This is the time that always makes you a little ancy, as well as your client. Time to make a new hole! I moved over a stud, scanned again and pierced the drywall. I popped a small hole in and there it was! A rat that was in the process of decaying. Fortunately for me and her, it had only been dead a day or so.

With the dead rat in the wall, there was only one thing to do and that was to remove it. It came out easily enough. I then buttoned up the wall. My client was about to go into hysterics by this time and asked me if I thought there were more. I told her that it was possible and asked her if she would mind if I took a look around the place. Without hesitation, she agreed and I inspected the house. It was a very neatly kept house and not the so

With woodpeckers being a protected bird, I had to go through the proper channels before we could do a control program.

I pulled up to the house and could see the bird in a trap. This trap was the end of the road for the woodpecker as there was no relocation for these guys. They are territorial and would be right back to the home again and continue damaging it.

I removed the bird, reset the trap and loaded the truck back up. I identified the bird and sexed it, documented the capture and what the disposition would be. We took all of our birds to a sanitary landfill and that met the legal requirements of disposal.

After the paperwork was done, I quickly checked my schedule to figure out where I needed to be next. As I was doing so, the phone rang. It was someone with a lost dog. I couldn’t help them with that, so I referred them over to the proper agency. Sometimes people think that a wildlife guy is the dog catcher, too!

I put the truck in gear and headed to the next job. This one was going to be fun. The owners heard something in a wall. It was scratching and they were concerned that it was going to come through the wall and eat them. Everything is going to eat them or jump on them or attack them. It was my job to assure them that this was not going to happen and make things right in their world.

It was another 20 minute ride down the road to the next stop and I arrived again ahead of schedule. I was never one to be late. My client’s time was just as valuable as mine and I held myself to that standard and called them if I was going to be late.

I came to the client’s home and looked it over from the outside. It seemed to be pretty tight fitting and nothing obvious.

I rang the bell and waited for someone to answer. It wasn’t long before the door swung open and the lady said, “I am so glad to see you! This thing is driving me crazy!”

It was not the first time that I had heard that response before. Sometimes people would be so frustrated by just trying to find you that they would be about ready to burst when you came in the door.

She invited me in and took me over to the place in the wall where the noise was coming from. I asked her when was the last time she had heard it and she replied “About 2 days ago”. “Two days, huh” I replied. Thinking out loud,” it has either gotten out of the wall void or has died.”

I retreated to my truck to gather my tools for what was going to be an interesting inspection. Carving holes in someone’s wall was always interesting! I brought all my stuff inside and rolled out a drop cloth, scanned the wall, pulled out my drywall saw and started to make a cut with the precision of a surgeon. I opened up a hole large enough to inspect what was inside (this was before we had the fancy scopes that we have today) and didn’t find anything!

This is the time that always makes you a little ancy, as well as your client. Time to make a new hole! I moved over a stud, scanned again and pierced the drywall. I popped a small hole in and there it was! A rat that was in the process of decaying. Fortunately for me and her, it had only been dead a day or so.

With the dead rat in the wall, there was only one thing to do and that was to remove it. It came out easily enough. I then buttoned up the wall. My client was about to go into hysterics by this time and asked me if I thought there were more. I told her that it was possible and asked her if she would mind if I took a look around the place. Without hesitation, she agreed and I inspected the house. It was a very neatly kept house and not the sor

After the paperwork was done, I quickly checked my schedule to figure out where I needed to be next. As I was doing so, the phone rang. It was someone with a lost dog. I couldn’t help them with that, so I referred them over to the proper agency. Sometimes people think that a wildlife guy is the dog catcher, too!

I put the truck in gear and headed to the next job. This one was going to be fun. The owners heard something in a wall. It was scratching and they were concerned that it was going to come through the wall and eat them. Everything is going to eat them or jump on them or attack them. It was my job to assure them that this was not going to happen and make things right in their world.

It was another 20 minute ride down the road to the next stop and I arrived again ahead of schedule. I was never one to be late. My client’s time was just as valuable as mine and I held myself to that standard and called them if I was going to be late.

I came to the client’s home and looked it over from the outside. It seemed to be pretty tight fitting and nothing obvious.

I rang the bell and waited for someone to answer. It wasn’t long before the door swung open and the lady said, “I am so glad to see you! This thing is driving me crazy!”

It was not the first time that I had heard that response before. Sometimes people would be so frustrated by just trying to find you that they would be about ready to burst when you came in the door.

She invited me in and took me over to the place in the wall where the noise was coming from. I asked her when was the last time she had heard it and she replied “About 2 days ago”. “Two days, huh” I replied. Thinking out loud,” it has either gotten out of the wall void or has died.”

I retreated to my truck to gather my tools for what was going to be an interesting inspection. Carving holes in someone’s wall was always interesting! I brought all my stuff inside and rolled out a drop cloth, scanned the wall, pulled out my drywall saw and started to make a cut with the precision of a surgeon. I opened up a hole large enough to inspect what was inside (this was before we had the fancy scopes that we have today) and didn’t find anything!

This is the time that always makes you a little ancy, as well as your client. Time to make a new hole! I moved over a stud, scanned again and pierced the drywall. I popped a small hole in and there it was! A rat that was in the process of decaying. Fortunately for me and her, it had only been dead a day or so.

With the dead rat in the wall, there was only one thing to do and that was to remove it. It came out easily enough. I then buttoned up the wall. My client was about to go into hysterics by this time and asked me if I thought there were more. I told her that it was possible and asked her if she would mind if I took a look around the place. Without hesitation, she agreed and I inspected the house. It was a very neatly kept house and not the so

It was another 20 minute ride down the road to the next stop and I arrived again ahead of schedule. I was never one to be late. My client’s time was just as valuable as mine and I held myself to that standard and called them if I was going to be late.

I came to the client’s home and looked it over from the outside. It seemed to be pretty tight fitting and nothing obvious.

I rang the bell and waited for someone to answer. It wasn’t long before the door swung open and the lady said, “I am so glad to see you! This thing is driving me crazy!”

It was not the first time that I had heard that response before. Sometimes people would be so frustrated by just trying to find you that they would be about ready to burst when you came in the door.

She invited me in and took me over to the place in the wall where the noise was coming from. I asked her when was the last time she had heard it and she replied “About 2 days ago”. “Two days, huh” I replied. Thinking out loud,” it has either gotten out of the wall void or has died.”

I retreated to my truck to gather my tools for what was going to be an interesting inspection. Carving holes in someone’s wall was always interesting! I brought all my stuff inside and rolled out a drop cloth, scanned the wall, pulled out my drywall saw and started to make a cut with the precision of a surgeon. I opened up a hole large enough to inspect what was inside (this was before we had the fancy scopes that we have today) and didn’t find anything!

This is the time that always makes you a little ancy, as well as your client. Time to make a new hole! I moved over a stud, scanned again and pierced the drywall. I popped a small hole in and there it was! A rat that was in the process of decaying. Fortunately for me and her, it had only been dead a day or so.

With the dead rat in the wall, there was only one thing to do and that was to remove it. It came out easily enough. I then buttoned up the wall. My client was about to go into hysterics by this time and asked me if I thought there were more. I told her that it was possible and asked her if she would mind if I took a look around the place. Without hesitation, she agreed and I inspected the house. It was a very neatly kept house and not the so

She invited me in and took me over to the place in the wall where the noise was coming from. I asked her when was the last time she had heard it and she replied “About 2 days ago”. “Two days, huh” I replied. Thinking out loud,” it has either gotten out of the wall void or has died.”

I retreated to my truck to gather my tools for what was going to be an interesting inspection. Carving holes in someone’s wall was always interesting! I brought all my stuff inside and rolled out a drop cloth, scanned the wall, pulled out my drywall saw and started to make a cut with the precision of a surgeon. I opened up a hole large enough to inspect what was inside (this was before we had the fancy scopes that we have today) and didn’t find anything!

This is the time that always makes you a little ancy, as well as your client. Time to make a new hole! I moved over a stud, scanned again and pierced the drywall. I popped a small hole in and there it was! A rat that was in the process of decaying. Fortunately for me and her, it had only been dead a day or so.

With the dead rat in the wall, there was only one thing to do and that was to remove it. It came out easily enough. I then buttoned up the wall. My client was about to go into hysterics by this time and asked me if I thought there were more. I told her that it was possible and asked her if she would mind if I took a look around the place. Without hesitation, she agreed and I inspected the house. It was a very neatly kept house and not the so

This is the time that always makes you a little ancy, as well as your client. Time to make a new hole! I moved over a stud, scanned again and pierced the drywall. I popped a small hole in and there it was! A rat that was in the process of decaying. Fortunately for me and her, it had only been dead a day or so.

With the dead rat in the wall, there was only one thing to do and that was to remove it. It came out easily enough. I then buttoned up the wall. My client was about to go into hysterics by this time and asked me if I thought there were more. I told her that it was possible and asked her if she would mind if I took a look around the place. Without hesitation, she agreed and I inspected the house. It was a very neatly kept house and not the sort of place that one would think a rat would live.

But these things happen to the best of homes. I didn’t find any further evidence of an infestation, but decided to leave a few traps around just in case. The news that it didn’t look like a major infestation was a relief to my client and she thanked me for my “heroic” efforts. I wasn’t really feeling like a hero, but what the heck, I could live with that compliment.

It was time to start wrapping things up and get onto the next job. I gathered all my tools together, did some paperwork and told the lady I would be back in a week to check the house again.

The sun seemed to be moving faster than I was today. I paused for a moment to reflect on my day. There was always a variety in my field of work and that variety consistently challenged me. There are never two situations that are exactly alike. It is always someone new that you are meeting and their problem is unique to them. How fortunate I felt to be living my life doing exactly what I wanted to do. To be taking an age old craft and applying it to the 20th century. I was on top of my world!

It was time to come down out of the clouds and get back on my schedule. I pulled out my planner to see what was next on the agenda. It looks like an appointment with some gophers was going to be next on the list. There were not a lot of gophers in the Denver area. Usually they would be found in sandy soil areas of the surrounding cities. This one happened to be at the Denver/Aurora line. When the area was being formed, sand must have been deposited in this area because there is not a lot of sand to be found in Denver.

As usual, I grabbed my map, took a quick glance and was on my way again. The weather was beautiful and the traffic was light. Within about fifteen minutes, I was pulling in the driveway of a nice two story home with a very well manicured lawn.

I grabbed some business cards and headed to the front door. I rang the bell and waited. And waited. No one answered. I went to the side yard and peered around to the back. There was a man in the backyard watering the lawn. I said “hello” from a distance as I didn’t want to startle him. I walked up and introduced myself and he said, “Man, am I glad to see you!” I looked around at his yard and said, “I bet you are!” His backyard was full of sand mounds and some of his shrubbery was dying.

He told me that the gophers moved in a couple months ago and he had finally had enough of them. I let him know that I would be ridding his property of these current intruders and he could rest assured of that!

I went to the truck and picked out some gopher traps, put them in my bucket along with my shovel, probe and gloves and made my way to the backyard again.

I pulled out the probe and started locating the tunnels in the sandy soil. Thank goodness it was sand as it made it so much easier to work in than clay. I probed around and found 3 really good tunnels. Each tunnel would be set with a trap and the removal process would begin. Trapping gophers is an interesting task. They are not too difficult t