The noises started about 6 weeks after I moved in to my new house,” said Susan Malcolmson of Spring Hill. There was scrabbling in the walls and lots of thumping high up in the vaulted ceiling. Trouble was, she had no idea what kind of critter was up there.
“I was dreading it could be rats nesting,” she said.
So she called in Advanced Wildlife Services of Brooksville to investigate. The owner of Advanced Wildlife Services is Johnny Loose, 57, a pest control technician as they are called these days.
He has been waging battles against rodents and other nuisance wildlife for years now and is cheery, totally un-fazed by critters and very passionate about his job.
“It’s awesome when you get a new client with an infestation, like rats for example,” said Loose. “You lift up a piece of wood and they all come squealing out.”
Just as well, because in his line of work, he’s bound to see an awful lot of them.
Norway Rats, also known as the Brown Rat, the Black Rat, or the Roof Rat, are the most common in Florida. Some Floridians call them Fruit Rats.
“They can live on rotting garbage, contaminate our food with their fleas, urine and saliva and make us very sick,” said Loose. “And in just a short time, two rats can quickly become 1,000.”
“Their urine and feces are a problem too,” says Loose. “It gets everywhere and then it makes the house smell musty.”
The good news is that most infestations can be successfully eradicated with within the space of a week or two.
The first thing Loose does when visiting a new client is to carry out an inspection of the property, inside and out, searching for evidence of feces or avenues of entry for pests.
“I also look to see how close the trees are to the roof line,” he said. “If it’s close to the roof line, squirrels and rodents can leap straight on to the roof and help themselves to your attic.”
In this case, an inspection of the interior of the home showed no evidence of any type of critter making themselves comfortable.
The roof inspection, however, identified several spots where critters could gain access. Loose also found some fresh droppings — but it wasn’t rat poo. It was bat poo.
Although the homeowner was relieved to know she didn’t have rats, getting rid of the bats in her attic was a whole different kind of challenge.
Bats are protected in Florida and there are laws in place that make it illegal to willfully kill bats, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Evicting or excluding bats during the maternity season (April 16 to Aug. 14), or attempts to harm or harass bats with lights, sounds, or toxic substances is not allowed. Also, capturing and relocating bats is prohibited and totally ineffective because bats will return to the roost site even after being relocated.
Bats are beneficial to people and play an important role in our ecosystem. They help keep insect populations under control by eating hundreds of mosquitoes and night-flying insects each day. That’s not only good for our comfort outdoors but insect suppression is also vital for local agriculture.
“And bats are not like rodents that breed rapidly,” said Loose. Bats only have one baby a year so it’s important to keep the bat population healthy,” he said.
Bat evictions or exclusions can only be performed from Aug. 14 through April 16 which was lucky for the homeowner.
Having identified the lodgers in the attic as bats, Loose set to work to “exclude” the bats in the proper way.
After locating and sealing most of the gaps he could find, Loose left two gaps where he installed one-way exit devices. These devices allow bats to leave the property but not to re-enter.
“Now we wait about 4 or 5 days so the bats can leave in their own time,” said Loose. “Let’s hope we’ve found all the places where they’re getting in and out,” he said.
When Loose returned a week later, and the homeowner was no longer hearing noises upstairs, he made sure all potential entry points were sealed to prevent re-entry by the bats. He then removed the two exit devices and permanently sealed those gaps.
Bats are just one of the many wildlife creatures Loose deals with.
“Just recently, I caught a water monitor but I’ve been asked to deal with just about everything that’s living out there,” he said.
“Rats, bats, hogs, otters, skunks, snakes, coyotes and feral cats to name just a few.”
Loose said he enjoys trapping nuisance wildlife as his profession.
“It’s what I do for a living,” he said. “I’ve always been an avid outdoorsman and a jack-of-all trades handyman all my life, so this kind of work comes naturally to me.”
Loose takes all the usual precautionary measures when trapping wildlife. He wears protective gloves and sometimes a face mask when dealing with guano for example. Bat guano grows a type of fungus that can cause the lung disease histoplasmosis in humans
He is licensed and insured, sets live traps and always avoids using poison.
After years in this job, Loose has plenty of stories to tell.
“Always be on the look out for any tell-tale signs of infestation,” he said. “Noises, droppings, maybe a musty smell are the usual signs.”
“Once I’ve helped a client get rid of an infestation, I make sure their property will withstand any further attempts at re-entry by the offending critters,” said Loose.