Having wildlife living in your home isn’t just a nuisance, it could cause serious and costly damage to your property as well. The damage could be significant enough to empty out your wallet and hurt the resale value of your house.
There are many types of wildlife that often make human houses their own homes, whether for safety, for warmth, for food, or for other reasons, and end up causing damage during their residence there.
Here are the six most common types of animals who might be living in your house and damaging your property.
1. Rodents
When the weather gets cold, mice and rats often head indoors to nest and to forage for food. Rodent infestations sky rocket in the winter months. Not only are rodents unhygienic and often spread disease—and make a few people scream in fear—but they might also damage your home by chewing through pipes, brickwork, wiring, and timber. In some cases, residential fires have been started because of rodents chewing through wires.
2. Skunks
Skunks aren’t only a problem because of their seriously awful and lingering odour, but they’re also diggers and burrowers. They dig holes in lawns and gardens and they damage crops. They can also injure pets and damage your home if they can find a way to get in—commonly through a pet door or a weak spot in your foundation. They’re attracted by food, and will choose to come to your home if it looks like a good place to eat. They’ll also be tempted by crawl spaces, porches, and decks with protected space underneath.
3. Raccoons
You’ve probably witnessed the damage that raccoons can do in your yard—they’ll topple over your garbage cans and leave their contents strewn all over your lawn. But the real problems occur when they get into your home. Raccoons can cause tremendous damage. They’ll destroy your insulation just by trampling and compressing it by walking around, leading to thousands of dollars of repair costs. They’ll also leave odorous and harmful urine and feces during their residence.
4. Birds
When springtime comes along, birds will look for a new place to call home. They’ll look for areas with shelter where they can build their nests. This new home can end up being your shed, chimney, deck, attic, or soffit. When birds nest together, in particular, is when you’ll see the greatest damage. They’ll damage your home and create a hazardous environment by nesting in grills, creating a debris mess, leaving bird droppings that contribute to many diseases, and tear into soffit. If left untreated, your bird problems can become costly and extensive to repair.
5. Bats
Though bats scare a lot of people, this wildlife isn’t much of a problem if you only have a few in your home, typically in your attic. But they can damage your home in large numbers if the situation is left unsolved and the colony grows in size. Bats will stay in the same place forever if they can—in a few years, you could have literally thousands of bats residing in your attic. The damage bats can cause includes chewing on walls, destroying insulation, and chewing on wires. In addition, you may suffer from a strong unpleasant odour from droppings permeating throughout your home and a risk of disease. Bat droppings, also known as bat guano, cause histoplasmosis, an infection that affects a person’s lungs.
6. Opossums
Opossums can take up residence in your attic, crawl space, garage, shed, or basement. They’re adaptable wildlife that will use various ways to get into your house, like a loose vent, siding, or screen. They can even climb into your attic or come down from your chimney. They can scare and bite your pets with their 50 very sharp teeth while also stealing their food. They can turn your food storage unit into a personal bathroom—contaminating the entire room and rotting your food. They can rip apart your home in an attempt to get nesting materials. They can also spread diseases, like tuberculosis, tularemia, spotted fever, toxoplasmosis, and coccidiosis, among others.