Your Neighbors are WILD! 
Lynda Parker, A&E Chair
I’m not talking about the sweet couple that lives next door or across the street…. Who’s that taking a shortcut across your backyard? And who’s been digging in your garden bed?
When we moved to Tellico Village, we quickly learned we share our space with some wild neighbors.
Some of us may be delighted to learn a mother deer feels our yard is a safe place to hide her baby, or that a red fox feels comfortable enough to let her little ones play near your back patio.
But what to do when wildlife oversteps their welcome? Deer eating your flowers? Squirrels or raccoons in your attic? Skunks nesting under your porch? They might be cute, but we don’t always want them this close.
Wild animals are often classified as a nuisance because of misunderstanding. When we see an animal in our yard, we should first seek to understand that animal, just as when a new family moves onto our street, we want to meet them and learn about them. Do a simple Google search and learn about the wild animal’s life cycle. You may find that the babies grow up quickly and within a few weeks this nocturnal family of skunks will just move on without you interfering. So, for only a few weeks, you’ll need to keep your dog on a leash and not out in the yard after dark. You may also learn those skunks are ravenous for yellow jackets and will eliminate every yellow jacket and their nests from your yard, you may ultimately decide you’d rather have the skunks than angry vicious yellow jackets.
And don’t be so quick to call a pest control company. They may make promises about humanely trapping and removing animals from your yard. This is just marketing. The truth is: in the state of Tennessee (as in most states), it‘s illegal to relocate a wild animal without a permit from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Association (TWRA). So, unless they have a permit, most of these companies will trap animals and then euthanize them.
Attempting to eliminate wildlife yourself always has unintended consequences. Rodenticides and pesticides are not targeted to the specific animal you’re trying to remove. Rat poison doesn’t always kill the rodent but just makes it sick and an easy target for predators. Owls, hawks, foxes and other predators often become sick and die of secondary rodenticide from catching and eating poisoned rodents. Sticky traps are inhumane and catch all kinds of animals other than the one you’re trying to catch. I’ve seen songbirds, skinks and snakes all stuck on sticky traps. No one was trying to catch them and that’s a slow, painful death. Spraying your yard for mosquitoes fleas or ticks also kills the larva of butterflies, moths and fireflies. When hiring a pest control company, be sure to ask them lots of questions. If they tell you to keep your dog off the grass that should be a red flag for you. None of them can guarantee that they they’re not killing fireflies and caterpillars. Don’t trust the guy who’s walking around your yard spraying; it’s not his job to know all the details of the chemical product he’s using. When you have wildlife in your yard, you have two options: appreciation or deterrence. Love them or learn what attracted them to your yard and remove it. Eliminate food sources, keep pet food and birdseed inside your home. Be sure trash cans are secure. Remove standing water sources. Block entrances to shelter. Use repellents to make your area less attractive to the animals. Many rodents, including squirrels and mice have an aversion to the smell of peppermint, so you could plant mint in your garden beds or purchase peppermint spray to saturate particularly problem areas.
We should be thankful that wildlife doesn’t use a pest control service to remove us after we took their land and moved into their home.
“Can’t we all just get along?”
Lynda Parker, A&E Chair (cell) 865-603-0466 (text or leave message) lyndaparker62@gmail.com