.

Trevor Cuthill killed nine roof rats under one house in Mokelumne Hill in one night.   He used six packs of Contrac, and sealed exits with steel wool. 30 August 2018.

Trevor Cuthill killed 9 rats in one night. 30 August 2018.

Video by Jason Mink, 6 August 2018, Arnold California.

These are Pallid bats. Thanks to “Corky” Quirk of Norcalbats.org.

And below is another video showing a pallid bat in an attic.

Jason Mink took this photo of an overflowing bathouse. 3 August 2018.

The subarea of a vacation cabin in the Twain Harte area was invaded by skunks. The cabin had a shallow foundation wall, and the skunks were able to dig under it. A low-to-the-ground deck gave an additional area for them to dig to gain access to the subara. The skunks tore up the insulation under the house, and made numerous tunnels and burrows. We did exclusion work, and Service Master did clean up. May 2018.

We received a call from a customer in Columbia Sky Mobile Park, who had a skunk under his house. But he had already called the county trapper, who came out, and trapped the skunk. When the customer called the trapper to retrieve the skunk, the trapper said it would be a couple of weeks before he could make it back. So the customer called us. Jason Mink released the skunk, per regulations. His reward? The skunk sprayed. 25 May 2018.

We tested a GoodNature A24 rat trap against roof rats. The rats were living in blackberries. To avoid possible injury to wildlife from the use of rat snap traps, and to not use of poison bait, as there are fox in the area that regularly visit the site, we used this CO2 powered rat killing machine. The attractant the manufacturer included is a sort of chocolate-peanut butter smelling mix.

Notice we placed a video camera to observe the rats’ interaction at the unit.

There were actually quite a few rats, we discovered, including at least foraging baby rats. Although we killed two in one night (night #4), after again dabbing some of the attractant along the base, the side of the vertical board, and inside the kill chamber, the rats did not show as great an interest as we’d hoped.

We are still experimenting with attractants.   May 2018, Columbia California.

Apparent cannibalism of a dead rat at the A24 site

Jason Mink took these photos of what he said was a red-breasted nuthatch using a woodpecker hole for a nest.

Note the sticky pitch used to deter other animals from the entrance.

4 May 2018

Jason Mink, vertebrate exclusion specialist at Foothill-Sierra Pest Control had to remove a bat from inside a house. He videoed the bat as he took it down from where it was roosting. The bat appears to be making sounds to deter the action. The bat has its mouth wide open, not to bite, but to make these sounds you hear.
11 April 2018. Burson California.

Jason says the bat was in between a window and the screen on the second floor. “The customer thinks it was in the room and tried to get out the open window and they closed the window on it. I got him out by slowly coaxing him on to my hand and then took him outside.”

Thanks to Corky Quirk of Norcalbats for the ID. She says Mexican free-tails are an extremely common species and very vocal.

This mouse bait station, placed in a shed, was chewed up, badly, by roof rats. This is thick plastic. You can see the teeth marks, clearly. on the edges.Jamestown  California, 11 April 2018. Technician Jason Price brought this back for us.