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OUR SERVICE AREA INCLUDES: KINGSPORT, JOHNSON CITY, BRISTOL VA., BRISTOL TN., ABINGDON, ELIZABETHTON, ERWIN, MOUNT CARMEL, GREENEVILLE, AND BEYOND.

 SHOULD I ENTER A CONFINED SPACE TO REMOVE WILDLIFE?

Most people understand this intuitively that entering a confined space to remove wildlife is dangerous, but it I believe it is worth mentioning. It is extremely unsafe to go into confined spaces with wild animals. Encountering raccoons, skunks, etc. by accident in the back yard is one thing, but a meeting in an attic, crawlspace, or even in a room inside the living space is a whole different thing altogether. It is guaranteed that the animal will be frightened once it sees you, and it will be ready to run or to defend itself.

Moving through a confined space by definition means that mobility is limited. If things start to go bad, you will not be able to retreat quickly enough to save yourself. Mid-sized critters like raccoons can outrun the average person outside a confined space and they can certainly outmaneuver you if you are on your hands and knees. If an attack occurred, it would put you at their mercy. This would be especially true if you were forced to crawl or wiggle on your belly. The part of your body which you would naturally lead with would be your face and this would leave avery sensitive body parts directly exposed. In fact, if you are in a particularly tight spot, your arms may be pinned in a position where you couldn’t use them to easily free or defend yourself.

case studies

Just a few days ago I was in Johnson City not far off Paty Dr. I was checking out an attic. The customer had been hearing thumping noises in the attic. I climbed in to inspect things. The customer was curious and decided to follow me in. I looked up between the rafters in a long narrow boxlike opening above the ceiling of the adjoining room, and there was the back side of a raccoon. I knew that raccoons had been there, because there was plenty of feces, but I hadn’t planned to meet one face to face. I told the customer to please leave the area. The animal had no escape from the box it was in and I thought that there was a fair chance that it might feel threatened and might rush me.

I had something similar in a crawlspace in Johnson City. A customer suspected that they had opossums in their crawlspace. They had been hearing noises in the crawlspace. It sounded like metallic doinging as the opossum walked on top of the ductwork and the metal popped and moved with its weight. I went in to see what was happening. I was poking through the insulation over my head when I met the opossum pictured in the header of this web page. I ended up making several trips back and forth to Johnson City to finally clear up that problem. The bottom line, it doese’t matter if you live in Kingsport, Bristol, or Johnson City, the problem is the same crawling into a tight space with critters can leave you with surprises. You should be prepared to meet wildlife when you inspect areas infested with wildlife. Don’t go there if you aren’t.

Meeting Skunks in Your Crawlspace

Encountering skunks in a situation like this can be problematic for other reasons. Startling a skunk would obviously cause the skunk to discharge. If you are forced to crawl, you are likely to have spray discharged directly in your face. This will create vision problems and retreat more difficult. If a skunk is in the crawlspace, you may want to call us instead of handling the problem yourself. We, in most cases, can remove the skunk without a stink. Check out our page on removing skunks for more info.

Our extreme rat inspection video shows what you can run into in a crawlspace.

Wildlife Company technicians, when entering a confined space, depend, in part, on their knowledge of the particular species to gauge the likelihood of an attack. But, they also rely on their trapping skills to reliably clear the area of wildlife before entering the area. This is by far the safest way to handle this problem. Trapping, detection, and removal techniques have to be proven and dependable. If you would like more information on how we clear a confined space of wildlife, see our page on removing wildlife from inside homes or our YouTube video on trap set ups to remove wildlife. No wildlife control operator wants to go into a customer’s home and have things go badly! We have to have methods that we can count on!

Health Hazards - Wear a Respirator

Crawling through a confined space such as a crawlspace or attic also has other health hazards. There is almost always insulation and the dust created by this insulation should not be inhaled. Properly fitted respirators should be worn in these areas. Also, droppings and urine will also be present along with associated health risk from parasites and wildlife transmitted diseases. Traversing these areas without contacting these biohazards may be difficult due to mobility issues, especially if forced to crawl. There are a lot of hazards involved in removing wildlife from a confined space.

Calling the Wildlife Company in to help is not a bad idea.

OUR SERVICE AREA INCLUDES: KINGSPORT, JOHNSON CITY, BRISTOL VA., BRISTOL TN., ABINGDON, ELIZABETHTON, ERWIN, MOUNT CARMEL, GREENEVILLE, AND BEYOND. Call today to schedule!