Saturday morning cartoons taught us at a young age that a big part of life would be battling local wildlife to protect our homes and gardens (think Donald Duck, Looney Tunes & even Popeye!). We are incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by so much natural beauty. With that beauty comes a lot of wildlife that also calls this location home. Most of us love seeing the abundance of wildlife, but sometimes an existence that doesn’t mesh with our lifestyle, can turn into a battle.
My current battle? Gophers (or as I prefer to call them, my lawn hamsters). These incredibly cute residents have formed an army of mass destruction. They’ve even joined forces with some local ground squirrels, and I am definitely losing the battle. They are incredibly friendly and not at all afraid of me, my family or even our dog. They love our passion for gardening and the wide assortment of fresh plants and bulbs that we contribute to the yard. We refuse to put out poison, for many reasons. One of the most important reasons is that we have so much wildlife that is actually helping us fight the gophers – birds of prey, coyotes, bobcats and snakes, just to name a few. Poison and traps put our other friends at risk, too. We will eventually modify our yard, as I have done in the past, by installing a wire mesh barrier below the landscape. It’s a method that works, without doing harm.
Creating barriers is also important for protecting your house. It’s wise to check regularly to make sure that rodents and other unwanted inhabitants can’t easily gain access, especially to your crawl space and your attic. Critters living in these areas can do a lot of damage, and the clean up and repair can be quite costly. A little prevention goes a long way. Regularly inspect the exterior of your home for openings where critters could get in and promptly close the openings. Keeping trees and vines away from the side of your house takes away natural ladders that help unwanted guests get in (it also lowers fire risk and may help with your homeowner’s insurance).
Remember Popeye? As I recall, he always had a big problem with termites. Do you know that there are some easy steps that you can take to reduce your risk? Subterranean termites do the most damage to homes of any California termite species. These termites build their nest underground and feed on anything containing cellulose. Subterranean termites must remain in a moist environment, so they travel from their underground colonies in mud tubes that they build. There are two easy steps that you can take to help protect your home. First, make sure that you don’t leave their favorite foods under your house (wood/boards, etc. laying on the dirt). Second, keep soil and mulch away from the side of your foundation. High soil levels make it easy for termites to build their tubes to travel up and into the walls of your house. Proper clearance prevents this.
There isn’t room here to address all of our wildlife, but the important takeaways from this article should be that wildlife, like all living things, are strongly driven by the desire for food and shelter. Balance is incredibly important in an ecosystem. Taking steps to create barriers to unwanted wildlife and not attracting them with food, are the most effective and friendly way to protect your home and co-exist with our beautiful neighbors.
Do you have real estate questions? Every home is unique. Please feel free to reach out to me at 925-964-5010 or via email at Lisa.Hopkins@Compass.com. Even if you’re not planning a move, I’m happy to help by providing you with relevant data, enabling you to make a well informed decision. It’s never too early to start planning for success.
