How do I get rid of gophers in my landscaping?

Peeking gopher, Gopher Holes, Santa Barbara, Exterminator, Pest ControlExterminating gophers and moles from your property requires experience and knowledge.  Our technicians are licensed to apply the most effective materials in the industry for gopher and mole removal. Our gopher and mole control services help prevent plant loss, ground erosion and unsightly mounds.

How do we get rid of  Gophers?

We specialize in gopher and rodent control using the most effective, yet safe, methods on the market.  Each employee at So-Cal Pest Control is licensed by the state of California to use restricted materials, as well as registered with the county to engage in pest control for hire.

Our services include an initial service, which consists of coming out to the site and treating all gopher activity. In addition to our initial service, we may recommend a monthly service.This helps to ensure that any new activity is treated before it has a chance to destroy the landscape.In these service visits, we are scheduled to come out and walk the entire property and treat any activity.This is all included in the price of the monthly service.

Santa Barbara Live Animal Trapping: Raccoon Trapping & Raccoon Removal

Live Racoon Trapping, Racoon inside of trashcan

We provide expert, safe and humane live animal trapping of Raccoon in and around your home of commercial property.

Description of the Raccoon Found in Santa Barbara County

The Raccoons found around Santa Barbara County are recognized by their bushy ringed tail, and their mask-like face.  The raccoon has opposable thumbs with sharp claws.  They have sharp teeth as well.  An adult Raccoon can weigh 10 to 60 pounds and can be up to 3 feet long.  They can stand it on their hind feet.

They are territorial animals that protect their territory and their young.  They can be aggressive to humans when they feel threatened.  They can climb trees and get on top of our homes.  They are mainly carnivores, but they will eat just about anything, including rodents, insects, snakes, our trash, fruits, vegetables and much more.

Where are Raccoons Found in Santa Barbara County?

Raccoons can be found all over Santa Barbara County, including inhabited and uninhabited areas.  Because they have a diverse diet, they often find plenty of food near humans.  You can find them in and around parks, our homes and businesses.  They are primarily nocturnal hunters and scavengers.  The naturally migrate to areas where the food is easily accessible.

Problems with Raccoons in Santa Barbara County

Raccoons can damage your property and make a mess around your home.  They can drag your trash cans down and rummage through all of it, leaving much clean up for you.  Additionally, they can damage your gardens and lawns.  Common damage that we repair involves attics and roofs where they have accessed and used as their homes.

Racoon Trapped in Live Animal Trap
Racoon Trapped in Live Animal Trap

They also carry many, many diseases with them.  Everything from Tuberculosis, Mange, leptospirosis, RoundWorm,  toxoplasmosis and more.  The also carry with them Ticks, Lice, Fleas and mites.  The diseases can be transmitted to our animals and small children through contact with their feces.

Raccoon Live Animal Trapping Services in Santa Barbara County

So Cal Pest Control is your top choice as a wildlife trapper for live animal trapping in Santa Barbara County.  We provide you with the pest control services that safely traps live raccoons and removes them from your property.  We have strong experience and expertise in live animal trapping services.  Our emphasis is on minimizing the impact of these live animals on your property and removing them with as little inconvenience on you as possible.  We operate quickly and keep you informed along the process.

Raccoon Animal Control After Removal

We also provide consulting and services that helps make your property less attractive to raccoons in the future.  Our animal control services shows you what you need to do specifically on and around your property to minimize the risk of raccoons returning.

Clean Up After Live Animal Trapping

In addition to removing the raccoons from your property, we also provide comprehensive repair and clean up services after the damage.

Licensed by the California Department Fish and Game

We are licensed for live animal trapping and animal control in Santa Barbara County by the California Department Fish & Game.

Santa Barbara Live Animal Trapping Service: Skunk Trapping & Skunk Removal

We provide live animal trapping services in Santa Barbara County for the Striped Skunk.

Striped Skunk Description

The striped skunk is about the size of a house cat and weighs between 3 and 14 pounds, with the average weighing around 6-8 pounds.  The skunk has two white stripes down each side of it’s black fur body.   It has a bushy tail that measures around 7″ to 10″ long.

The Terribly Unpleasant Smell

The typical skunks found in Santa Barbara County emit a very unpleasant scent when it feels threatened by other animals or humans.  This scent is used for protection because animals and humans can be very irritated by the smell.  Additionally, the spray can induce vomiting, temporary blindness and eye irritation.  The spray comes from anal scent glands that spray the very unique odor accurately up to ten feet away.  People have described the smell like a putrid combination super-strong cat urine, sulphur and burnt rubber.  The smell is known to linger for up to a week and sometimes longer.  If the skunk sprays one of your dogs, you will want to give it a bath right away because the smell can linger too long for most people.

Areas the Striped Skunk is Found

The striped skunk can be found throughout Santa Barbara County and surrounding areas.  You can see (usually smell them first) in the residential and commercial areas throughout SB County and in the rural, natural areas as well.  Skunks often wind up in the same areas that we live in because of their diet.

Where do they live?

The striped skunk likes to live in burrows and underground.  In residential areas they can live under sheds, porches, crawl spaces, and other underground homes.  Sometimes they take up abandoned homes of other animals such as foxes.  They can be found under sheds, in basements and garages where dog food or other food may be stored as well.

Problems with Skunks in Santa Barbara County

Having skunks live so near to humans and their domestic animals can cause mild to serious problems.  In addition to the terrible smell mentioned above, they can carry diseases that can be harmful to humans and other animals.

  • Rabies:  Rabies are the most common threat from skunks to our dogs and cats.
  • Round Worm: The roundworm is a parasite passed from the skunk to other animals.
  • Damage to Property: Skunks rummage for food at night and can dig up gardens and other areas around our homes.

Santa Barbara County Live Animal Skunk Trapping

Live animal trapping of a skunk can be quite a problem because of the skunk’s defensive scents.  We know that skunks are mainly night time animals.  This allows us to set non-harmful live traps for the skunks during the day and find them in the morning.  You can imagine the difficulty of transporting a live skunk because of how accurate they can spray their scent, up to 10 feet away.  At So Cal Pest Control, we have the experience and training to capture and remove the skunks from your property.  Skunks are removed from around human habitats.

If you’re having trouble with skunks in or around your property, please contact us right away before they become more of a problem for you.

Licensed by the California Department Fish and Game

We are licensed for live animal trapping and animal control in Santa Barbara County by the California Department Fish & Game.

Why we specialize in rats, mice, gophers, and other live animal pest control

One of our Rodent Experts™ Pest Control Vehicles that serves Santa Barbara County
One of our Rodent Experts™ Pest Control Vehicles that serves Santa Barbara County

So Cal Pest Control in Santa Barbara exterminates rats,mice,gophers, and moles.  We also specialize in live animal trapping of pests like skunks, opossum and raccoons. We provide pest control  for the communities of Carpinteria, Montecito, Santa Barbara and Goleta.

Specialization gives us more precise experience

Our experience every day, is dedicated to rodent control and live animal trapping in the pest control world. Rats,mice,gophers and moles are pests that require professional experience in order to get rid of and So-Cal Pest Control has that experience. We have been solving rodent infestation problems since 1999.

We don’t spread our experience out among a wide array of different pests like insects.  We only work to solve these rodent problems. If you want to get rid of your rats,mice,gophers, and moles, then call So-Cal Pest Control.

So -Cal Pest Control of Santa Barbara provides rat and mouse pest control which includes, rat and mouse trapping, rodent proofing, rat and mice bait station services and rodent feces clean-up. We are your full service rat and mouse killer company.

So-Cal Pest Control of Santa Barbara’s gopher and mole pest control services include getting rid of initial gopher and mole problems,gopher and mole mound removal,and ongoing preventative plans when needed. Our services are superior to gardeners and other pest control companies due to our experience and licensing which allows us to use the most effective products in the industry.

Why gophers and moles need a professional gopher exterminator

gopher-face-smallGophers and Moles need a professional Gopher exterminator.

Gophers and moles in Santa Barbara are known for causing damage to landscape, lawns and gardens. Additionally gophers and moles can cause damage to sidewalks, pavers and driveways  because how their tunnels weaken the surfaces.  Gophers and moles create dirt mounds, holes and they kill plants.  Gophers and moles can also damage irrigation, utility lines and drip systems.

In order to prevent continual damage to your property, gophers and moles need to be controled quickly and effectively.  Gophers and moles often create tunnels to adjacent properties, so it is likely that your neighbor has been visited by the gophers and moles doing damage on your property.  Even when your property has removed the gophers and moles, your neighboring property still has them, new gophers and moles will eventually move into your property.

How do we get rid of Gophers in Santa Barbara?

So-Cal Pest Control also known as” The Gopher Guys” specialize  in gopher and mole control using the most effective, yet safe, methods on the market. Yes, we are the top gopher and mole exterminators in Santa Barbara County. Each employee at So-Cal Pest Control is licensed by the state of California to use restricted materials, as well as registered with the county to engage in pest control for hire.

For gopher eradication, we use a chemical called Fumitoxin.  It is a restricted material that is in a pellet form but when mixed with moisture dissolves and turns into an aluminum phosphine gas.  This gas will travel throughout the tunnel system, killing the gopher in the tunnel system. The chemical usually takes a few hours to activate and within about 48 hours the whole process is done.  The gas will only work in a sealed tunnel system so there is no danger of harming humans or other animals.  There is no after kill, which protects other animals that might eat the gopher if by chance it should come out of the tunnel system. Some customers ask about fumitoxin being organic or natural. Any product including soap and water is considered to be a pesticide when it is used to kill or control a pest. Again,there is no residual of fumitoxin in the soil after 48 hours so this makes  it as close to natural and organic as possible. Our treatment with fumitoxin is basically an underground fumigation with no residues.

Our initial gopher control service  consists of coming out to the site and treating all gopher activity until gopher control has been achieved. In addition to our initial service, we may recommend a monthly service. This helps to ensure that we treat and get rid of  any new gopher activity before it has a chance to destroy the landscape. In these service visits, we are scheduled to come out and walk the entire property and treat any activity. This is all included in the price of the monthly service.

Why are there so many rats in Santa Barbara?

Rat in tree eating fruit, landscape, mouseMost of the properties in the Santa Barbara area have heavy foliage.  There are many natural water and habitat sources, such as creeks.  Many of the homes are older structures which have openings that provide additional shelter and protection from natural predators.  

Rats are ready to reproduce at  2-3 months, females have approx. 5 litters a year, producing 8-12 babies per litter.  Adults rats usually live about one year.  These pests live in colonies, which are found in crawl spaces of houses and buildings,sheds,barns,cars, wood piles,trees,shrubs and more.

Rats and mice are known to carry diseases such as Salmonella.  Some mice, specifically the deer mouse also carry the Hantavirus, which is excreted in their urine, saliva, and droppings. Rats have not been known to carry Hantavirus.  Rats and mice can also spread additional disease and allergens.

Pest control for rats in Santa Barbara is very important considering all of the elements that are available for rats to thrive. So Cal Pest Control provides complete rodent control pest control programs for residential and commercial properties in Santa Barbara,Montecito,Goleta,and Carpinteria. So Cal Pest Control has been effectivily exterminating rats and mice in Santa barbara since 1999 and offers the most expierenced and effective rodent  pest control solutions in the pest control industry.

What is Rodent proofing & rodent control for rats & mice in Santa Barbara

Rat around the house, rat exterminators, Santa Barbara

So Cal Pest Control operates a professional pest control  rat removal business in Santa Barbara Ca, where there’s a lot of rats. We have seen hundreds of cases, and we are experts on getting rid of rats. The first and most important principle to know about rodent control is that in order to completely and permanently solve the rat problem, you must stop any rats from getting inside the house in the first place. They’re getting in somehow – they can use a lot of different entry points and this is what So Cal Pest Control is better than it’s competitors on, locating entry points.

With our experience in rat control and knowledge of building architecture and how rats use it, we can solve your rat and mouse problem. We perform a very detailed inspection of the house or building, and find these entry points that rats are using to get in. Once we’ve found everything, we seal it all up. Our quality of repair work is far superior to our competitors.  This is by far the most important step. Once this is done, then it’s just a simple matter of us scheduling follow-up visits for trapping and removing the remaining rats, which is easy once they can’t get outside for food and water.

It’s also important to trap and remove the rats correctly. Some customers will set a few traps before calling us and end up having the traps go off but not trap the rat. This can cause rats and mice to become trap shy and now the rats will become  much more difficult to catch. We advise not attempting to set traps yourselves. Poison in a attic or under a house is a horrible idea, as it leaves rat carcasses in the attic and walls, decomposing and giving off a terrible odor. Yes it is true that it thins their blood and makes them thirsty but it does not mean that they will leave the structure in search of water. Almost all of the calls that we get about rats or mice dead in a wall or crawl space and is now stinking up the place comes from homeowners placing poison inside the structure.

As rodents pass through areas and enter structures  they leave behind hormones. Even after the entry points are sealed these hormones are still active. These hormones attract new  foraging rodents back to the same entry point sights of the original rodents. If nothing is done to control these foraging  exterior rodents,then it is only a matter of time before new entry points are created. So it is important that we take our final necessary measure to keep your structure protected. So -Cal Pest Control offers a service were we will install and maintain exterior bait stations for rodent control and prevention. A barrier of bait stations are placed around the structure to intercept rodent pathways.These bait stations are tamper proof. Rodents will feed on the rodenticide that is secured in a lock and key system keeping it safe for children and pets.This service keeps rodent populations under control and prevents rodent  infestations.

What are gopher tunnel networks like?

gopherholes
Gopher Holes in a Lawn

Gopher tunnel networks can be up to 9 feet in depth.  If their tunnels are neglected for long periods the under ground will look like Swiss cheese.  Often surrounding yards have gophers which affect adjacent properties and usually the tunnels between the two areas connect.   Since the tunnels are so deep they cannot be destroyed, therefore there is always a route for gophers to follow.

Gophers do not hibernate so they are active all year long.  They also have the ability to be  active at all hours of the day. Gophers usually live alone within their burrow system, except for females with young or when they are breeding.Breeding season usally starts late winter to early spring. Gophers will breed 1 to 2 times a year with 3 to 7 pups per litter. Gophers live up to 3 years and they can start breeding at 1 yearof age.