SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2012

THE CHOICE OF WILDLIFE CONTROL PROFESSIONALS SINCE 1994

VOLUME 19 n NO. 5

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Biology & Control

Departments

Business Techniques

Product Information

American AlligatorWoodrats

Cougar PawsBody Gripping Traps

Understanding AttractantsMake A Better Website

Pricing EthicsVermiculite Insulation

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SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 3

W.C.T SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2012

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

Wildlife Control TechnologyON THE COVER:

WCT RECAP: THE BASICS OF ATTRACTING ..............................................18TIM JULIEN

TESTING A BETTER CAGE TRAP ......................................................................21PAUL WINKELMANN

WOODRATS: THEIR BIOLOGY AND CONTROL ................................................22REX E. MARSH

THE QUESTION: ..................................................................................................26JACK AMMERMAN

FASTEST NWCO ON THE PLANET ................................................................29A ALL ANIMAL CONTROL

MAKE YOUR WEBSITE BETTER ........................................................................30COSTAS PEPPAS

WCT BASICS: BODY GRIPPING TRAPS ........................................................32WCT STAFF

MY FIRST CAT......................................................................................................35ANDREA ALVAREZ

Beaver caught inthe ComstockBeaver Trap.

From the Editor ................................................................................................7

In the Spotlight ................................................................................................8

Tips n’ Tricks: 100 Things Revisited, Part 7....................................10

Bill’s Corner: Commercial Wildlife Management, Part 3 ..........12

Species Profile: The American Alligator ..........................................14

From the Toolbox ..........................................................................................16

WCT Tested: Cougar Paws ......................................................................36

Questions & Answers ................................................................................38

State Association Partnership News ..................................................44

Index of Advertisers ....................................................................................29

BEAVER CONTROLCover

WNS SPOTLIGHTPage 8

WCT BASICSPage 32

WCT TestedPage 36

4 n W.C.T

JOIN US FOR THE19TH ANNUAL WCT

WILDLIFE CONTROL INSTRUCTIONAL SEMINARPRESENTED BY THE

WILDLIFE CONTROL TRAINING GROUP

January 21 - 22, 2013Crown Plaza Cleveland Airport

7230 Engle RoadMiddleburg Heights, OH 44130

Early Registration:$225 per person until Nov 30, 2012

Registration:$275 per person after Nov 30, 2012

Registration includes 2 luncheon buffet’s,snacks, and seminar materials

Major Credit Cards Accepted

Lodging Rate till Jan 5, 2013:$85.00 per night plus taxSingle or Double Occupancy440-243-4040 or 1-800-2-CROWNMention WCT Instructional Seminar toreceive the discounted rate.Hotel Provides Free 24 Hour Shuttle toand from Cleveland Hopkins Airport

Scheduled Topics Include:

Customer Contracts & Employe Agreements - Eugene Elias, Attorney at LawSilencers & Explosive Pest Control Devices - Judyth LeDoux, ATFUnderstanding Financial Reports - Dave Hopkins, CPA, D.B. Hopkins & AssociatesThe Smell of Money: Skunks - Serge Lariviere, PhD, MBAHands-on Rodent Control - Rich Williams, Bell LabsPerforming Cleanouts - Chris Prater, Prater’s Wildlife ControlBuilding a Business - Al Krier, A & D Wildlife ControlWorking with Caulks & SealantsUrban Marksman Short Course (Air Rifles, Crossbows, Rifles/Shotguns, Ammo, etc.)Zoonotic Disease Updates & More

For additional information visit www.wctseminar.com

To Register:

Call 330.350.2161, online at www.wctmagazine.com/training.htm, or send check made out to WCT Group to: PO Box 357, Sharon Center, OH 44274

Topics and Presentors may change based on scheduling conflicts and availability.

Keynote Speaker - Andrew Montoney

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 5

Published ByWCT Group, Inc.

P.O. Box 357 n Sharon Center, OH 44274330-350-2161

EditorEric Arnold

P.O. Box 357 n Sharon Center, OH 44274editor@wctmagazine.com

(330) 350-2161

Contributing EditorsBill Christman

Paul WinkelmannSerge LariviereJack Ammerman

Rex MarshCostas Peppas

ArtSharon Davis, Artist

Richard Stubler, Cartoonist

Advertising DirectorNatasha Arnold

P.O. Box 357 n Sharon Center, OH 44274advertising@wctmagazine.com

(330) 350-2161

Circulation DirectorJosiane Grignon

P.O. Box 357 n Sharon Center, OH 44274subscriptions@wctmagazine.com

(330) 350-2161

WCT Seminar DirectorEric Arnold

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(330) 350-2161

W.C.TWildlife Control Technology

Potential Contributors: Wildlife Control Technology welcomes contributions from our readers. Unsolicited manuscripts are acceptable. Pleaseinclude SASE for return of manuscripts and material. Electronic submissions

encouraged. Writer’s guidelines available.Send manuscripts or guideline requests to Eric Arnold, Editor,

W.C.T., PO Box 357, Sharon Center, OH 44274, email .editor@wctmagazine.com.

Wildlife Control Technology (ISSN 1085-5394) is published bimonthly byWCT Group, Inc. Subscription rate is $29.95 per year in the United States,

$49.95 per year in all other countries, payable in U.S. funds. Single copy price is $5.99.

Circulation inquires and information: WCT Group, Inc.,P.O. Box 357, Sharon Center, OH 44274.

Editorial: Eric Arnold, P. O. Box 357, Sharon Center, OH 44274.Advertising: Natasha Arnold (330) 350-2161.

Copyright 2012 by WCT Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this

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storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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UPCOMING CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Sep 7-9 MD - MD State Trappers Education WeekendVisit www.marylandtrappers.com for details.

Sep 9-15 IN - FTA Trapper’s CollegeContact Gene Beeber at 502-366-7216.

Sep 22-23 OH - WCT Exclusion WorkshopGo to www.wctmagazine.com/training.htm for more information.

Oct 1-3 KY - 42nd Annual UOK Pest Control Short Coursewww.ca.uky.edu/entomology/shortcourse/index.asp

2013 EVENTS

Jan 21-22 OH - WCT 19th Annual Wildlife Control Instructional SeminarRegister or view details at www.wctmagazine.com/training.htm

Mar 25-28 SC - 15th Wildlife Damage Mgmt Conferencewww.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1095695

Apr 5-9 OH - WCT Bat Management WorkshopGo to www.wctmagazine.com/training.htm for info.

Disclaimer

This publication (WCT Magazine) contains views, opinions and beliefs of the authorsand does not represent the views, opinions or beliefs of WCT Group, Inc. or theiraffiliates. The reader acknowledges that any trapping and/or pesticide recommenda-tions discussed are subject to change at any time, and may vary from state to state.These recommendations are provided only as a guide. It is always the reader’s re-sponsibility, by law, to read and follow all Federal, State, and local laws, as well ascurrent label directions for any specific techniques, equipment, pesticides, and toxi-cants being used.

Due to constantly changing codes, laws, labels, and product registration, some of therecommendations given in this publication may not be, or are no longer, legal for thereader by the time they are read. If any information in these recommendations violatesthe reader’s codes and laws, or if the reader, when using pesticides, disagrees withthe publication, this publications recommendation must be disregarded.No endorsement is intended for any products/techniques mentioned, nor is criticismmeant for products/techniques not mentioned. The publisher assumes no liability re-sulting from the use of these recommendations.

6 n W.C.T

One of the most commonquestions for any businessis what price should I

charge. Frequent readers know thatI have covered that topic multipletimes over the years; however, whatI haven’t discussed much is pricingethics.

What do I mean by pricingethics? Simply put, it is charging afair rate for your services and prod-ucts. Not only is there an ethicalcomponent to pricing, but there isalso a legal component as well.

To set a fair price, it is imperativethat you know what the cost to pro-vide the product/service is. I’ve dis-cussed this in the past so I won’t gointo details, but for those new to thepricing issue usually you can look atwhat you are paying for the prod-uct/service (merchandise + delivery+ expenses) and add how muchprofit you wish to make on it to gen-erate a price. However, at timesthere will always be unexpected ex-penses such as additional fuel,equipment or materials. For theseunexpected items, I suggest makingthem additional charges that can beadded to the job instead of trying toincorporate them into your basicpricing strategy.

Ethically, you should be offeringall your customers the same serv-ices at the same rates. Going out-side your normal service area?Charge for the extra time and dis-tance but keep your service chargethe same. Accepting a credit cardfor payment? Have a cash discountprice instead of adding 3% to the billto cover costs. When you wish togive a discount to a customer, un-

derstand that what you are reallydoing is accepting less profit. Youcan’t change what the product orservice you are offering costs so theonly “wiggle” room available is withthe profit generated. If that is ac-ceptable, give the discount. If notdon’t, but first understand how muchroom you have to negotiate with.

If you have to make $100 everytime you do a service call in yourservice area to cover cost and otherexpenses and your rate is $125, themaximum discount you can afford togive is $25. At that rate, you are pro-viding the service call at your cost tothe client. Should you give morethan a $25 discount, you are nowpaying your client for the privilege ofproviding that service for them. Any-thing less than $25 means you arestill making a profit on the servicecall.

Those that have attended mytraining sessions where I discusspricing know that this is a hot buttonfor me. Too many times I’ve heardoperators and clients talking abouthow the price changed during thesales pitch. Not only is this bad forthe operator and our industry image,it can easily become unethical andalso may be illegal. Following aretwo actual examples to stress mypoint.

Example A: An operator per-forms a bat inspection on a structureand quotes $2,700 for bat removaland $10,000 for guano cleanout andinsulation replacement.

The prospect refuses the bidand receives an immediate counterbid of $2,200 for bat removal and$10,000 for additional services.

Again the prospect declines theoffer and hires another operator fora second opinion. While the secondoperator is performing their inspec-tion, the prospect is called by thefirst company with another reducedbid of $1,100 for bat removal and$5,000 for the additional services.The second operator gives their bidto the prospect for bat removal onlyat $1,750 saying they do not needany guano removed. If you were theprospect, how would you feel aboutthis situation? How do you as an op-erator feel about this?

Example B: An operator gives acleanout bid for raccoon feces anddamage for $26,000 to a prospectso they can submit for insurance re-imbursement. Another operator con-tacted to produce a bid for thisproject requests the other operatorsbid so “they can be similar” and pro-duces a bid of $22,000 after the re-quest is denied. Again, if you werethe prospect, how would you feelabout this situation? As an operator,what do you think about what ishappening?

After both bids are submitted tothe insurance company, which de-cides it will only cover $15,500 ofthe project cost, the second opera-tor then adjusts their bid to $15,500so the prospect “won’t have any outof pocket expense.” Do you feel thisadjustment is “good business” onthe company’s part or not?

Here is some additional informa-tion on both examples. In ExampleA, the structure is approximately1400 sq ft with two dormers. The

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 7

FROM THE EDITOR

ERIC ARNOLD, EDITORP.O. Box 357 n Sharon Center, OH 44274

ETHICAL PRICING

Continued on page 37

After rabies, white-nose syn-drome is probably one of themost publicized diseases that

effects wildlife control operators.Unlike rabies, operators are not atrisk for contamination but they areat risk to have additional regulationsplaced on services they offer.

Discovered in 2006 close to Al-bany, New York, by Al Hicks of theNew York Department of Environ-mental Conservation, white-nosesyndrome has spread to 19 statesand 4 Canadian provinces killingover an estimated 5.5 million bats.With no end in sight for this bat on-slaught, it is very possible that sev-eral species of bats will be wipedout. In most populations this isn’tpossible because of the wide arrayof mutations each population has.This allows surviving individuals topass on their resistance to the infec-tion to their offspring allowing sur-vival of the species. Unfortunately,this is not always the case.

Some infections are so infectivethat either no individuals are capa-ble of surviving or the survivors pop-ulation levels are too low to allowrebuilding of the species. Take forexample Colony Collapse Disorderor CCD (the loss of a honey beecolony due to the sudden loss of thecolony’s worker bee population). Arecent discovery shows that the par-asitic Varroa mite, which has beenan issue with honey bees, carryingthe Deformed Wind Virus (DWV)can increase the DWV infection rateof the hive from a normal 10% to100% causing not only CCD butalso collapse of an entire geo-graphic region.

While this is currently not thecase with all 47 species of batsfound in the United States, it is a

problem for specific species such asthe little brown bat, big brown bat,eastern small-footed bat, northernlong-eared bat, Indiana bat, tricol-ored bat, cave bat, gray bat, and thesoutheastern bat. Add to this thefact that most female bats only haveone pup per year and that pup mor-tality rates are 60% - 100% percolony and you can see how difficultit will be for some species to re-cover.

Although a lot is still not knownconcerning white-nose syndrome,researchers have made severalbreakthroughs and observations.

Named for the white fungus thatappears on body, wings, and muz-zle of infected animals, white-nosesyndrome (WNS) is a disease thataffects hibernating bats. Testing hasshown that WNS is caused by thefungus Geomyces destructans. Un-like most funguses, G. destructanscan burry into living tissue causingdamage and irritation. As a cold-lov-ing fungus, G. destructans cannotgrow at temperatures above 75 °F(24 °C) with optimal growth around39 °F – 59 °F (4 °C – 15 °C).

Geomyces destructans and sev-eral species of infected bats have

been found in Europe; however,since European bats tend to hiber-nate in small groups there does notappear to be the same devastationto their bat populations from WNSas is being experienced in NorthAmerica.

Recently, Canadian researcherswere able to grow G. destructans ina laboratory setting from Europeansamples showing that the mostlikely cause of the North Americaninfection was from spores trans-ported from an infected cave in Eu-rope on equipment.

Bats hibernating in caves aremost at risk of WNS for several fac-tors. First, the temperatures foundduring hibernation are the tempera-tures needed for optimal growth ofG. destructans. Second, research issuggesting that the a bat’s immunesystem tends to slow down dramat-ically during hibernation. So anytype of infection that occurs duringthe hibernative state could poten-tially be well established before thebat’s body would even be capableof fighting it.

Transmission appears to be pri-marily through direct contact makinghibernating gregarious bat specieshigh risk for infection leading to hi-bernacula mortality rates of 90 to100 percent. This is the main con-cern for species such as little brownbats, northern long-eared bats, andIndiana bats. As these species tendto collect together at certain hiber-nacula by the thousands, a singleinfected bat could potentially de-stroy the entire species. It is inter-esting to note that little brown batshave been observed roosting in amore solitary fashion since theonset of WNS, but it is not known ifthis is a defensive response to the

8 n W.C.T

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME

Photo © Marvin Moriarty/USFWS

disease or if population levels are solow it is not possible to have theonce large hibernating groups.

What is known is that more re-search needs to be conducted re-garding WNS. The U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service recently announcedgrants awarded to 30 states forwhite-nose syndrome projects (seecomplete announcement below).For wildlife control operators, thebest help in fighting WNS is per-

forming low stress bat exclusionsand offering supplemental livingareas for excluded bats. Exclusiontubes can be disinfected by sub-merging in hot water (122 oF) for aminimum of 20 minutes. n

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 9

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Awards Grants to 30 States for White-Nose Syndrome WorkJuly 9, 2012

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) today announced grant awards totaling $962,981 to thirty states forwhite-nose syndrome (WNS) projects. State natural resource agencies will use the funds for surveillance and monitoringof caves and mines where bats hibernate, preparing state response plans and other related projects.

“Grants like these provide essential support to our state partners in responding to white-nose syndrome,” said Dr.Jeremy Coleman, the Service’s national WNS coordinator. “Responding to the rapid spread and severity of this diseasehas been difficult for state agencies and other partners. Providing funds directly to states helps to improve capacity forresponse within those states, but also provides support for critical research projects and strengthens our national responseeffort overall.”

The Service is leading a cooperative effort with federal and state agencies, tribes, researchers, universities and othernon-government organizations to research and manage the spread of WNS. In addition to developing science-based pro-tocols and guidance for land management agencies and other partners to minimize the spread of WNS, the Service hasfunded numerous research projects to support and assess management recommendations and improve our basic under-standing of the dynamics of the disease.

Funding for grants was provided through Endangered Species Recovery funds. Proposals were received from 31states requesting $1,183,480. All eligible requests were given at least partial awards, ranging from $14,646 to $50,000,for a total of $962,981 in grant funds.

Additional information about WNS, the international disease investigation, and research can be found on the newpartner-oriented WNS website, http://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/. The site contains the most up-to-date informationand resources from partners in the WNS response, current news and links to social media.

America’s fish, wildlife and plant resources belong to all of us, and ensuring the health of imperiled species is ashared responsibility. We are working to actively engage conservation partners and the public in the search for improvedand innovative ways to conserve and recover imperiled species. Learn more about the Endangered Species Program at:http://www.fws.gov/endangered/.

WNS Grants to States 2012 Final Awards

State Final Award State Final Award

Alabama $ 26,250.00 Colorado $ 24,000.00Delaware $ 20,000.00 Georgia $ 21,000.00Hawaii $ 40,622.00 Idaho $ 24,000.00Illinois $ 27,580.00 Indiana $ 23,600.00Iowa $ 25,500.00 Kentucky $ 32,000.00Maine $ 24,099.00 Maryland $ 48,000.00Michigan $ 49,500.00 Minnesota $ 38,900.00Mississippi $ 25,847.00 Missouri $ 20,000.00New Hampshire $ 14,646.00 New Jersey $ 50,000.00North Carolina $ 47,500.00 Ohio $ 46,050.00Oregon $ 24,000.00 Pennsylvania $ 26,000.00Rhode Island $ 22,819.00 Tennessee $ 50,000.00Utah $ 24,000.00 Vermont $ 22,000.00Virginia $ 50,000.00 Washington $ 22,568.00West Virginia $ 42,500.00 Wisconsin $ 50,000.00

Total $ 962,981.00

10 n W.C.T

TIPS N’ TRICKS

PAUL WINKELMANN8041 West Mequon Rd. nMequon, WI 53097

100 THINGS REVISITED, PART 7

61. Working In Your ComfortZone: What is your comfortzone? It’s how far you will

travel from your base of operationsand still feel comfortable. Now don’tget me wrong on this. I know manyof you will go quite a ways under theright conditions. I’m not talking hereabout clean outs or bat jobs or largebird jobs. I’m talking about how faryou will travel to get that squirrel orwoodchuck or raccoon. I’ll tell you right now that ourcompany will rarely go more than ahalf an hour in one direction. Thatmeans if I have a raccoon in a cageat the farthest point in one directionand a squirrel in a cage at the far-thest point in the opposite direction,my travel time will be one hour.That’s way too much! When youhave more than one employee, ofcourse, this excessive travel timecan be avoided. I’ve taken some mental notesover the years and this seems to beone of the biggest complaints thatmy competitor’s clients have. “Hedidn’t check the cage. He didn’tcheck the bait. He didn’t come andget the animal.” And of course, theone I hear most often, “He won’t callme back or even answer his phone.”And we all know why. He lives be-tween 60 and 160 miles away andtook the job because things wereslow. Now he’s got lots of work anddoesn’t even want to think aboutthat long drive anymore. Just be-tween you and me, there seems tobe some companies that neverhave a comfort zone. 62. Hiring New Help II: Let’s putit this way; I’m one of those naïveguys that sees the good in serialkillers. This has not been a hugeproblem in my life outside of having

to pay my guardian angel big bucksto watch my back. Here are some ofthe things you can and can’t dowhen hiring new help. Since our jobusually requires a large amount ofdriving, it would be very prudent tocheck his or her driving record. Thisinformation may be gotten from yourmotor vehicle department. You maycheck his Workman’s Compensa-tion record but only to the extent thathis injury could interfere with his po-sition (bad back verses heavy lift-ing). Criminal background checks arelegitimate only in conjunction withthe job. Carrying a gun, for example,would be illegal for a felon. Licens-ing may also require a clean record.Here is what is recommended; yourabsolutely best bet is to ask for per-mission for a background checkfrom your applicant. This will allowhim or her to withdraw from the run-ning if there is something that theywould rather you didn’t see. 63. Here’s something that Ishould probably do more of. I havean on-going job (more than adecade) that mostly requires rac-coon and red squirrel removal. Well,after watching the squirrel cagesconstantly tripped and the wellbaited raccoon cages ignored I de-cided to try something different. I re-moved the squirrel cages andreplaced them with the 9X9X26 inchTomahawks with the ½ inch mesh. Iplaced them on the ground andfilled the back with pine cones, blackwalnuts, and some squirrel paste. Iset the pan so light that even an an-imal as light as a red squirrel couldset it off. Now I’ve got a cage thatwill catch both species. Today I hadmy first catch, a squirrel bait lovingraccoon.

64. Customers: This is one ofthose things that doesn’t work forme nor anyone else for that matter.I want you guys to imagine this be-cause it really happened. Thinkabout your worst competitor and thisstory. One of our techs gets a joband goes to talk to the customer.The customer tells our technicianthat her first choice was company Xand most of you are saying “Yeah, Iknow company X.” Okay, she istelling our competitor what the prob-lem is when he stops her and says “Sorry, you’ll have to stop now. I’m upto the speaker and I have to ordermy food now.” Well, needless to say, when thisrepresentative of his company wasdone ordering his food, the line wasdead. (I like to think it’s because shewas busy calling us) Now I like to bea gracious competitor and alwaysgive my competition the benefit ofthe doubt but what do you say to ad-dress something like this? About thebest you can do is apologize and tellyour customer that most of yourcompetitors are upstanding peoplewho will go out of their way to helpa customer and not to think badly ofour group as a whole because ofone moron. And then do the best jobfor this lady that you know how! 65. Lunatics: Okay, truth be told,a lot of you read my column be-cause I tend to be nuts! Plain andsimple. I would like you to know thatmy lack of sanity is starting to rub offon the rest of this company. The other morning, I’m listeningto the boss with one ear (it’s prettyearly in the morning). She’s saying,“Yes, we will pick up your dead dogand take it away.” About an hour later the phonerings again; “Yeah, come and get

SEPTEMBER– OCTOBER n 11the dog, but I gots to warn you, heain’t small’. Well, by now we allknow which lucky employee wassent to go get this deceased canine!When I got to the address, I was in-structed to go through the alley andpull right into the yard. Now for thebenefit of those of you who do notknow what a Neopolitan Mastiff is, Iinvite you to Google it like I did. I as-sure you that less than half of thedead deer we pick up, weigh lessthan this freaking dog! The only re-deeming part of this story is that Ifound a crematorium that would getrid of my deer-like dog for only $25.Never fear, I told them that I wouldgladly pay $50 for this particular an-imal and they were actually waitingfor me to arrive! I have no idea howmany animals and what size theywill take, but you can bet your bootsI’m going to find out! 66. The Nova Rich: These arethe people in your area that owneverything (and sometimes every-body). Because of our particularbusiness, we’ve met most of thewealthiest people in the state. I don’tthink I am any more proud of myselfthan when I have held up my end ofa conversation with a graduate ofHarvard, Princeton, or Yale. These people understand thatyou are probably not going to beable to keep up an intelligent con-versation on what’s happening inthe cultural centers of Europe, butyou will earn their utmost respect ifyou can tell them something theydon’t know about the animal thatthey have called you to remove.Here’s my example: “Did you knowthat in Wisconsin, we have neverhad a raccoon test positive for ra-bies?” Of course, if you’ve got somedirt to dish out on the even wealthierneighbors down the road, don’t thinkfor a minute that they won’t be inter-ested in that as well! Ha! 67. Appearance: You all need tofeel comfortable as well as present-able to the customer. I have nevermade any fashion statements but Iwould like to throw out some thingsthat work for me. For footwear I pre-fer loafers. I wear clean socks everyday so I am not embarrassed to kickmy loafers off inside a residence.Most customers will tell you that re-

moving your shoes is not necessary.This is my usual reply; “SorryMa’am, I’ve been trained. I can’twear my work shoes in my home, soI certainly shouldn’t be allowed towear them in yours!” Winter footwear is fairly easy forme. They sell a very reasonablypriced, insulated, side zipper boot atKohl’s and elsewhere, that is easyto get on and off. If I go through apair in a year, no big deal. I’m oneof those guys who would ratherwear a $30 pair of boots for oneyear than a $150 pair for five years.Now keep in mind that I am nolonger allowed on roofs and that Ilive in a northern state. Buy yourown footwear accordingly. 68. Apparel: Okay, what aboutthe rest of the ensemble? That’s avery good question, especially thisyear. This has been the hottest, dri-est, summer since we’ve been inbusiness. We all have short sleeveshirts that are embroidered with thecompany name. Combined with apair of decent looking blue jeans, it’snot too bad. I do believe; however,that a pair of short sleeve poplincoveralls would allow more circula-tion. I wore them for years but thisyear I wanted to be “one of theguys”. Winter in Wisconsin usuallymeans a heavy duty pair of mono-grammed coveralls for me andheavier insulated jackets for theguys. Once the weather gets frigid,everyone is on their own. Whateveryou have that keeps you from freez-ing to death is fine with us as well asthe customers! Mild winters, like ourlast one, were really appreciated. 69. Weasels: This is one animalthat has really surprised andamazed me. When I was a kid, theytold me that the lack of weasels insoutheast Wisconsin was due to allthe hardwoods being chopped downand that weasels did not do a goodjob of adapting to agriculture (ex-cept for chicken coops). Well, I’mhere to tell you that “they” werewrong. Some of our weasel storiesinclude one lady who was sad tosee him go. “We haven’t seen amouse or a dropping since hemoved in. We just can’t have himrunning upstairs and scaring the

kids!” This was not an inexpensivehome. We’ve had a couple of instanceswhere Mrs. Weasel found a holeinto the basement and decided togive birth and raise her family there.To say these were fun jobs would bean understatement. Most of ourmink depredation jobs turn out to beweasels. If you ever have the oppor-tunity to study a family of weaselsclose up, like I did, you will love it!Oh, and here’s a tip, we havecaught nearly all our weasels on afish flavored can of cat food. 70. Stories; There is nothing thatcompares to a good story when talk-ing to a customer (just make surethat they don’t have something onthe stove or are already late forwork). As you get more involved inthis business, the stories becomemore frequent until sometimes it be-comes important to write some ofthem down. Last week I was sent to anopossum in a house job. Now hereis something that I can handle. Theowners had already left for the daybut their teenage daughter let me inand showed me where they hadscreened in the opossum under alow piece of furniture. She also in-troduced me to their two golden re-trievers although introductions didn’treally seem necessary. These dogsloved me at first sight. I went downon my knees to shine my light on theopossum and the dog on the left gotexcited and knocked me over. Ilaughed, went back to a kneelingposition so that the dog on my rightcould do the same thing. Well theopossum was about as big as myfist so the capture was nothing tobrag about. Now the daughterwanted to get some good picturesso I held the little guy up by his tail. Just to show you guys my seri-ous lack of education, I did not knowthat small opossums can easy climbup on your hand when you are hold-ing them by the tip of the tail! I keptflipping him like he was a yo-yo. Be-tween the dogs, the opossum, andthe girl trying to control the situation,it was just hilarious. I can’t wait forthe next customer to ask me aboutopossums! n

12 n W.C.T

Throughout this series, I’vebeen talking to you about hu-morous aspects of commercial

wildlife management and I hope thatat least some of it has been helpfulto you. In this final chapter, let’s talkabout your reports – both monthlyand annual reports that you provideto your commercial entities regard-ing the services that you’ve beenproviding.

If for no other reason than it justbeing a report about wildlife, yourcommercial contact will be inter-ested to know what services you’vebeen providing, animal captured,their disposition and so on. Althoughthere are other aspects of the reportthat you will be talking about, thespecific animals by species and dis-position will be the most interestingto your contact.

I provide monthly reports forthose we provide ongoing wildlifemanagement to because that is thebilling cycle. Almost all the contactsat my commercial accounts have re-marked that they appreciate theseongoing reports as it helps them tomost importantly, justify why theyare paying you to be there. Yourcommercial contact has to justifyand explain the need for wildlifemanagement services to his bossesand the people who approve yourpurchase orders. This money isusually budgeted for a year at atime, sometimes two years. Youmay provide as much detail in thesereports as you like but again, thesimpler the better, straight forwardand to the point, with maybe an endreport explanation of servicesand/or recommendations.

So let’s talk about what I thinkare the most important aspects ofthe report.

Of course you want to providethe dates on site.

I also like to provide the totalamount of man hours – not justhours but man hours expended toprovide services throughout thatbilling cycle and reporting period.

The amount of animals cap-tured, removed, relocated or trans-ferred to wildlife rehabilitators –listed by species.

The dates, times and number ofemergency services provided afterhours or outside the scope of yournormal work routine.

And then a separate batch of in-formation directly related to theemergency services, animals byspecies and disposition and/or anyrecommendations.

If you are using cameras, pro-vide the locations of those camerasand any related photographs thatmay be of interest to your customerlike beavers swimming around inthe canal and then photos ofbeavers captured and removed.Company heads love photos! Sosupport your work with a few photosof the work you are doing for them!Please note though, always ask per-mission to use your cameras oncompany property – some compa-nies forbid this.

Provide the amount of equip-ment being used on the propertyand where it is located. Your mapscoordinating your efforts on siteshould be updated monthly.

At the end of the report you willwant to comment on any recom-mendations that you have for thecompany to further reduce or elimi-nate problems in specific areas orexplain as to as many animals arecaptured one month in relation to

BILL’S CORNER

BILL CHRISTMANP.O. Box 428 n Smoline, IL 61266

COMMERCIAL WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT PART 3

other months. Or why you onlyspent 32 man hours in this billingcycle in relationship to the last billingcycle, etc.

Customer reports are not onlygood business; they are absolutelycritical in tracking your services andgiving a clear indication of how suc-cessful you are being. Most impor-tantly, these reports justify yourexistence and are relied upon for fu-ture contacts in this managementrole at the company. Rememberthat the person that you are dealingwith one year is not necessarily theperson you will be dealing with thenext year. So being able to providedetailed reports of your activitiesshows your success rate andmakes it easy for your next contactto see what you are doing and why.

Finally, upon finishing your re-port, they usually like that emailedto them directly along with your in-voice for services for that billingcycle. Your year end is the same asyour monthly report although all theaspects of your monthly report aretotaled up and provided at year end.I also usually like to bring that reportto my commercial contact, in personso that we can discuss the previousyear’s work activity, successes andany recommendations that youhave going forward. These meet-ings are usually just 15-20 minutesand sometimes may happen over afriendly lunch.

At this point they should beaware of the differences and prob-lems associated with wildlife in rela-tion to prior contact with yourservices. It’s also a good idea to ex-plain the ongoing need for mainte-nance services to keep things undercontrol. This is probably one of thehardest things for them to under-stand so it’s our job to help them un-derstand! n

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 13

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14 n W.C.T

Two species of crocodilian ani-mals are native to the UnitedStates : the American alligator

(Alligator mississippiensis) and theAmerican crocodile (Crocodylus acu-tus). Caimans (Caiman spp.) havebeen imported from Central andSouth America and released insome parts of Florida where theyhave adapted, survived and repro-duced. Alligators and crocodiles areroughly similar in size, but caimanstypically are 40% smaller. Alligatorspossess a rounder snout and theyare black-yellow or black-white incolor, whereas crocodiles andcaimans have pointed snouts andolive-brown color. All three reptilians

are limited to the southeastern partsof the United States.

Of the two native crocodilians,the American alligator is by far themost abundant and widely distrib-uted. American alligators occur fromthe Great Dismal Swamp in NorthCarolina down to the Everglades inFlorida, and west to the southern-most tip of Texas. Their presence isconfirmed in 10 states : Alabama,Arkansas, North and South Car-olina, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.Florida and Louisiana have the mostalligators, with populations in eachof these two states estimated be-tween 1-1.5 million alligators.

The American alligator is a largeanimal. Adult males may reachlengths of 12 feet, with adult fe-males usually 8-10 feet long. Alliga-tors are massive animals, and massmay exceed 1,000 pounds! Thethick, massive and powerful tail ac-counts for half the length of an alli-gator, and it is the primary mode ofaquatic propulsion. Extremely rapidin water, alligators are much sloweron land, although short bursts ofspeed on land can reach 20 mph. Alligators breed in late May andearly June. Because they have novocal cords, males bellow loudly toattract mates and scare othermales. Roughly a month after

SPECIES PROFILE

SERGE LARIVIERE226 Bois-Joly, St-Apollinaire n Quebec, Canada, G0S 2E0

THE AMERICAN ALLIGATOR

breeding, females will lay 30-50eggs in a nest made of vegetationgathered into a mound. Alligatoreggs are similar in size to a gooseegg. Females will guard this nestand protect it from potential eggpredators. Brooding females typi-cally display and hiss before attack-ing, so attacks on humans byfemales defending nests are rare.Eggs hatch after 65 days, and inlate August / early September,young alligators measuring 9-10inches in length emerge from theeggshells. Females may protect theyoung for up to a year, but theyoung are on their own by the timethe next breeding season arrives.Mortality is high during the firstyears of life, and many of the preythat alligators consume as adultsare young alligators. Among themost important predator of young al-ligators are snapping turtles,snakes, raccoons, largemouth bass,and other alligators. Young alligatorsreach breeding maturity at about 6to 10 years of age, at which timethey are about 5-7 feet long.

The alligator is a versatile pred-ator with a diet that is exclusivelycarnivore. Juveniles start by eatingsmaller animals such as crus-taceans, snails and small fish, andfully-grown adults can eat a widerange of prey from fish, turtles,snakes, amphibians, birds, mam-mals of all sizes, even other alliga-tors. In Louisiana’s coastalmarshes, nutria (Myocastor coypus)is the main prey of alligatorswhereas rough fish and turtles dom-inate the diet of Florida alligators. Al-ligators are opportunistic, and largermammals such as cats, dogs, rac-coons, feral pigs, white-tailed deeror domestic animals are preyedupon if encountered. In alligator wa-ters, any animal living in the wateror coming to the water to drink is po-tential prey. Although they huntmostly in water, alligators maysometimes venture onto land andhunt a few hundred feet from water,ambushing animals near trails orroads.

Attacks on humans occur fromtime to time, probably as a case ofmistaken identity. Records report al-most 300 attacks on humans inFlorida since 1948, of which at least17 resulted in death. Included inthose deaths are the three Floridi-ans killed in the same week in 2006.The most serious attacks are nor-mally made by alligators greaterthan 8 feet in length and are mostlikely the result of predatory behav-ior. Unprovoked attacks by alligatorssmaller than 5 feet in length arerare. Alligators quickly adapt to hu-mans, and public feeding of alliga-tors is the start of many problems. Other than attacks on humans,alligators often generate nuisancecomplaints because of the risk theypose to children, the simple fearthey instill, or by their predation ofpets or domestic animals. In someareas, alligators excavate extensiveburrows or dens for refuge from coldtemperatures or drought and theirdiggings can damage dikes in im-poundments.

Alligators are commerciallyraised on farms for the meat,leather, teeth and skulls. At least fivestates, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia,South Carolina, and Texas haveproblem or nuisance alligator controlprograms that allow permitted

hunters to kill or facilitate the re-moval of nuisance alligators. Otherstates require that state wildlife offi-cials be called to remove problemanimals. Florida has the most press-ing nuisance alligator problem andcurrently harvests about 4,000 alli-gators per year. n

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 15

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16 n W.C.T

Everything you read above istrue, except the tombstone,which I will someday have.

Fortunately, that day has not yetpresented itself to me. I did indeedfall, unexpectedly, 23 feet to thehard concrete while trying to catcha raccoon. It was a simple job thatI’ve performed 100 times withouterror. You’ve done it as well.

The noose of the snare polewas around the raccoon’s head andI recall mentioning to my son that I’dlike a better grip on it, perhaps get-ting one leg through the loop aswell. It wasn’t to be, so I gave thecable a stiff yank and that’s when allhell broke loose.

I remember the unexpectedweight shift and the soffit breaking.I remember dangling - holding ontoa truss, suggesting that my son pullme up. He tried and tried but therewas no budging me upward at all. Iquickly discussed a few options and

called out for help. I didn’t want himfalling as well. My arms, with 230pounds of dangling body weight,started to lose all feeling. I couldsense, feel, and even watch myarms lose the battle to gravity asthey started to lose their grasp. I’mnot proud of my almost final words.It was a statement, and then an ex-clamation. I’m glad they weren’t mylast.

I don’t remember hitting theground. I don’t remember beingconscious or unconscious. I don’tremember asking my son, repeat-edly after he brought me back toconsciousness, “What happened?”“You fell, Dad.” “How’d I fall?” “Youslipped trying to catch a raccoon.”He said we had that conversation atleast fifteen times in the ten minutesit took for an ambulance to arrive.The paramedics took me to thenearest Trauma specialty hospital,and the trauma emergency room is

where my memory starts to fadeback into black and white. I don’t re-call the CT scans, the X-rays, oreven the IV fluids they were pump-ing into me. I don’t recall my sister,a paramedic, asking me to move mytoes and fingers. Just knowing thatshe was there though, made mefeel better than the dilaudid (nar-cotic pain reliever) that they werepumping me full of on a regularbasis. I trust her and can read herfacial expressions like a book. Iknew the dire straits that I was in byher regular assessments. My wifewas an hour away and when she ar-rived at my bedside, she tried tocomfort me and then had to leavethe room for fear of passing out. Imust have looked pretty banged up.

How this happened, I don’tknow. Not the fall – that part I knowabout! I’m speaking about living tobe able to tell my story to you. A falllike that should have killed me, or at

FROM THE TOOLBOX

JACK AMMERMAN5104 Woodstock Drive n Swartz Creek, MI 48473

On the first day of May, 2012, Jack Ammerman fell from between two trusses in a high attic whileattempting to capture a raccoon with a catch pole. The distance he dropped was 23 feet. He wason an overhang over a warehouse truck dock and his path took him through the thin aluminumsoffit material when he lost his balance. He was unconscious upon contacting the cement load-ing dock and bleeding profusely. His eldest son, Jack Ryan was with him in the attic and watchedin horror as his father lay limp on the cold pavement over two stories below. The pool of bloodgrew rapidly…

least severely crippled me or evenparalyzed me. Everything went myway and then some. My brokenbones will heal. My body will mend.I’ve had four doctor appointments inthe last two days - a Trauma Sur-geon, an Ear Nose Throat special-ist, an Orthopedic doctor or two, andof course, my family physician –whom I was in the middle of doing ajob for when this all happened!There will be many more doctor vis-its and at least one surgery.

Originally, I wanted to tell no-body about this terrible accident. Ididn’t want to be singled out as adumbass that wasn’t careful. I didn’twant people to say “Why didn’t hejust put a trap out for the raccoon?!”(If you saw the situation, you wouldknow why it was unfeasible.) But in-stead, I figured that I would tell mystory and hopefully get some peopletalking about me. By doing that, per-haps just ONE other guy will re-member that bad things can happenwhen we least expect them to, andhe’ll take the extra minute to bemore careful than I was.

Stay tuned for a few future arti-cles on safety. I know it can some-times be a boring subject and we’dall rather hear about “the hot newlure” or “the latest innovation in livetrapping” but without someonekeeping safety in our forefront,someone’s going to get hurt realbad. Or worse.

For those of you that know me,you know that this is the secondtime I have fallen from over twentyfeet. I wrote an article for WCTabout the first fall. After that incident,I became a stickler for ladder safety.Now that I have taken a plunge froman attic directly to the pavementbelow, you better believe that atticsafety is at the forefront of my con-cerns. I have replayed the job overand over, searching for a safer wayto traverse and work in attics.

Many of my close colleaguesthink I suffered a permanent headinjury because I called OSHA onmyself. I wanted to know exactlywhat OSHA required and I wantedto make sure that I knew about anybetter or safer way of performingattic work. As it turned out, despitethe fall, I was in full compliance. The

Michigan Occupational Safety andHealth Administration senior safetyofficer that discussed the fall withme is a licensed electrician and veryfamiliar with attic work. He agreedthat even though attic work is inher-ently dangerous, using fall arrestequipment in an attic can be evenmore dangerous. He even told methat he charges “through the wazoo”when he is required to work in anattic because of the danger factor.

In the past, for the most part, mybiggest concern while working in anattic was putting a foot throughsomebody’s drywall ceiling. The ma-jority of the time spent in attics hadthree point contact (two feet andone hand on the trusses or twohands and one foot) so falling all theway through was only a remote pos-sibility. However, since May 1, 2012,damaging drywall is the very least ofmy concerns when we get an “ani-mal in the attic” call.Jack Ammerman – still alive andkicking n

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 17SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 17

HE HAD A TOUGH TIME HELPING ME TODAY

18 n W.C.T18 n W.C.T

WCT RECAP: UNDERSTANDING THE FOUR BASIC TYPES OFBAITS AND LURES - THE BASICS OF ATTRACTINGBy Tim Julien

What’s good coon bait? Or,what is the best lure tocatch the most fox? Or,

what is the best squirrel bait? Theseare questions I hear at all the con-ventions and any time two wildlifecontrol operators get together. It isalmost like asking about theweather. I was one of those askingthese questions until I learned moreabout the subject and understoodhow unanswerable these questionsreally are.

My hope is for you to under-stand why smells do what they doand help you understand lures, baitsand other attractants. I want you tobe able to elicit the desired re-sponse in an animal and make it dowhat you need it to do using theselures, baits and other attractants.

I have read a few other articlesthat describe the terms baits, luresand usually urine. Most that I haveread I consider to be incomplete.These articles discuss in detail whatthe word means to the author andtell very little about the responses tothese products. It is my view that ifyou understand the animal andbasic instinctive responses you willbe 100% more efficient in using thetools that trigger these responses.

Some consider baits only thoseproducts that have food as an ingre-dient, and some consider lures any-thing that lures the animal to yourtrap. Others only consider a productthat contains a gland formulation alure. Some further confuse the issueby discussing call lures as lures thatare used away from the set but con-tain the same ingredients that areplaced at the set or in the hole. I sayforget about it, call them all smellsand learn what response you wantto achieve from them and give themany name you choose.

To simplify your understandingand avoid confusion we will refer toall of these products as smells. All ofthese smells can be placed in oneof four categories. These categoriesrelate to the responses desired bythese smells. The four groups orcategories are food, which appealsto hunger, gland, which appeals toterritorial instincts, curiosity, and

sex, which appeals to the matingurge. Any smell you purchaseshould be for one of these cate-gories, to trigger that specific re-sponse in the animal, not that youhave this response in your mind. Isay this to emphasis that a smelldoesn’t have to trigger this responseor thought in your mind but in the in-tended animal. The smell of grilledsteak smells good to you and maynot be very attractive to a rabbit orgroundhog.

For the sake of this article wewill discuss one animal, the coyote,to clarify the point; however, theprinciples can be applied to any an-imal the same. We start with foodsmells.

First we must consider the timeof year, the location we have to workwith and the variables of the specificsite. We have decided the coyote isvisiting the area in search of food sowe want to present it with a foodsmell. Rabbits, dogs, cats, raccoonsand opossums also use this loca-tion. We cannot think of any foodthat will be attractive to coyotes andexclude the others. So we backaway from this location and moveaway from the edges where theseother animals travel and decide tolimit our search for a smell that isnot strong enough to draw attentionfrom a distance.

It is fall and wild fruit is available;persimmon seeds are present in thecoyote feces we have seen in thearea. So we decide to use a fruitsmell and place the trap in an openarea used by the coyotes travelingon the way to the feeding area.What we have is a coyote travelingto an area with food on its mind. Ifthe trap is in the line of travel, thecoyote will smell the attractant andif it is attracted by this food smellyou have used the smell correctly totrigger a food response. If you haveset the trap correctly and placed thesmell so the coyote triggers the trapwhile investigating the smell, youget paid. If not you hope your nextset gets him.

When using food smells use asmell that is attractive to the animalyou are trying to attract and less at-tractive to other animals in the area.If you are trying to attract raccoonsin an area that has cats, use a fruit

THE FOUR BASIC CATEGORIES

OF ATTRACTANTS:

FoodHunger Response

CuriosityThe Unknown

TerritorialGland Lures

SexMating Urge

based smell instead of fish based.However, if the raccoon is eating thecat food, use the cat food to attractit. Don’t try to change the animal’smind unless you absolutely have to.If a raccoon has been raiding thetrash can nightly then put trash inyour box trap. If a raccoon is outhunting for whatever it can find, youhave a lot of options. Learn your tar-get animal’s habits and match them.Match the smell to the animal, loca-tion and specific situation and youwill save a lot of time and money. Ifyou are going to stock your truckwith food smells then get two differ-ent smells for each of the animalsyou plan to attract and use accord-ing to the specific site evaluation.

Remember you are attractingthe animal not trying to feed it. Youdon’t need a 4 ounce jar of smell toattract; the animal just needs tosmell the smell. If the formulation isquality, then just a little dab will doya. If the smells you are buying arefrom the grocery store you mayneed more.

Professionally prepared smellsare formulated in a base that standsup in weather and holds the smellfor a longer time. This means that a1-ounce bottle of professional smellwill outperform a quart jar of peanutbutter. In summary, use food smellswhen the animal is thinking food;trigger an I-want-to-eat-that re-sponse by using smells that the an-imal has already associated withfood; be aware of other animals thatmight also be attracted to the samesmells and adjust your choice ac-cordingly.

It’s very good to know how totrigger the territorial response. Toutilize smells that trigger this re-sponse you need to know if the ani-mal is a territorial type animal. Someare more responsive than others butall respond to some extent to thesmell of other animals in their areaor territory. This response will veryat different times of the year. In thetime of the year that coyotes have

well-defined territorial boundariesthey will be very aggressive towardsthe presence of another coyote en-tering their territory. This is wherethe gland lures and urines reallyshine.

If you find the boundaries ofyour target coyote you can use agland that simulates another coyoteor any canine. These smells are for-mulated from glands of other ani-mals. Urines are similar in there useas they are the smells from otheranimals. With canines and other an-imals the smell of another animalcan trigger a urinary response,which is how these animals mark orclaim the area.

These smells are most effectivein areas marked by the target ani-mal, anywhere you find accumula-tions of feces or toilet areas you canbe assured that any smell of anotheranimal will not go unnoticed.

Place the smell of another ani-mal in a way that requires the ani-mal to trip the trap or pass throughthe capture device and you havetriggered a territorial response.Some of the gland lures are verystrong smelling and some are usedtoo generously and trigger a rollingresponse.

Have you ever wondered whyyour dog just has to roll in the worstmess you have ever smelled? Itcould not help it, the dog was re-sponding to the smell. In a cage trapthis response may not be a prob-lem; however, it is very difficult tocapture a coyote in a foot trap if itrolls over the top of it.

With other animals the responsemay not be as aggressive but a re-sponse still the same. If the smell ofanother animal in the target animal’sarea will bring it to the capture de-vice then you can use this to youradvantage by using a quality glandsmell. It may be the smell of thesame type of animal or that of an-other.

Gland and urines are commonlyused to simulate the smell of these

attractive visitors. Don’t confuse thegland smell of a rabbit as triggeringa food response or expect it to pro-duce the same response as a chunkof rabbit meat. They are two totallydifferent smells and they producetwo totally different responses.

In summary, smells that simu-late the smells of another animal, ei-ther of the same species or acompeting species will trigger a ter-ritorial response. This may causethe animal to investigate and if yourtrap or device is properly placed youget paid.

The next type of smells that willtrigger a response are categorizedas curiosity smells. These aresmells that the animal probably hasnever smelled before. An examplemight be a mixture of rattlesnake,lemon pie and alligator glandsplaced near a trail used by a coyotein Michigan. As the coyote comesnear the smell it may think “Whatthe hell is that?” and just have tocheck it out, or it may do a 180 andhead to Canada. I would suggestnot using loud smells of this type.These are also known as change-up smells because if you are dealingwith a coyote that has been edu-cated to a certain smell and isavoiding your sets you might try tootrigger a response by offering asmell that it has never smelled be-fore. Curiosity smells may containglands of animals that are not foundin the area or foods that are notcommon to the area, what they allhave in common is the smell trig-gers a curiosity response. I wouldnot recommend that you stock up toheavy on this type of smell for nui-sance wildlife work; however, it is agood tool to have at your disposal ifneeded.

The last group of smells all trig-ger a mating response or what’ssometimes referred to as a passionresponse. I don’t see a lot of thistype of smell on the market, partly

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 19

Continued on page 20

because it is a hard smell to collectand formulate and partly becausethere is not much written on the useof this type of smell. I find it veryuseful in snaring situations on trailsfor coyotes or in trying to draw coy-otes to a place off the normal trail.

Mainly gland based smells willhave this type of smell and triggersimilar responses. During the mat-ing season this type of smell can bevery effective for obvious reasons.The search for a mate is all the ani-mals are thinking during this time ofyear and if you can put the smellthey are seeking within their smellrange they will respond. This goesback to the idea that it is always bet-ter to present a smell that is in linewith the animal’s thoughts at theparticular time of year and presentlocation.

If the animal is hungry, use foodsmells to trigger the “I found food re-sponse.” If the animal is concernedwith other animals in the area, usea gland smell to trigger the territorialresponses, if it is mating season,use a smell that says “I found amate.” If you are not sure and arehaving a problem, try a curiositysmell that triggers the “I better check

that out” response. Many of thesesmells can be used together at thesame location in different sets ortraps and have increased results. Itis very difficult to know exactly whatan animal may respond to at anygiven time or place; however, youcan increase your odds of captureby understanding the smells and re-sponses that they should trigger.

I would not mix two smells to-gether to make one; however, plac-ing two different smells at the sameset can work very well. For years furtrappers have added urine at the setalong with every other smell. This isdone in part to create the thoughtthat another animal has been thereand triggers a secure response orconfidence that everything is allright.

Without getting too much into lo-cation an example of using differentsmells at the same site we will dis-cuss a typical coyote set location.

Coyotes have been coming intoa subdivision from the nearby fieldsand eating cats. Typically I wouldback track and find a set locationthat is on their line of normal traveland get away from the subdivisionto avoid nontarget animals.

At this location I might set threefoothold traps. One might be a

gland smell that might trigger a urineresponse, so when it tries to com-municate that it is aware of a newcoyote in the area my trap would beset to intercept its foot as he inves-tigates the smell.

The next trap may have a foodsmell since he is coming throughwith food on his mind. Again my trapis placed so when it tries to investi-gate the source of the food smell,my trap captures it. The third setmay have a second food smell thatgives it a choice and me a secondchance to trigger the food hungerresponse. All three sets may have asquirt of urine added to trigger aconfidence in the coyote and triggera response that may cause him tocheck the area out because anothercoyote has been there. Apply theseprinciples to any animal in any trap-ping situation and control the re-sponse of the animal. You will beable to trigger the proper responsefor any given situation and lead theanimal to your traps more success-fully. Now learn how to set the trapsand you have got it all figured our,however that is another story.

Understand what you are look-ing for in a smell before you goshopping an ask the manufacturerwhat the lure was formulated for.They will not and you should not ex-pect them to tell you the ingredientsor formulation recipes; however, ifthe maker cannot tell me the intentor desired response I should expectfrom the smell, I will not buy it.

Buy all your smells from a per-son or company that you trust.Know that the bottle you buy todayis the same as the bottle you boughtlast year because they are consis-tent in their formulation process.One more thing, don’t worry about ifthe smell you are buying is called alure, bait, call lure or anything else– know what it does and why it doesit. You should probably not ask for“smells” when you talk to the suppli-ers. n

20 n W.C.TContinued from page 19

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 21

TESTING A BETTER CAGE TRAPBy Paul Winkelmann

For those of you that might notknow, Greg Smith is now theowner of Tomahawk Traps. A

few weeks back he sent me a cageincorporating a new idea that hehad for limiting destruction of pansand connecting arms by raccoons.

I naturally assumed that hechose me to test his product be-cause he had heard of my greatprowess for catching raccoons andhe wanted to have an expert’s opin-

ion! My wife said “Don’t be silly. Hesent it to you to save on shippingcosts and he knows you have a bigmouth.” When your ego gets out ofhand, it’s always handy to havesomeone to bring you back to earth.

This cage has a bar that runs allthe way across the pan, the entirewidth of the cage. I know what youare going to say next. “What pre-vents the raccoon from standing onthis bar and never tripping the cageat all?” That’s a good question and

I’m sure a lot of my raccoons areasking themselves the same thing.My guess is that their toes overhangthe bar too much and the contactwith the pan trips it every time. WhatI do know is that I have yet to havea misfire with this cage and my cus-tomers have been as impressed asI have.

Now I would like to point out thatGreg’s son Kyle sent me several ex-cellent pictures of this trap which

promptly got gobbled up by that veryscary Internet Monster that devoursstuff and you don’t know where itwent to. Never fear; I took a pictureof my cage after over twenty rac-coons so that you could actually seethat there is no damage. That stuffat the bottom of the cage is raccoonhair. They seem to shed a lot in this100 degree weather.

I don’t know about the rest of thecountry but in Wisconsin it is not the

big old male raccoons that usuallymake a shambles of a cage; it’sthose crabby females! I caught fivefemales in a row at one job andwhen the cage still looked as goodas new I realized that Greg was onto something. What I had a hardtime believing was that somethingso simple could work this well butisn’t that usually the case? If you’rein need of some new raccoon traps,I suggest you give this new Toma-hawk a try. I’m sure you’ll be ashappy with it as I am. n

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22 n W.C.T22 n W.C.T

Our native woodrats(Neotoma spp.) commonlyreferred to as packrats or

traderats, are not generally knownto be a nuisance or an economicpest of any great significance, how-ever, when local populations be-come high, woodrats can become aproblem. The nature of these prob-lems varies with the location andtype of habitat in which a particularspecies thrives.

There are ten species anddozens of subspecies of woodrats inthe 48 contiguous states. However,

the behavioral and feeding charac-teristics and reproductive nature aresimilar enough to permit the entiregroup (i.e. genus) of woodrats to bediscussed collectively as one. Thisnot only applies to their biology butto their control as well.

One or more species are foundin most states with the exception ofa few of the north central and Great

Lakes area states. They are alsoabsent in most of the New Englandstates. The various species are usu-ally restricted to a given type ofhabitat. Wooded or forested areasare favored by some, as are brushyareas. Others enjoy the hotter drydesert environments. Some arefound in low lands, while othersfavor the more mountainous re-gions, utilizing rock outcroppings,rocky canyon walls, and shaleslopes extending well above the tim-berline.

Although several species areconsiderably smaller in body config-uration and size, they generally allresemble the common introducedNorway rat (Rattus norvegicus) butwithout the coarse fur and scaly tail.In appearance woodrats havelonger and softer body fur andlonger more slender short furredtails than Norway rats. The tails of

certain woodrat species are morehighly furred than others and sev-eral species have tufts at the end.Their ears are large, lightly haired,and paper thin and their eyes arelarge, slightly bulging, bright, andshiny.

The different species may showmarked difference in fur coloration;however, collectively they are lightto medium brown with variations to-ward cinnamon, buff and gray. Theirunderside is almost always of amuch lighter coloration—in shadesof cream to white.

They are chiefly nocturnal, ex-cellent climbers and highly activeyear around. Most species buildlarge conspicuous conical or dome-shaped houses or dens with somestanding more than six feet high offthe forest floor. Forest or tree livingspecies may also construct spheri-cal-shaped dens high in trees.Desert loving species may build aden adjacent to the base of a cactusor among brush vegetation, onlyrarely using abandoned burrows.Woodrats will frequently utilize nat-ural cavities in downed logs, rockoutcroppings, cracks in cliffs, smallor large caves, an abandoned mineor dry shallow well. When it comesto den building, they are highly op-portunistic; this is why they some-times take up space in attics andoutbuildings of all kinds to builddens. Their dens are constructed ofsticks, twigs, leaves, and whateverelse is available in their environ-ment.

Dens are typically occupied by asingle individual, except when thefemale is rearing her young. A singleden or house, however, may beused generation after generation ofwoodrats—each occupant or gener-ation often adding to or remodelingthe house.

WOODRATS: THEIR BIOLOGY AND CONTROLBy Rex E. Marsh

Artwork by Karen Barth

These dens are an obvious signthat woodrats are thriving in thearea, even though the animal mayrarely actually be seen. Frequentlytheir 3 or 4 inch wide trails will leadfrom their houses to currently usedfeeding grounds. Those rats living intree dens may use arboreal travelroutes; hence the absence ofground trails may be misleading.

They are essentially herbivo-rous, with a preference for a widevariety of plants largely determinedby the habitat in which woodratsthrive. They consume the wholerange of plant items, includingleaves, flowers, seeds, fruit, nuts,small bulbs, bark—including fungiand cactus when available.

Woodrats are notorious forhoarding food items in substantialamounts, often far more thanneeded for winter survival. Gallonquantities of nuts or tree seed maybe found stashed in a chamber oftheir dens. As collectors, these ro-dents are unmatched, and this is notlimited to just food items. They arealso noted for collecting other smalland often shiny objects such ascoins, pieces of glass, rifle shell cas-ings, jewelry items, aluminum cansor their pull tabs. Dozens of suchodd items may be found in a den.This trait is, of course, how theyearned the name “packrats”. One oftheir other names is “trade rats”,which comes from the fact thatwoodrats will often set down an itemthey are carrying and then pick upanother item to carry off—in effect,a trade.

Their breeding season extendsfrom spring to fall, with the typicalrodent gestation period of 3 to 5weeks. Litters range from 1 to 4young, with an average of abouttwo. One to three litters are born an-nually; multiple litters are moreprevalent in the southern regions.Young are born blind and naked, butdevelop rapidly and are weaned atabout three weeks of age.

Diseases — Woodrats and theirnests may be infested with insects,many of which are ectoparasites.Woodrats (e.g., dusty-footed) arehighly susceptible to plague, whichmay be transmitted to pets or hu-mans. A rapid die off of woodratsmay decimate a local populationand serve as a warning that plagueis prevalent in the area. They arealso hosts of spotted-fever carrying

ticks and have been found infectedwith tularemia. They are also the pri-mary hosts of the bloodsuckingcone-nosed or kissing bugs (Tri-atoma spp.), which are vectors ofthe Chagas’ disease most prevalentin central and South American coun-tries, but a few rare cases are re-ported in both the southeast andsouthwest U.S. When bitten by thekissing bug there is also some slightdanger of having an anaphylacticreaction. Woodrats’ role in transmit-ting disease to man is consideredminor, although dead or dying ratsfrom unknown causes should not behandled with bare hands.

Nature of Damage — Woodratdamage is generally fairly local andintermittent. Calls received byWCOs generally relate to the ro-dents entering an attic, basement,or beneath a deck to take up resi-dency and then feed on anything athand, such as dog food, the kitchengarden or family orchard. They mayprefer to take up residence beneaththe hood of your stored RV, in the

horse stable, or maybe some otheroutbuilding such as the pump houseor an unused playhouse.

Where orchards are situatednear woodrat infested habitat, thegrower’s trees may suffer branchclipping, bark stripping, or youngtrees may be girdled. The woodratpropensity for hoarding food itemscan be destructive to all types of nutcrops as well as to a variety of fruitcrops. Damage is most severealong the margin of the orchard thatlies adjacent to the wildlands. Forestmanagers are probably challengedby woodrats more than any othergrower group because of the ani-mal’s tree seed consumption and in-jury to a variety of trees at severalstages of growth. Redwoodseedlings are one of the speciesmost susceptible to severe damage.

Legal Status — In most stateswoodrats are classified as nongameanimals and can be taken (con-trolled) when they threaten or arecausing property damage. The iso-lated and localized Key West,Florida population of a subspeciesof the eastern woodrat, the Largowoodrat (N. floridana smalli), hasbeen federally listed as endangeredsince 1991. Check with your localgame officials before undertakingcontrol of any type.

CONTROL METHODSConsidering that damage by this

native rat was experienced by earlysettlers and has continued eversince, it is surprising how few con-trol-type publications exist that in-clude woodrats.

WCOs most commonly use livecatch and/or kill trapping to resolvea woodrat problem. Woodrat callsare so infrequent that when a clientreports a critter is running around inthe attic, the WCO naturally sus-pects a squirrel or a roof rat—only

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 23

Dusty-footed woodrat courtesy ofJerry P. Clark

Continued on page 24

to be surprised to find it’s a family ofwoodrats.

Trapping — Cage type live catchtraps are most effective in catchingwoodrats. Spring closing single doortraps work fine. Nut meats, raisins,oat groats, or oatmeal and peanutbutter combined make for goodbaits, as do sunflower seeds or pinenuts. As a general rule woodrats areeasy to trap, but occasionally onewill try to outsmart you. It is then thatyou might want to try a totally differ-ent bait, such as crisp bacon.

Rat size traps with dimensionsof about 4 x 5 x 15 inches made ofsheet metal or wire mesh are rec-ommended. I prefer the wire meshtrap, with mesh not exceeding 1/2 x1 inch and have trapped dozens ofdusty-footed woodrats over theyears with Tomahawk traps (No.102, chipmunk size). Remember,woodrats are not very heavy so traptriggers should be set very sensi-tive.

Rat size snap traps are also ef-fective in taking woodrats. Both thetrigger type and the expanded trea-dle type can be used. Studies haveshown that the live catch are moreefficient in catching woodrats thanare snap traps but they take longerto set and must be inspected regu-larly. With snap traps you havemany more tripped traps with nocatch, which means more snaptraps must be used to achieve thesame number of catches.

Conibear traps (No. 110) can beused and are most suited for ruralareas involving multiple acres withnumerous dens. Out-of-doors, settraps at active den entrances or inwell used trails. For greater nontar-get protection the traps can beplaced beneath tunnel-type trapcovers made of wood, arched wiremesh or sheet metal. Scatter asmall amount of oat groats (oatsthat have their hulls removed) orsunflower seeds in front of and in

the trap box. This is the same prin-ciple the “old timers” used andcalled the stovepipe set—in whichthey set a No. “0” jump trap in a sec-tion of stove pipe.

Glue boards have been usedwith some success, but they arevery low on my list of control meth-ods because the entrapped animalis often not found dead—creating apotential public relations problem.Glue boards should always be an-chored or secured to prevent an en-trapped rat from dragging it offwhere the animal cannot be easilylocated and recovered.

Euthanasia with CO2 is thecommon practice. Relocation ofwoodrats is not advised as survivalin a new environment may be ques-tionable and, most important; thereis a risk of spreading diseases toother wildlife populations or to theindividual conducting the relocation

Exclusion — Woodrats can be ex-cluded from residences, commer-cial, and other buildings using thesame techniques as used to ex-clude Norway or roof rats. Remem-ber that woodrats may enterbuildings at either the ground or rooflevels, as their dens or nests maybe in the basement, beneath adeck, or in the attic. Woodrats willbuild their nest in any available par-tially enclosed space. When proof-ing with wire mesh use 1/4 inchmesh to also exclude house anddeer mice.

Rarely are woodrat-proof fencesconsidered or justified economically.If attempted, a 12 inch band ofsheet metal should be placed at thetop of a 4 ft. high wire mesh (1/2 x1/2 inch) fence. Six inches of thebottom edge should be turned out-ward and buried to prevent diggingbeneath. Avoid placement nearoverhanging trees.

Foresters, with some success,often use plastic mesh cylinder treeguards to protect newly planted treeseedlings. These are used to pro-

tect the tree from a variety of rodentand rabbit pests. While they help,they are not totally effective, as ro-dents can gnaw through them andsome damage may still occur. Wiremesh cylinders are an alternativebut are too expensive for mostforestry uses and, in addition, any-thing wire must be physically re-moved as the tree grows. Theplastic cylinders are designed to dis-integrate from sunlight over time.

Repellents — None are sufficientlyeffective to justify their expense.

Toxicants — Woodrats are suscep-tible to the same anticoagulant ro-dent baits that are effective for theintroduced Norway and roof rats.Check with your local pesticide en-forcement authorities to determine ifany of the commercial anticoagulantrodent baits are registered forwoodrats under the Special LocalNeed 24c provisions in your state.Recently (July 2011) it was an-nounced that J.T. Eaton’s bait blockhad received registration forwoodrats in the state of Arizona.Use in accordance with the label in-structions.

Anticoagulant baits are normallyplaced in tamper resistant bait sta-tions, but woodrats have a strongtendency to fill them with twigs andsticks, so such stations must be vis-ited frequently to clean and keepthem functional. Besides filling thestations with sticks and other plantparts, woodrats are notorious for re-moving the bait and hoarding it else-where, especially whole grain,pelleted baits, and place packs. Inyears past, a meal bait was oftenrecommended because it was moredifficult for them to carry off.

Woodrats were one of the first ofour native rodents for which warfarinparaffin bait blocks, once devel-oped, were recommended for con-trol purposes (Marsh 1962). A onepound bait block was too large andheavy for a woodrat to carry away.

24 n W.C.TContinued from page 23

Present day bait stations are de-signed to make it easy to secure thesmaller sized anticoagulant baitblocks, but plugging the out-of-doorstations with sticks remains a prob-lem.

I have heard of woodrats (packor trade rats) picking up pieces oftoxic rodent bait and then whenstopping at the dog’s food dish, trad-ing or exchanging the bait for a dogbiscuit. While I question the fre-quency of such an occurrence, it issomething you never want to expe-rience. For this reason, the use ofpoisons should be considered withextreme caution and ruled outwhere pets or domestic farm ani-mals may be exposed to carried ordisplaced baits left in an accessiblearea by woodrats. These rodentsdid not come by those alternatenames, pack and trade rats, withoutreason.

Zinc phosphide bait, where reg-istered and legal to use, has beenemployed for woodrats in forested

areas and in larger more remotewild areas where high populationsmust be controlled. Control ofwoodrats with toxicants, where per-mitted, can be much faster and farless expensive than trapping. Pastuse of zinc phosphide bait has gen-erally been for spot baiting, where ateaspoon of grain bait was scatteredover an area of 2 or 3 square feet atthe den entrance or in a well usedtrail leading to a den. Specific direc-tions will appear on the bait label.Prebaiting with clean nontoxic grainof the same kind will enhance thedegree of control once the zincphosphide bait is applied.

Shooting — As a practice, shootingis not effective and should probablybe labeled a sport rather than a con-trol. Kicking, stomping, or a strongblow against a woodrat’s nest willoften cause the animal to scurry forthe nearest cover or tree where it

becomes a challenge to theshooter’s skill. n

REFERENCE

Marsh, R.E. 1962. The Bulletin51(3):147-148. Department of Agri-culture State of California

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 25

WATCH FOR

SWAMPFOX

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FURBEARER LURES & BAITS

26 n W.C.T26 n W.C.T

Last Spring I accepted a job fora business that had two fami-lies of raccoons in their attic. I

had a carpenter accompany me onone of the trips to give me an esti-mate for the extensive repairs to thedamage. As I was on the roof settinga trap, one of the employees, think-ing my carpenter was a wildlife con-trol guy, came out to speak with him.She asked the carpenter what wewere going to do with the animalsand he flatly and un-couthly stated, “Ohthey’ve got to die. Thoseanimals are destructive!” Ididn’t know about the con-versation at the time, but Isure heard about it later inthe day. The woman hadgone to her boss, andthen to her general man-ager to complain that wewere going to kill thesecute raccoons. I thought I had lostthe job. After a short discussion, themanager left the disposition up tome providing that I was able tospeak with the woman and quell thefire. I left the carpenter at home forthat conversation!

I dislike euthanizing animals. It’sthe worst part of my job and it both-ers me on occasion, but it is part ofmy job at times and I must perform.I understand nature and the waythings work in the animal kingdom.We need to make sure our clientsare informed as well.

“What do you do with the ani-mals once you catch them? ”It feelslike I’ve answered this question atleast a million times and I hope toanswer it a million times more. Forvarious reasons, our clients aregenuinely concerned about whathappens to the animals that wecatch.

For some clients, there is a trueand heartfelt empathy for the ani-mals that they just hired us to re-

move from their property. Otherclients ask this question simply be-cause they do not want it comingback to their property – ever! I’vehad clients that were so financiallyhurt that they want assurance thatthis animal is going to die. Others,out of pure frustration and disruptionof their daily lives, ask to have it eu-thanized. Some clients actually feelguilty for taking part in messing withthe animal’s daily activities.

For some of you, your state lawsanswer the question for you. Youare required, by law, to either re-lease the animal onsite or euthanizeit. For those of us that live in statesthat leave it up to our discretion, wesometimes walk a fine line when wegive our answer, but the conundrumneeds to be instantly solved to ourclient’s satisfaction.

We’ve all had our friends jokewith us about catching an animalfrom one neighborhood and then re-leasing it into another nearby neigh-borhood. Their punch line, “JobSecurity!” is a funny one but is farfrom the truth. Once-caught animalslearn from their experience and be-come much harder to catch the sec-ond time around. This could lead tomoney flying out of our pockets byhaving to invest extra time and ex-pense trying to trap a trap-smart an-imal. This fact is a very goodargument for euthanasia, but shouldnot be the lone deciding factor.

It’s important to judge the habitsof the offending animal to determinewhat the animal is most likely to doagain. In 1999, White Buffalo Inc.conducted a study involving rac-coons that were living in chimneys.They monitored the raccoons aftertheir evictions (via radio telemetrycollars) and determined that 70% ofthe raccoons simply moved to an-other man made structure within twodays. The urban environment is

what the animals knowand will return to! As Ispeak of animal habits, Iam reminded of the timethat my wife and I were sit-ting on our deck late oneevening star gazing. Sud-denly she said “What’sthat on our roof?!” Therewas a raccoon, walking toeach of our roof vents andgiving each one a slight

tug – checking for a weakness. Thisraccoon didn’t just happen to bechecking roof vents. It KNEW tocheck the roof vents for access toan attic. It’s obvious that the rac-coon had spent some time in anattic, either recently or as it grew up.This is an animal that would con-tinue to be an attic dweller if trappedand trans-located.

I don’t believe that it’s necessaryto euthanize every animal we catchif not required by law. Their habitswill largely remain the same aftertranslocation. The raccoon that isliving in a tree, the squirrel that iseating bird seed, or the skunk thatwas sighted traversing the backproperty line are prime examples ofanimal calls that we get from nerv-ous homeowners. Although theseanimals have made someone un-comfortable enough to spend theirearnings to have them removed, theanimals themselves have done littleharm. Euthanizing them after cap-

THE QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE ANIMALS ONCE YOU CATCH THEM?By Jack Ammerman

“The Squirrel That YouKill In Jest, Dies In

Earnest.”Henry David Thoreau

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 27ture, although an option, may not bethe best alternative.

“What do you do with the ani-mals once you catch them?” Thequestion still remains for us to an-swer. I often know what course ofdisposition I intend to take with theanimals that I capture, but I alwaysanswer with this statement, “Well, I’lldo whatever you wish. I can legallyeuthanize it or I can take it a longway away and legally release it.Since you asked and you are thepaying client, I will do whatever youwish.” At that point I continue thereply with one of two statements:

“This animal hasn’t really doneany damage, outside of makingpeople feel uncomfortable with theirpresence. I intend to release it at adesignated release area that I havethat is at least ten miles away. Youwill never see this animal again if Irelease it, but it is your decision andI will do whatever you wish.”

Or

“I can release this animal if youinsist, but I know that this animal willsimply find another chimney or atticto live in, causing someone elsegrief. It’s used to living in nice, warmhouses and it’s doubtful that it willbe satisfied with living in a hollowlog somewhere. I’m not comfortablecosting another homeowner thou-sands of dollars in damage by re-leasing this animal, but you are thepaying client and I will do whateveryou tell me to.”

Ninety-nine percent of the time Iget the response that agrees withmy initial intention. Every once in awhile though, I have a client thatdoesn’t want to take ANY chancethat the animal will come back andupset them again. They ask for theeuthanization. On that same note,most all of our clients have a com-passionate heart when it comes towildlife.

Every once in a while we get ananimal that has done thousands ofdollars in damage and the clientasks that we not kill it. “It really was-n’t its fault. It was just trying to livelike everyone else.” Although I don’tagree with their decision, I under-

stand their thought process. Attimes like these I am faced with anethical dilemma. Without fail, I makesure the client is comfortable andmake certain that I am too.

Obviously, this whole euthana-sia/release subject is a touchy oneand must be approached with care.

Customer relations are an im-portant part of the wildlife control in-dustry. We must be professional, actprofessional, and be knowledgeable

about the species and tactics thatwe employ.

Answering the question “Whatdo you do with the animals once youcatch them?” is never a straight for-ward and completely mind restingexperience. Be as honest with yourclients as you can and keep theirbest interests in mind (while keepingyour best interests and the animals’interests in the mix as well.) n

28 n W.C.T

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 29

On June 2, 2012, A All AnimalControl’s CEO, Mark E. Dot-son set out to be the Fastest

NWCO on The Planet. After morethan a month of building a strongermotor that would handle the extranitrous power that the 2008 SuzukiHayabusa would need to accom-plish this feat, A All Animal ControlRacing was set to make history.

The weather on that Friday wasraining and miserably cold. The bikewas tech inspected in the trailer andbuttoned up for the rest of the day.

Saturday morning came and theweather was not exactly picture per-fect for a land speed racing run.High cross and headwinds wasmore the flavor of the day in centralOhio but they were within the per-sonal limits of Mark.

The bike was readied, tire pres-sures checked and adjusted, swingarm aired up and the bike was fu-eled. Some last minute setting ad-justments and then the bike waspulled to the lanes to wait for ourtime run.

The Wilmington Mile is a closedrunway at Wilmington Air Park andis a measured mile with a half mileshut down area. The bike wouldneed to use every inch of this mile

to get to speed before the speedtraps flagged out mile per hour.

The wind continued to gust with10-15 mph crosswind and wouldswitch to a headwind every so often.

Our time had come and the EastCoast Timing Associations safetycrew performed the last safetychecks, staged the bike and thencleared us for launch.

The launch was hard and ag-gressive and the rear wheel spunshortly down track which caused therev limiter to be pegged. A quick but-ton shift and the bike was rolling intosecond gear. After the throttlereached 90 percent the nitrouscame on and the bike was pickingup power quickly. The rev limiter en-gaged again in third, another shiftand the next two gears were hit righton target.

Around 175 mph the wind be-come intense and Mark had to ad-just to tuck every part of this bodyand helmet behind the small fairing.In land speed racing, this is calledcrawling under the paint.

As the bike was passing the ¾mile markers, the vibration of thetrack caused the nitrous gauge toexplode and the 5 pound bottle toimmediately dump all the nitrous.Even with this issue, the bike ranthrough the traps at 211.700 mph!

Mark E. Dotson holds 3 landspeed records and continues to setand break records at the East CoastTiming Associations WilmingtonMile.

“My sincere thanks go out to ourteam of wildlife management pro-fessionals at A All Animal Control forall their support for helping make theimpossible, possible”, Dotson said.“We hope to see the bike in the 220mph range soon and hold thatrecord for as long as possible”. n

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Mark Dotson on a Suzuki Hayabusasetting a new land speed record.

30 n W.C.T30 n W.C.T30 n W.C.T

Over the past couple of years,I’ve been writing articlesabout how to get more peo-

ple to your website using onlinevideo, social media, pay-per-clickadvertising, and on and on. Thistime I’m going to talk about whatshould happen when the person ac-tually gets to your site. Today’s arti-cle is all about having an effectivewebsite that converts visitors intobuyers.

The first thing you need to con-sider is who your visitor is. Toomany people get caught up in webstrategies before they even givetheir visitors a second thought.What are their wants, needs, anddesires? If you know that, then you’llbe able to cater your site to THEM.Isn’t that what it’s all about?

So with that in mind, the threetypes of visitors who are most likelyto show up at your web site are what

I call the “Researcher”, the “Do-It-Yourselfer”, and the “Damsel in Dis-tress”.

I’ll start with the Damsel in Dis-tress because this is the categorywe wish every web site visitor fellinto. (Plus I know, deep down, thatyou want to be the knight in shiningarmor.) Truthfully, this visitor isn’tnecessarily a damsel. She can justas easily be a man.

The Damsel in Distress has aproblem NOW and desperatelywants your help. They don’t careabout comparison shopping orweighing the pros and cons of yourservices. They have an unwantedanimal in their house and it has gotto go.

All you need to do to cater yoursite to the Damsel in Distress isprominently display your phonenumber and a direct call to action.Don’t hide your number on the“Contact Us” page. Stick it right upfront, and include it on EVERY pageof your site. Even though this is asimple idea, I see so many NWCOweb sites without a clearly displayedphone number or call to action. Youhave no excuses. If I see your sitewithout both of these simple things,I WILL slap you.

Next, let’s talk about the Re-searcher. This is the type of personwho wants to know the ins and outsof the industry BEFORE they callyou. They will hire you, but they’vegot to do their due diligence first.They won’t simply call and ask youwhat their options are because theyfeel like you’ll just try to sell to them.Instead, they want to research theiroptions on their own. Once theymake a decision, THEN they’ll callyou.

As you can see, a simple phonenumber with a call to action won’t be

MAKE YOUR WEBSITE BETTERby Costas Peppas

enough for the Researcher. To ap-peal to this person, it’s a good ideato have helpful information on yoursite about how to hire a NWCO.What are the pitfalls? What ques-tions should someone ask? How doyou really know who is the best? Inthe Internet marketing world, we callthis “setting the buying criteria”.(Ideally, this information skillfully ex-cludes all other NWCOs except you.And why shouldn’t they hire you?You ARE the best, right?)

Lastly, you’re going to have todeal with the Do It Yourselfer. As thename suggests, this person is notlikely to hire you on their first visit toyour site because they believe theycan…wait for it…“do it themselves”!

What should you do? Well, Ihave a solution that you might notexpect. I recommend that you actu-ally offer free information on exactlyhow to do it themselves. It can be inany format that is instantly down-loadable (ie, a video series or anebook). However, the actual infor-mation should NOT be on your website out in plain view.

Instead, you’re going to ask fortheir email address in exchange forthe information. Here’s why: theonly hope you ever have of gettinga die-hard Do It Yourselfer to be-come a customer is if he tries to doit himself, and fails. Then, and onlythen can you be waiting with openarms to accept his business.

But you’ve GOT to have the abil-ity to “be there” when he’s ready.That’s where your email follow-upwill work its magic. Without follow-up, there is an overwhelming likeli-hood that he never comes back toyour site. It’s a proven fact that avery small (and I mean VERY small)percentage of your visitors will evercome back to your site after they’veleft. However, if you can send a sim-ple follow up email that says some-thing like, “Hi Bob, it looks like yougot my ‘How to Get Rid of Skunks’eBook last week. I just wanted to

drop a line and ask how things aregoing with your situation?”

Can you almost hear Dr. Philsaying, “How’s THAT workin’ out forya?”

Maybe Bob has succeeded ingetting rid of the skunk. If so, he’ll beproud of himself and likely to giveyour eBook a big thumbs up. He’llfeel great about your company andrefer you to others. However, if Bobrealizes that he’s in over his head(the likely outcome), then he’ll askyou for advice. At that point, you’vegot him. You just step in and makethe sale.

Sounds simple, but the processis part art and part science. Whereshould the opt-in form be? Whatshould it say? What should youoffer? What IS an opt-in form? Whatabout the email follow up? Howmany emails should you send?What should they say? (etc., etc.)There’s a very specific strategy Iuse for this, but I’m just about out ofspace. Call me, mention this article,and I’ll tell you all about it.

The major takeaway today isthis: you need to be aware of all thepotential customer types that mightbe browsing your web site and whythey’re there. Then, and only then,can you create a site that meetsthose needs and gives you the bestchance of converting more of yourvisitors into customers. n

Costas Peppas gives WildlifeControl Operators an advantageover their competition bringing thema steady stream of new clients withhis done-for-you marketing strate-gies. He is the owner ofwww.NWCOsecrets.com and hisaverage WCO client increases theirincome by well over $100,000 in thefirst year of working with him.

Costas Peppas can be reached at: Office: (615) 378-6418Website: www.NWCOsecrets.comE-mail: costas@nwcosecrets.com

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 31

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32 n W.C.T

In the May/June Issue of WCT Mag-azine we discussed foot-hold traps.In this issue we are going to discusstheir equally important partner, bodygripping traps.

Whereas it is possible to per-form wildlife control work without theuse of body gripping traps, the lossof this tool can turn routine jobs intonightmares. What then is a bodygripping trap?

For the purposeof this article, abody gripping trap isany trap designedto quickly kill an an-imal as it attemptsto passes throughthe trap jaws orframe. It is becauseof how efficientbody gripping trapsare that animalrights groups aretrying to get themoutlawed. Their nor-mal tactic is to referto them as bodycrushing or indis-criminate kill trapsthat take thousandsof pets each year. This purposefuldeception of the truth is meant toplay on the uninformed publics emo-tions with the ultimate result of gen-erating monetary donations for theanimal rights groups.

The facts are that body grippingtraps do not crush the animal norare they an indiscriminate killingtrap. Is it true that a non target ani-mal can be killed by a body grippingtrap? Yes, but that doesn’t meanthat the trap should be classified asindiscriminate pet killer. Regardlessof what is caught, it can only becaught if the animal passes throughthe trap. The trap is just one part ofthe animal capture equation and isjust another type of tool for the

WCO to use. What really deter-mines what is caught is how the trapis placed and the set constructedthat really determines what will becaught or not caught.

Body gripping traps are made bya variety of manufactures and comein a large number different sizes,shapes, and styles. Some have twomoving bars known as jaws while

others have a single strike bar. Theymay be powered by one or twosprings and have a one way, twoway, or four way trigger. Most bodygripping traps are meant for specificanimals; however, there are severalsizes that can be used for multiplespecies.

As always, before purchasingand using any body gripping trapmake sure to check the state andlocal laws in the area you are think-ing of using them. Ohio, for in-stance, has several laws regardingbody gripping traps that includewhere the trap may be set, the sizeof the trap that may be used, andthe timeframe it can be used in with

even more restrictions in certainmunicipalities.

Before going on we need to dis-cuss some of the most commonbody gripping sizes and styles. Wewill start with the common body griptrap (square jaw) designed by FrankConibear where the trap jaws re-semble two squares or rectanglesheld together when set but closes to

a single squareor rectanglewhen fired.Single spring

traps of thisstyle includethe 50, 110,and 150 (notethat some man-ufacturers usetheir own num-bering systemso a SleepyCreek 450 isactually a 110).Double springtraps of thisstyle include60, 120, 155,160, 220, 280,and 330.

WCOs need to know not only thenumber but also the trap dimen-sions. This cannot be stressedenough as some regulations arewritten by measured size while oth-ers list trap types.

As confusing as this may seem,it really isn’t all that bad as you’llsee. We’ll start with the smallesttrap (50) and go up from there. A 50and 60 body grip trap have a jawspread that measures 3 ½ “ x 4 ½ “.Right away you can see that for themost part, once you know the basesize of a trap the next number upmeans that is has two springs in-stead of one.

Next on the list is the 110 and120 traps. These traps have a 4 ½”

32 n W.C.T

WCT BASICS: BODY GRIPPING TRAPS

A good sample of body gripping traps. From bottom L-R120, 155 Round, 330, 220, 660 Super Bear

x 4 ½” jaw frame. Again, the 110trap is a single spring trap while the120 is a double spring trap. The nextsize up is the 150 and 155 traps andthey have a 5” x 5” jaw frame. Fromnow on all the traps we will be dis-cussing of the standard style havetwo springs. The 160 trap is a 6” x6” trap, the 220 is a 7” x 7” trap, the280 is an 8” x 8” trap and the 330 isa 10” x 10” trap.

Another style of body grippingtrap is the round jaw. As the namedescribes, this style of trap has around jaw instead of the commonsquare jaw. They follow a lot of thesame naming conventions andnumber of springs that we’ve previ-ously discussed. So a 110 round jawbody gripping trap with still have ajaw spread of 4 ½” powered by asingle spring. A 330 round jaw willhave a jaw spread of 10” with twosprings. Here are some round jawtraps that have different dimensionsthan we’ve previously discussed.The 40 round has a 2 ½” jawspread, the 55 round has a 3 ½” jawspread and the 440 has a 12” jawspread.

The final style of body grippingtrap to discuss here is the Nacotrap. Although no longer produced,

these traps bare special notice be-cause unlike other body grippingtraps they do not have jaws thatcome together and are still muchsought after by WCOs. Rather, thetrap is built right into the trap springso that when the trap fires the trapjaws do not close but spring openstriking the animal and holding it inplace. Naco traps are the only bodygripping traps we know of that usea directional one way trigger so that

the trap is only fired whenthe animal goes through itfrom a specific direction.They come in three sizes,350, 550, and 750 withopenings 3 ½”, 5 ½”, and 7½” respectively.

That is a good startin the body grip trap worldbut as usual there are ex-ceptions and of coursespecialty traps. Probablysome of the most usedspecialty body grippingtraps by WCOs are themole and gopher traps.Some of the most popularof this category are theVictor Out-O-Sight, NoMole®, and the Gophina-tor. Based on manufac-

turer, it is possible to have a 3” x 3”body grip trap, tube or case stylebody gripping trap, 10” x 26” bodygrip trap, or something else. Also,you can have WCOs and trappersremoving one of the springs from a160, 220, or 280 to make them eas-ier to handle. We don’t recommenddoing this as it reduces the strikingand holding power of the trap andthat may allow for an animal to es-cape.

Body gripping traps are mainlyused in what is referred to as “blind”sets. This means that the traps isset along the animals natural travelpath without any bait or lure tocause the animal to investigate.What the operator wants to do isfind a naturally occurring narrowingor restriction in the animals traveland set the trap at that location foroptimum results. Just because bodygripping traps are mainly used inblind sets does not mean that theycannot be used with bait. A lot ofraccoons are caught every year withthe help of bait as well as muskratsand beaver especially after the bod-ies of water have frozen over. Justkeep in mind that the majority of

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 33

Continued on page 34

A boar raccoon caught in a 155. Notice the trap jaws right behind the headand very little distance of the ground showing quick euthanasia

Nutria in 220 Photo © John Schmidt

pets caught in body gripping trapsare because of bait that was usedwith the set.

When using a body gripping trapWCOs must determine the potentialfor nontarget catches before theyset the trap and make the set. Nooperator wants to tell their client thatthe raccoon wasn’t caught last nightbecause the family cat beat the rac-coon to the trap. Not only does itmake for a hostile work environment(if you don’t get fired), it also leavesthe operator in a potential financialretribution for the loss of the pet andpotential legal issue. We are notgoing to say don’t set a body grip-ping trap when pets are present aswe feel that only the operator candetermine when they are appropri-ate. What we will say is that thereare ways of preventing nontargetcatches that operators should con-sider when using them.

The first method is to mount thetrap right over the entrance hole theanimal is using. At times a wire orwooden box may need to be con-structed and mounted to allow forproper placement; however, thistype of usage means that only ani-mals using the entrance hole havea chance to be caught.

The second method is to set thetrap in the tunnel of the target ani-mal and then cover or fence off theentrance to the tunnel so that onlyan animal in the tunnel can becaught. Of course the down side tothis method is that if the animal isnot in the tunnel when the trap isplaced it cannot enter the tunnel toget caught.

The third method is to “fence”down the pathway leading to andfrom the trap by placing objects be-side the animal trail and over thetrap leaving a small crawl space forthe animal to use. This is particularlyeffective for preventing dogs fromentering sets for raccoons. By tak-ing advantage of a raccoons naturalability to enter a restricted area you

can cause most dogs to go aroundor over your set instead of throughit.

The fourth method is to usebaited sets only in locations petscannot access such as sealed crawlspaces, attics, roofs, or buildings.Keep in mind that if you’re in one ofthese areas an animal succeeded inentering it so there is a possibilitythat a pet may enter it as well unlessyou do something to prevent it.

The last method we will discussis to use the smallest effective bodygripping trap you can for the animalyou have been hired to remove.Where it is legal, you can use a 220to remove a ground hog but a 155will do a better job. The reason isthat the larger traps may only strikethe animal with one set of the jaws,usually just below the ribs and whenboth jaws strike the animal (com-monly called suit casing) the jawsaround the animals throat cannotclose as tightly due to the jawaround the midsection. However,with the smaller trap most catchesoccur with a single jaw striking di-rectly behind the skull and on thethroat resulting in faster kill timesand zero to little struggling. Anotherside benefit is that if the trap is toosmall for the pet’s head to pass

through the jaws it cannot getcaught.

To show how effective body griptraps can be, unofficial testing weconducted on 53 raccoons over athree year period euthanized by155, 160, and 220 body grippingtraps in the same wire tunnel re-sulted in the following data. The av-erage time it took for a raccoon tobecome unresponsive in a 220 wasapproximately 6 minutes. The aver-age time it took for a raccoon to be-come unresponsive in a 160 wasapproximately 4 minutes. The aver-age time it took for the 155 trap was45 seconds. It should be noted thatwe did not test the 120 as we con-sidered the jaw spread too small toensure it would consistently strikebehind the skull instead of on theskull. Test raccoons weighed an av-erage of 15 pounds and includedboars and sows. Times wererecorded by starting once the trapwas fired and stopping when wecould no longer note any signs ofbreathing or struggling. We had atotal of five (5) trap misfires (2 forthe 220, 1 for the 160, 2 for the 155)during the three years showing thatnot only is size of the trap important,but trigger configuration and trapplacement as well. n

34 n W.C.TContinued from page 33

A raccoon wire cubby set with a 155. Cats can be kept away by placing asweet bait at the back of the wire instead of a fish or meat type bait.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 35

After watching a Tom KrauseBobcat video, I decided to tryout his techniques on my trap

line. I made two sets as shown in thevideo, a “trash mound” and a “walkthrough”. I used my “Sterling” double coilspring traps and my “Trap Smart”trap checking system. To my surprise, after two days oftrap checking, I had finally caughtmy first bobcat! Thanks Tom Krause, Sterlingand Trap Smart! You made my trap-ping adventure a reality! n

MY FIRST CATBy Andrea Alvarez

Congratulations to ourWCT July/August FacebookT-shirt contest winner:

Glenn Oldrich

36 n W.C.T36 n W.C.T36 n W.C.T

Roofs are a daily work risk forthe majority of WCO’s. Notonly do you have to worry

about getting on them in a safemanner, but you also have to worryabout staying on them until youwant to get down.

To combat this problem, a lot ofoperators will do anything to avoidworking on roofs in the fist place orthey will use bulky safety equipmentor unsafe practices. Instead ofdreading roof work, operators needto embrace it and prepare them-selves for working on them. One ofthe simplest and cost effectiveproactive approaches that can bemade is to invest in a pair of CougarPaws.

Cougar Paws are a patentedtraction-grip Roofing Shoe devel-oped in 1996 by Dan Cougar, aroofer for nearly 20 years. Unliketennis shoes or regular roof boots,Cougar Paws have a special trac-tion grip pad sole that gives 2 timesmore traction on a roof allowing youto concentrate on work instead offalling or sliding.

One of the most unique featuresof this product is the ability to re-place the traction-grip pad with afresh pad when it becomes worn.

Since the pads are held in place byindustrial Velcro called the “hook”,all you need to do is peel it off of the

boot and replace it by pressing thefelt material side, called the “loop”,into the boots sole. This simpleprocess gives you a new boot for allpractical purposes for just a coupleof dollars.

The traction-grip pads wear willdepend on multiple factors that in-clude the wearer’s weight, pitch ofthe roof, roof material, and amountof time used. When you are doing alot of work on semi-steep pitchedroofs with very abrasive shinglespads may have to be replaced on aweekly basis. But when working onlower pitched roofs or smoother ma-terials such as metal or slate thepads may last for a month or more.

Cougar Paws offers several dif-ferent boot styles so you can findwhat works best for your situationsand usage. I have been using theHi-Top Shoe [pictured] style since2004 but they also offer a style withbetter ankle support that I plan to goto, as well as a waterproof version.These are a piece of equipment thatI use yearly, continually putting themthrough their paces. Now, I nolonger feel safe on any roof greaterthan a 3 in 12 pitch and I won’t geton a metal roof regardless of pitchwithout them.

Replacement traction-grip padsrun around $16.00 a pair while theboots themselves will run around$125 - $150 making them very eco-nomical. My pair are finally startingto show some wear and tear afteralmost 8 years of use making theircurrent per year cost only $15.60per year plus pads. I can’t think ofanother tool capable of saving yourlife that doesn’t required installationfirst for half this price. Even if youpurchase a new set of pads per jobit is easy to cover that expense inthe job cost and it is much, much,much cheaper than any ambulance

ride, doctor visits, hospital stay, op-eration, and physical therapy re-quired from falling.

As good as this product is, theyare not a catch all for 100% of roofwork that WCOs do and have theirlimitations. They do not work on iceor snow covered roofs and don’t ex-pect 100% traction on wet surfaces,cedar shake, extremely worn as-phalt singles, or high pitched roofs.I have used them on an 8 in 12 pitchmetal roof with excellent results butthat is about as far as I’m willing togo without additional safety gear. Tofind out more about Cougar Pawsand why they are one of the besttools you can own go towww.cougarpaws.com/movie orto place an order or find a distributorgo to www.cougarpaws.com. n

WCT TESTED: COUGAR PAWS

Eric Arnold wearing Cougar Pawsduring the 2008 Bat Exclusion Work-shop. Photo by Steve Graul.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 37

attic cleanout was an area 30 ft x 15ft. No bats where found during eitherinspection and the amount of guanonoted with the insulation was ap-proximately 100 pieces.

In Example B, the attic area was55 ft x 20 ft with a working height onthe high point of 24 inches and 18inches on the low point. The first

quote included removal of contami-nated material, disinfecting of thearea, replacement of the ceiling andtwo walls, rewiring of the circuitpanel (to be brought up to code),and installation of insulation. Thesecond quote only included removalof the contaminated material, disin-fecting of the area and installation ofinsulation. With this additional infor-mation did your opinions change?

Here is what actually was happen-ing.

In Example A, the operator thatkept reducing their price was onlyable to do so because of the highfee they originally charged. Everytime they did so, the only thing thatchanged was their profit margin. Ifthey could actually perform the jobat their last bid totaling $6,100 theiroriginal bid of $12,700 had a whop-ping mark up of over 200%. This isan example for what I’d considerprice gouging. It is similar to gasprices jumping up at several gasstations right after 9/11 happenedwhich resulted in charges and finesagainst some individuals and com-panies.

In Example B, several issuesexist. First, requesting a competitorsbid to make a “like” bid in my bookis highly unethical. You are the pro-fessional and you know what needsdone. Second and of more note, in-surance fraud was performed by ad-justing the bid to the amountcovered by insurance without sub-mitting it again for review. It is illegalto offer a discount to a customerwithout offering the same discountto the insurance company. This al-lows the insurance company to ad-just their payment accordingly asmost claims are paid on a percent-age basis of the actually cost minusdeductible. Prospects will always tryto get a discount for themselves andsome will go so far as claiming thejob rests on receiving the discount.Again, when an operator does thisthey are committing insurancefraud, a criminal offense.

It is not and has never been theoperators responsibility to help theclient pay for services. If the clientwants the service, they will find away to pay for it. When you go toany restaurant you can’t say “I wantthis entrée but will only pay X dollarsfor it” and expect to get it unless thatis the price it is being sold for. Theprice is the price! Why should yourclients be getting something youcan’t? n

Continued from page 7

38 n W.C.T

Q: I am a Wildlife Control Op-erator and as such I removeraccoons and other animals

from attics. Many times the attic in-sulation has been compromised tothe point that it needs to be re-moved and replaced, either be-cause of odor or fecesaccumulation.

Recently, awareness of the posi-bility for asbestos in insulation(Libby, MT) has come to our atten-tion as an industry. I would like toknow about the process that theEPA recommends to remove thistype of insulation.

What I am looking for is theEPA’s specific guidance to thoseprofessionals or maybe lessonslearned in Libby on clean up or pro-tocols to use to remove insulationfrom attics.

T.J., IN

A: The type of insulation to be con-cerned about is vermiculite, whichcould be contaminated with as-bestos. The brochure [see pages 38and 39] provides EPA’s guidance.

Professional removal is recom-mended, although vermiculite sam-ples taken from an attic may notshow the asbestos when tested.That’s one reason they are stilldoing research in Libby, Montana ,it’s hard to tell when there is a haz-ard or not.

EPA only recommends that cer-tified asbestos abatement profes-sionals be used to removevermiculite or any other insulationthat contains asbestos. In fact, theasbestos NESHAP (National Emis-sion Standards for Hazardous AirPollutants) requires that certified as-bestos professionals be used to re-move asbestos-containing materialsfrom buildings other than resi-

dences of 4 or fewer units. Somestate laws extend the requirement toresidences as well. It sounds likeWildlife Control Officers might fallunder those requirements. Youshould check with the regulators ineach state you’re working in. Herein Colorado, you’d have to be certi-fied and licensed asbestos abate-ment contractors to do residences.

The folks removing vermiculiteup in Libby, MT are certified abate-ment contractors working with EPA.They do the hands-on work but weare working closely with them to ad-vise and approve their methods. Ithink they’re using equipment simi-lar to yours but with additional safe-guards to prevent asbestos fiberrelease. I’m not aware of any pub-lished information on the proce-dures they are using.

I would recommend that WCO’swear a respirator when going into anattic with vermiculite.

However, even if all WCO’s be-came certified asbestos abatementworkers or supervisors, the trainingdoesn’t address the exact questionyou’re asking.

Vic Zielinski, Compliance InspectorUS EPA Region 8 n

QUESTIONS & ANSWERSHave a question on Wildlife Control Work?

Email us at ask@wctmagazine.com or write us at PO Box 357, Sharon Center, OH 44274

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I NEED MY EYES EXAMINED?

Editors Note:

The following pages were for-mated to allow for a tear-outbrochure from the EPA on han-dling vermiculate insulation in at-tics.

This brochure is also availableonline from the EPA at:

www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/insulationbrochure2.pdf

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 39SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 39

40 n W.C.T

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 41SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 41

42 n W.C.T

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER n 43

44 n W.C.T

Ohio Wildlife Control OperatorsAssociation

The Board of NWCOA was gra-cious to grant me an audiencefor their July 16th Board meet-

ing. We discussed the manner inwhich the funds we placed in trustwith NWCOA can be returned to us.They have outlined a procedure andrequirements we must meet to beable to get our money back. Someof these requirements (to be an af-filiate) we may find untenable, asthey would be cost prohibitive (abiannual audit of our books by an in-dependent party, for example). Ihave not yet exhausted all availableavenues of obtaining these funds.

Keep an eye out for correspon-dence, we are looking at having ameeting in late September or Octo-ber for organizational purposes andcreating our by-laws. We will alsolook at the changes we would like tosee in the Administrative Code asHB 420 moves to the Senate and isenacted into law.

We are now officially incorpo-rated and are working toward ournon-profit status.

Charter memberships will beavailable for the first year only, at$150. This is the only membershipclassification available for the firstyear. We have always had a greatcore of leadership and encourageyou to join us.

You may send your Chartermembership dues to the temporarymailing address: OWCOA, PO Box3152, Dublin OH 43016. Please in-clude your Name, Company Name,Address, Phone Number, and emailcontact information.

Dirk E. Shearer, acting President.

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a Listing of the State Association ineach issue of WCT Magazine and on-line

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