Greetings Westchester Wildlife enthusiasts! The holidays are upon us again! It’s the perfect time of year to seal active animal entry points and clean out animal waste left behind in attics, basements, or crawl spaces before your company arrives.

Rat Prevention:

It is important to protect your property from rodents such as mice and rats. Rats can invade even the most well-maintained properties if they find easy entry access. Crawl spaces and decks are a common place for a population to live until damage and signs are noticed by homeowner.

Best Practices to Prevent Potential Problems:

Red Squirrels are the only squirrels that enter at the ground, not just the roofline compared to other squirrel species. They can be active both day and night, as opposed to other squirrel species that are active either during the morning only or at night only.

Mice Droppings and Health Awareness:

The most common problem that posed for humans is related to mice droppings. Mice have the tendency to leave droppings and urinate frequently. (Hantavirus) is a disease carried by rodents prevalent in their feces.

Feeding Habits:

A major food source for flying squirrels is mushroom fungi, or truffles of various species. They also eat lichens, mushrooms, all mast-crop nuts, tree sap, insects, carrion, bird eggs and nestlings, buds and flowers.

Mating Season:

The mating season begins late March and early April. It is common for the male to be driven off by their mate before their young are born since the female northern flying squirrel is territorial, whereas the male is not (Mammath and Mulheisen, 1996).

Behavior and Prevention

Rats are medium sized rodents (non-flying mammal) whose origins can be traced back nearly 56 million years ago. Rats are a diverse species but share a common feature: single paired jaw incisors and large jaw. They are active all year round and mate up to four times a year (average litter size of 8, peaking in summer and autumn).

The “house mouse” belongs to the rodent family. They commonly dwell in close distance to humans. These small, furry mammals adapt in a variety of environmental conditions and can be found seeking residence (especially in colder months) in homes, commercial structures, and open fields.

New York Snakes: Garter Snake

It could be a common belief amongst many people that snakes are a feared species. Of the 17 species known in New York State, these scaly, legless, carnivorous creatures have an esteemed purpose to our habitat.

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning. You wake up to something scratching and running around above your head in the ceiling. What can it be? Wait, it sounds like there could be more than one! What are they doing up there…bowling?