Does your garden look like Andy Dufresne has been tunneling through, escaping a backyard Shawshank State Prison? Does it look like a new stage of Boston’s Big Dig has opened around your deck?
It’s time to accept you’ve got busy neighbors who may not know the rules of human society, but don’t mean harm to you or your property. Knowing their potential for harm makes all the difference to your physical safety and protecting your home.
“If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.”
Thomas Tripp is the General Manager of Modern Pest’s Portland branch. He’s seen everything there is to see under the porch, and he shared his thoughts on what to worry about and when.
“If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone,” is Tripp’s wildlife mantra that he lives by most of the time. In an urban environment, most animals are searching for the resources they lost when forests and wetlands were removed. Their mere presence does not mean damage is imminent.
For example, squirrels and chipmunks are seasonal residents and are burying nuts and seeds for later retrieval. Voles, however, are guilty of burrowing into garden beds to eat bulbs and root vegetables. Groundhogs will dig softball-sized holes and in severe circumstances, can shift your home’s foundation. Raccoons can also cause structural damage and carry rabies.
“Finding these animals, or moles and other burrowing animals in a residential setting is a relatively simple process,” he said. “Our wildlife technicians will look around and set a humane trap above or near the hole.” Tripp added that what most people don’t know about hiring a professional critter removal service is that Modern Pest is licensed by Maine’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department and obligated to check on the traps personally, so the animals don’t suffer.
But what about the bats?
More than eight species of bats live in Maine, from the common big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) to the less common silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) or red bat (Laiurus borealis). These bats gobble up insects, providing an overall benefit to our ecosystem, so if we hear them thumping around the attic, we must get them out for our health and for nature’s sake.
What Modern Pest does to remove bats is called “exclusion.” They install a one-way valve that allows the bats to leave when hunting for food but not to re-enter. All other entry points as small as a quarter of an inch, like loose screens, uncapped vents, cracks in the walls or foundations, will be sealed.

Bat guano looks similar to rat droppings. When it dries out, guano can be uniquely dangerous to the respiratory system. Shutterstock
Tripp said that Modern Pest technicians always wear Hazmat suits even when dealing bat cleanup and removal. That’s because while bats are potential carriers of rabies, the more likely danger they pose is from their fecal matter, which is called guano.
If bats have set up a home in your attic and are not just trapped and scared for a day, guano accumulates, then dries out. When dried guano is disturbed, it releases microscopic spores we could inhale, which then could lead to a respiratory disease called histoplasmosis. Guano can also carry ring worms, which can be harmful to humans and deadly to pets.
Ultimately, all critters are best off in their natural habitats. Pest removal experts like Thomas Tripp seem to focus first on how to protect a frightened animal and return them to where they want to be. As you create safety in your own home habitat, a partner like Modern Pest can do the job with balance and care.

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