Students need to concentrate and hear all the information to be able to retain it. During the occurrence of a power outage, digital learning platforms are disrupted and most classes end when the power doesn't return immediately. This can leave students with only a partial understanding of the current topic and unable to move forward with homework or projects until the power comes back on and they return to class.
From marriage licenses to car registration, public service institutions affect almost everyone. Many of the records and information used to keep these offices going are digitized, and when the power goes out, all access is lost. In the event of an extended power outage, the public service branch might close for the day, preventing public access to essential information, resources, and services.
Some educational and public institutions conduct research on topics from the weather to curing diseases and rely on electrical systems to store data. With the loss of power, precious data may be lost if it wasn't saved before the power went out. In some cases, the research materials may become damaged or contaminated when the power goes out.
At Critter Guard, our wildlife control solutions are designed to help prevent animals from accessing important electrical equipment and causing power outages. By utilizing our products, utility companies can prevent the occurrence of power outages at educational and public institutions. To learn more about our wildlife control solutions, contact us today!
]]>When a healthcare facility like a hospital experiences a power outage, they are limited to backup resources, meaning anything elective is automatically considered non-essential and not happening during this time. There isn't enough power to manage the equipment needed for these rooms and to run the large overhead lights that are needed during surgery and other procedures. This means that anything scheduled during the power outage will need to be rescheduled once power and normal operations resume.
Some supplies will be lost once the power is out, especially if the outage lasts more than a few hours. Many supplies and equipment are required to be refrigerated to be used. With the power outage, these storage rooms aren't powered, and these products may reach room temperature during this time. Should this happen, they will be considered defective and unable to be used. This could impact the hospital's supply of medications and supplies, even after power has been restored, until they can get restocked.
The machines that patients are using in the hospital require power to run. This means that fluids and medications administered through an IV will not work, nor will the vital sign monitors used to track a patient's stability. This could be dangerous for patients in critical care, restricting the staff's attention and risking patient safety.
To prevent power outages that could impact patients, it’s crucial for building architects and engineers building healthcare facilities and hospitals to establish a backup power system that turns on if the main power grid goes out. There should be enough power to manage the refrigerated medical supplies and medications and support essential monitors and IVs that patients depend on for their health.
Another way to prevent outages at mission critical facilities is to manage the wildlife in the area with preventative wildlife control solutions. These solutions keep wildlife away from power lines, utility poles, and transformers, reducing damage to the equipment and power outages. If you would like more information on our wildlife control solutions, contact our team at Critter Guard today to see how we can help keep power on at mission critical facilities.
]]>While a complete power outage itself may not cause much harm to appliances and electronic equipment, the surge of electricity accompanying power restoration can cause severe damage. It's important to unplug everything when the power fails. Damage can also occur when power is inconsistently delivered to your devices, such as during a brownout.
Older computers, in particular, are susceptible to damage from power outages. When a computer does not follow its shutdown sequence, you may experience performance issues and data loss upon power restoration. Computers that remain plugged in can also be susceptible to power surges or voltage spikes when power is restored.
During a power outage, medical equipment failures can be dangerous for a patient. When a home oxygen concentrator goes down or a dialysis machine stops working, a patient may need to be rushed to an emergency room. Spare batteries can keep a bad situation from becoming tragic, but power outages affecting those with health issues are can be truly frightening.
A power outage during the cold winter months can be more than just a temporary inconvenience. If the power remains off too long, the cold temperature could freeze the water in your pipes. As that water freezes, it expands and may cause the pipes to burst. Many homeowners are unaware that this has happened, and after the power has been restored, they find themselves with flooded basements, bathrooms, and other areas.
A power outage can also damage your HVAC system. If your air conditioning is running when the power fails, the compressor can't cycle off and may overheat. An outage could also interrupt your AC unit's cooling process. Power surges can trip your circuit boards or cause the motor, capacitor, or relay switch to fail.
Safeguarding your home's electrical equipment requires more than just unplugging your devices. It’s important to keep critters from accessing your home and electrical equipment near your home in the first place, as they can damage more than just your electric system. With Critter Guard’s wildlife control solutions, you can effectively deter critters from accessing your home and the power lines and utility poles nearby. These solutions can keep you and your property powered up and critter-free. Contact us today to learn more!
]]>Though they can sit or scamper safely on a single power line without disruption, when birds, squirrels, or other critters come in contact with multiple power lines, they can divert current, causing power failures (and electrocuting themselves in the process).
Outages can also occur when birds build nests on power lines that touch multiple lines or other conducting equipment such as overhead transformers. Further, accumulated animal droppings that fall from perched animals or nests and which are acidic in nature can corrode and damage equipment, leading to power outages.
Some birds mistake solar panels for water and try to dive in. Of course, doing so can hurt or kill them and damage the panel itself, resulting in power failures.
Much the same way critters try to break into your home, raccoons, squirrels, and more will find their way into substations. They'll gain entry and gnaw through almost everything, including electric cabling, until they find a dry, safe, and warm place to make their nest.
Another source of power outages includes birds flying into wind turbines. Even if a bird is able to avoid a fatal injury, a collision with turbine blades can disrupt power and damage components of the turbine.
These cases play out every day across the country, and when they do, utility companies, homeowners, and business owners find themselves scrambling to deal with the damage. Before you lose power and have to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars in costly repairs, it's best to prevent these critters from damaging power lines in the first place. By using Critter Guard’s Line Guard, Pole Guard, and BirdBloc solutions, you can help to prevent critters from traveling along power lines and accessing substations, reducing damage to the power grid. To learn more about our wildlife control products, contact us today!
]]>Common pests not only make noises and leave droppings but can also destroy your insulation, foundation, and furniture. To make matters worse, a lot of routine animal damage is not covered by homeowners' insurance. Keep reading to discover a few tips to keep in mind to help prevent wildlife damage.
One of the first things to do is make sure that animals don't have access to your home. Check your foundation and roofing for potential entry points, and keep your doors closed, especially if you have pets.
Over time, the wear and tear and weather exposure can weaken elements of your home, making it easier for raccoons, opossums, and other critters to get in. Roofing and other routine maintenance inspections by qualified contractors should be performed to ensure no holes are developing.
Leaking plumbing can erode your home's structural integrity and create potential access points for common pests. Regular plumbing maintenance and repair is in order to keep your home secure.
Pests are attracted to the scent of possible food sources. So make sure you take your garbage out regularly to be hauled away by sanitation. Also, make sure no food or debris accumulates near or around your home.
In addition to the first four tips, using pesticide-free prevention measures like Critter Guard is ideal. Critter Guard’s Line Guard, Pole Guard, and BirdBloc products are designed to prevent wildlife from accessing your home, roof, and important electrical equipment.
To learn more about how you can keep animals out and prevent damage easily with our affordable and humane wildlife control solutions, contact us at Critter Guard today!
]]>Raccoons typically make their homes in wooded areas that are moist or near water. So, if you live near one of these areas, it's possible that a raccoon may have made its way into your home. Besides the noise, raccoons can pose dangers, as they can carry diseases. While attacks on humans are rare, raccoons will do so when they feel cornered.
When dealing with a possible infestation, it's good to know what you're dealing with, as groundhogs, woodchucks, squirrels, and other woodland creatures have been known to make homes in attics. Besides sounds, here are six other signs you may have a raccoon problem:
Raccoons can cause substantial damage to your home and even injure you, your family, or your pets. The best way to deal with raccoon infestation is prevention. With Critter Guard's pest deterrents, you can prevent raccoons and other common pests from accessing your attic by climbing up trees and utility poles. Contact us today to learn more about Critter Guard's Line Guard and Pole Guard products.
]]>Oftentimes, attics tend to be full of junk and generally undisturbed by human presence. Similarly, the spaces are relatively dry, dark, and warm. As such, rats find attics safe and comfortable, making them the perfect place for the rodents to hide and establish a home.
The basement is likely the first place many rodents will visit when they invade a property. Due to its location, this part of your home is easy to reach, warm, and offers plenty of dark hiding spots. Also, rats may be attracted to your basement if you use it as a storage space for food supplies.
Rats are innately good climbers and can climb any surface that has texture. As such, the vermin can easily climb and hide in walls and ceilings. Cracks, holes, and gaps in your walls and roof may serve as an access route.
When food gets scarce, rats will naturally set out looking for other food sources. Drain pipes offer the rodents food, water, and shelter, three things they need to breed and thrive. Also, since rats are excellent swimmers, they can use the main sewer and drain pipes to gain access to your property in search of food.
Food plays a major role in attracting pests. When food is scarce and the rodents are hungry, they will readily enter and seek shelter in your kitchen. Areas around the kitchen where these pests can hide include behind and under appliances, behind cabinets, under the sink, and in the garbage can.
Garages have openings through which rats can travel back and forth. The pests love to hide here because it is usually dark, there is enough clutter for them to hide in, and there could be available food sources.
Oftentimes, rats will make nests as a place to hide and sleep. Rat nests are usually messy ball-shaped structures or heaps of materials in their hideouts. Common materials that rats make their nests out of include cotton, paper, insulation, fabric, and organic matter. If you find a rat's nest in your home, you may have a rodent problem.
Other warning signs include:
The best way to deal with pests is to prevent them from entering your home. At Critter Guard, our pest and wildlife control products are designed to help prevent rats from accessing your roof, attic, and home. For more information about our products, feel free to contact us today.
]]>Bird excrement is highly acidic and can cause metals, including metal roofs, to corrode more rapidly. Pigeons, which are common in cities, produce the most uric acid in their droppings and are well known for causing damage to bronze statues. Bird droppings can also damage shingles, eat through paint and, if excessive, clog your gutters. Trimming trees back from your roof can reduce the amount of bird droppings by reducing places above the roof where birds can perch. Bird deterrents such as BirdBloc also work by encouraging them to nest or perch elsewhere.
Roof rats, also called black rats or ship rats, like to live in your roof because they can climb, while many of their predators cannot. When they get into the roof, they can be hard to get rid of and can cause damage by ripping up insulation and chewing through electrical wires. Trimming overhanging trees can remove a highway they use to get to the roof. However, roof rats also use power lines to gain access to roofs. Fortunately, our Line Guard and Pole Guard products can be used to prevent these critters from using power lines to access roofs.
Squirrels also love to nest on your roof and in attics. If allowed onto your roof, they can tear up insulation, chew through wires and, being slightly larger, even damage the roof material itself, creating holes and causing leaks. Luckily, squirrels can also be kept at bay by trimming trees and using Line Guards and Pole Guards.
Last, but not least, raccoons can cause substantial damage to your roof. They often jump onto roofs and tear holes in order to move into your attic or roof void. Due to their size and claws, raccoons can wreak a lot of havoc and more once they get inside.
The best way to keep these critters off your roof is to install preventative pest control solutions, such as Critter Guard’s Line Guard, Pole Guard, and BirdBloc products. To find out more about how we can help, contact Critter Guard today!
]]>You can still benefit from solar panels no matter the position or angle, but when you maintain the optimal position and angle, you're going to get the full benefits. Your solar panels should be positioned to receive maximum sunlight throughout each day. You should be checking the position and angle of your panels every month or two.
Like any other appliance or tool in your home, you need to clean and maintain your solar panels regularly. It's a good idea to have your solar panels cleaned and inspected every six months, although you may need cleaning and maintenance more often.
Solar panels thrive on sunlight. However, there may be times when your panels are in the shade because of trees on your property and the weather. When spring arrives and leaves bloom on your trees, you may need to manage the amount of shade keeping your solar panels from being efficient.
Birds, squirrels, raccoons, bats, and other animals may find your solar panels fascinating or a good place for them to nest. These critters can break, chip, and cause other extensive damage your solar panels, causing them to work inefficiently or not at all. Be sure to inspect your panels for damage regularly and consider installing preventative wildlife control solutions to protect your solar panels.
If pests and animal damage are a real concern in your area, you want to take steps now to avoid problems later. Critter Guard has a full line of products that can help prevent wildlife from accessing solar panels and causing damage. Contact us today to learn more!
]]>This crucial, sensitive process helps transfer power across long distances at high voltages while delivering safer electricity directly to customers. Without transformers functioning predictably, power failures and safety issues quickly become major problems.
Transformers are susceptible to catastrophic issues compared to other components of long-range electrical transmission. The amount of energy stepped up or down tends to be massive, and even seemingly minor problems can quickly cascade into a dangerous arcing incident.
These flashes of exposed, ungrounded electricity look and often sound explosive, and can be dangerous for people nearby.
External factors that are commonly known to impact transformer functionality are:
Transformer outages lead to localized cable and telephone service outages. Power is routed away from the areas downstream from the damaged transformer.
Properly protecting transformers from wildlife damage in particular increases the lifespan of transformers, and can help businesses improve the following:
Don't let small animals like squirrels lead to increased costs and annoyed customers. Consider protecting transformers and other power infrastructure with Critter Guard.
To learn more about our humane wildlife control products and how they can protect power infrastructure, contact us today!
]]>A mouse has to eat, and he's more than happy to eat whatever is in your pantry or cupboards. Once he tiptoes through your dry goods, you’ll need to toss everything out to avoid any contamination.
Mice like to gnaw on things, and wires make a nice choice. However, they don't distinguish between electric or cable wires and other items they can chew on. Damaged electrical wires can end up costing you thousands on repairs or result in a fire hazard.
Mice like a nice soft place to nest, and your home's insulation makes an ideal option. You rely on your insulation to keep your home comfortable and utility bills lower. Damaged insulation will not only cost you a pretty penny to replace, it can also lead to increased utility bills.
Feces or mice droppings left around your home present a clear danger to you and your family members. A mouse's dropping can be filled with bacteria, parasites, and more.
In addition to gnawing on wires, mice also enjoy chewing on wood. This can include wooden beams and the frame of your home. If these wooden structures are damaged, they can weaken the structural integrity of your home.
For such small creatures, mice can wreak havoc in your home or on your property if proper pest control solutions are not implemented. At Critter Guard, our pest control products are designed to help you ensure they never have the chance to settle into your home. To learn more about our pest control solutions, contact us today!
]]>Bird mites are parasites that attach themselves to birds. These pests live on the skin of wild birds and fowl and are most active at night and early morning. These mites are small, but you can see them with the naked eye.
Since bird mites are living on the skin of the birds, you might think that they don't present a danger. However, bird mites can be an irritant and a danger to you and your family members.
Bird mites can jump from a bird onto pets and even humans, biting them in the process. These bites can raise whelps and cause extensive itching, although they aren't poisonous. While bird mites can't reproduce on human skin, they can infest domestic animals such as dogs, cats, and rodents.
Bird mites can create a new generation of parasites in as little as seven days. Within a month's time, you can see between four and five generations of bird mites.
With a fast reproduction rate, bird mites can invade your home. Bird mites can live up to three weeks, so you might have three to four generations thriving in your home or on your property at any one time.
The best way to avoid bird mites and other bird-related parasites is to prevent birds from roosting or nesting on or near your property. At Critter Guard, our BirdBloc product is designed to deter birds and their parasites from making your home theirs. To learn more about our BirdBloc product, contact us today!
]]>Since 2001, Critter Guard has focused on mitigating the damage and liability risks posed by wildlife to utility lines. Following regulations regarding the safe operation of power lines is much easier when birds, rodents, and other wild animals are humanely discouraged from spending time on power lines in the first place.
There are OSHA regulations on maintaining safe utility infrastructure. These center on properly assessing power lines and tools by following a strict process that protects workers and the public. These include high-visibility markings for sensitive electrical equipment, and clearances for equipment based on the voltage.
These standards ensure safety, reliability, and efficiency are maintained, and that signs of failure, like those related to damage caused by wildlife, are diagnosed early. Necessarily, these regulations limit the legal modifications of utility lines.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service encourages utility companies to modify power lines and other electrical utility infrastructure to safely discourage wildlife from dangerous areas. But such modifications must be in line with regulations.
There are three of the most common challenges and consequences of non-compliance:
There are plenty of intuitive ways to retrofit wildlife control equipment on utility lines. But the question of compliance looms large over any DIY methods. Critter Guard designs its products with compliance in mind from the start.
Our Line Guard product humanely discourages wildlife from crawling along lines, with a system of rotating jump barriers combined with independent line rollers. Pole Guard also uses plates and rollers to prevent critters from crawling up poles in the first place.
Interested in learning more about humane, safe, and compliant wildlife control systems for utility companies? Don't hesitate to contact us today to learn how Critter Guard can help lower your maintenance costs and keep you out of regulatory hot water.
]]>Because of the unique experiences that happen over time spent in the electrical industry, electrical contractors are best suited for offering anecdotal advice to protect and educate their clients about the risk they have of suffering animal-caused electrical damage. Electrical contractors may offer solutions that cater to the individual and the unique needs of their property.
The financial hardship of animal-induced electrical damage varies in size. One event may lead to a small and short-lived power disruption, while another may cause significant long-lasting damage that costs thousands of dollars to repair.
Operational repercussions of electrical damage included losses caused by the loss of power to electrical equipment or damage to the electrical components of these items. This results in additional financial losses such as food spoilage from inactive refrigerators and the costly replacement of damaged components on computers and televisions.
While a small animal-caused power outage may cause an inconvenience, a large interruption with extensive damage can empty a bank account. This is why it is important to make the small investment in preventive measures.
Electrical contractors are the first and best line of defense against critter-caused electrical damage because they've seen it all, and they recognize their clients’ risk. They see the pole or powerline that serves as a bridge to building roofs for climbing critters, and they know what will stop them.
At Critter Guard, our wildlife control solutions are designed to help prevent animal-induced electrical damage. If you’re an electrical contractor, consider adding Critter Guard's wildlife control products to your arsenal to help your clients limit their risks of electrical damage. To learn more about our products and how you can become an authorized reseller and installer of our products, contact us today!
]]>Setting traps around your property can damage it. You'll have to affix these traps to the ground, and it'll damage your lawn and soil. If you have bats, birds, or other critters inside your home, they'll try to escape any trap you set by burrowing into insulation, breaking windows, and more. There's also a chance that you or a family member could get hurt, too.
While you don't want Rocky the raccoon sharing your residence, you don't want to injure them either. You don't want to deal with finding treatment for an injured animal. Also, an injured animal can be dangerous, and you run the risk of injury as well. Wild animals can also carry diseases, which might pass to you or a loved one.
By the time you buy or rent traps and bait, you've put considerable time and money before you've even started the removal process. It can take days or weeks before you catch the culprit, and in some cases, they might never fall into your trap. The cost in time, resources, and money is more than you may want to invest in a DIY solution.
With the risks of DIY wildlife removal in mind, it’s important to ensure that wildlife doesn't make it onto your property in the first place. At Critter Guard, we offer preventative wildlife control solutions to help you do just that. To learn more about our wildlife control products, contact us today.
]]>Utility poles are generally made from wood or other materials that are easily damaged by woodpeckers, other birds, squirrels, insects, and a wide range of other critters. Animals that chew or drill into wood poles, damage them with their feet as they dig into the wood to climb them, or otherwise impact the structure of your poles can weaken them over time. This physical damage, short circuits, and other issues can make your poles more susceptible to getting knocked over in severe weather and impact their ability to safely provide consistent power to nearby homes and businesses.
Checking your utility poles for signs of critter-related or other damage regularly is an important step in identifying potential issues early on and repairing or replacing your utility poles before they become much larger problems. These regular inspections can let you know if animals are living on or near your utility poles, as well as help you find signs of chewing, clawing, or other damage. Identifying these problems tells you that finding a way to block access to them is an important step in ensuring the longevity of your utility poles.
Finding ways to keep critters off your utility poles in the first place is generally much easier and more convenient than making repairs. Critter Guard's Pole Guard and BirdBloc solutions can help to keep a wide range of critters from accessing your utility poles by creating a physical barrier, and metal bands and other smaller types of guards can also help to reduce the impact of less significant critter issues.
While it can be tempting to wait until you have significant damage to address a critter-related problem, many repairs are far more expensive than installing a deterrence solution early on and maintaining your utility poles regularly. Regular inspections make it easier to locate and fix minor chewed or clawed spots and other issues before they become much larger problems, and our systems are a fraction of the cost of most major repairs.
At Critter Guard, we are here to help you find effective solutions for keeping squirrels, birds, snakes, and a wide range of other critters from damaging your utility poles. Our Pole Guard, Line Guard, and BirdBloc systems are a much more convenient and cost-effective alternative to having to make sudden and significant repairs to poles that are damaged badly enough to impact your power or become a safety hazard. Contact us today to learn more about the benefits of choosing our products or to get started!
]]>Squirrels seek warm and sheltered spaces to build their nests, and your attic or eaves can become their cozy hideaway. While they may seem cute and harmless, these furry creatures can cause extensive damage to your property. They gnaw on wood, insulation, and electrical wiring, potentially creating fire hazards and costing you a small fortune in repairs.
If you're a bird lover, you've probably experienced the frustration of squirrels raiding your bird feeders. They will stop at nothing to access the seeds and grains you've put out for your feathered friends. This not only depletes your bird feeder but can also disrupt the local bird population.
Squirrels are excellent climbers with a big appetite for tree bark, which they often gnaw on. This can lead to tree damage and even death, as the bark is essential for the tree's survival. Tree damage can reduce your property's curb appeal and pose a safety risk.
Squirrels are opportunistic scavengers. They'll go through your garbage bins in search of food, creating a mess and spreading waste around your property. This attracts more pests and can lead to unsightly surroundings and potential sanitation issues.
One of the most alarming ways squirrels contribute to pest problems is by chewing on electrical wires. Their sharp teeth can easily damage wires, potentially causing electrical shortages or even house fires. This poses a significant risk to your property and the safety of its inhabitants.
Critter Guard offers a range of innovative products designed to protect your home or property from squirrel-related pest problems. These solutions are designed to keep squirrels out of your home, attic, and other vulnerable areas, ensuring a pest-free autumn. Contact us today to learn more about how our products can help protect your home from pest problems.
]]>To keep ducks, geese, and other birds at bay, keep your land neat and tidy. While this can be a struggle in the fall and winter, when cold temperatures often keep property owners indoors, taking a few minutes each week to pick up debris, large sticks, or trash that might have blown into your yard will keep the area from looking attractive to nesting birds.
Automatic sprinklers are a deterrent to geese and ducks. If you opt to invest in motion-activated sprinklers, you'll enjoy even more peace of mind, since they can detect when birds land in the yard and react by sending up sprays of water to drive them away.
Critter Guard's BirdBloc product is the best way to keep geese, ducks, and other birds from gathering in or around your property, with a long-lasting repelling smell that drives them away immediately. The scent will linger wherever BirdBloc is deployed, ensuring that you can feel confident in your property's protection from nuisance birds.
Whatever your pest control needs, you can trust Critter Guard to keep your home and property safe from animal invaders. Contact us today to learn more about BirdBloc or any of our other humane pest control products!
]]>Walls that are properly insulated are more capable of keeping your attic and home at the temperature you want it to be, which means that your HVAC system does not need to work as hard to maintain the temperature in your home.
Even the smallest cracks or other openings along your windows, roof, or other areas can cause a significant amount of cold air to leak into your attic and spread throughout your home. Finding and filling these leaks can go a long way toward keeping your attic at the temperature you set it at instead of allowing cold air to continue flowing in and contradicting your heating system's attempt to warm up your space.
You may not always need your attic to be the same temperature as the rest of your home, especially if it is primarily a storage space that you do not use frequently. Insulating your attic door can help stop your thermostat from using extra energy to raise it to the temperature of the rest of your home if you only need it to be warm enough to prevent your belongings from becoming damaged.
Fans and other ventilation systems can be helpful tools for managing warm air that frequently becomes trapped in certain parts of your attic instead of spreading evenly throughout your space. By making the most of a smaller overall amount of heat, you can reduce the need for your thermostat to force your system to produce more heat than you need.
Mice, squirrels, and other critters that chew, claw, or otherwise damage your insulation or electrical wiring can make it more challenging to effectively heat or cool your home. Critter Guard's Line Guard and Pole Guard systems can help keep a wide range of critters from climbing getting into your attic and causing damage.
To learn more about the benefits of our wildlife control products, contact us today!
]]>- [John] All right. Well, thank you for that introduction. I appreciate it and I appreciate everybody taking some time to listen about grandmother's advice. If any of you grew up with a grandmother like mine, she preached this quite a bit, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
And so, as it relates to animal mitigation, which tends to be a ongoing problem no matter where you are in the world, that's what this presentation is about. So, we'll start with an old friend. Again, I'm showing my age here a little bit but, when I was a young whippersnapper, Alfred E.
Neuman was always around and the attitude is kind of what we're dealing with here, as it relates to animal outages, and that is, "What, me worry?" "I'm not worried about squirrels, we don't have squirrels," how many times have you heard that in your own organization?
It's like, "Ah, it's not a big deal. Don't worry about it." Well, when it happens it's definitely something to worry about. It's scary, expensive, can be catastrophic. And so, the point being is that we know and have known for a long time that... and we'll deal specifically here with squirrels and birds because they're number one and two statistically in terms of animal outages.
There are others, obviously, raccoons, possums, snakes, you name it. But in terms of statistics, squirrels are by far number one. And it tends to be true around the world. It's certainly true in the northeast of the United States, the East Coast, the Midwest, Ohio, Indiana, so on, places like that, Kentucky.
They're everywhere. But there are squirrels, literally, in every state. And there are squirrels, as far as I can tell, I've been in 50 different countries, there are squirrels around the world. They might not call them squirrels but they're something that looks just like that. So, Critter Guard has a 20-year track record with major utilities around the world, applying our products in a fairly unique way.
So, we're going to talk a little bit about why they're a little different, why our approach is different, why it works, and then we'll finish up with just a little summary. So, as Randy pointed out, just a little background on me, I bought this company in 2016. I've been involved in Global Industrial engineering, sales, process industry, energy sectors for the better part of 30 years now.
And if you'd have told me 10 years ago that I'd be involved with keeping squirrels off power lines, I'd told you you were nuts. But turns out it's a pretty active business. We do a lot of work around the world, and excited to do that. So, a little more about the company.
We're privately-held. The company started in 2001, in Columbia, Missouri. It actually got started by actually people I knew at the time. And the issue wasn't for utilities, it was really for homeowners. If any of you have ever seen a squirrel cross a power line, get on a roof, a private individual's roof with cedar-shake shingles, they chew and gnaw on the shingles and literally had done tremendous damage to this particular roof, which happened to be the relation to one of the individuals I knew.
And he came up with the idea that it's like, "Well, what if we created some spinners and rollers?" And that's really how Line Guard and then Pole Guard got started. So, since that time, we serve all these various markets. Mostly utilities, both power as well as communication, but water and sewer districts, contractors, architectural firms, pest-control firms, private homeowners, commercial business owners, you name it.
We ship around the world, we've got customers on six continents. And so, part of what I want to do, as we go through, is focus on some definitions as it relates to distinctions within animal mitigation. Within Critter Guard, we use the word "proactive," that's all part of that ounce of prevention, trying to be ahead of the game.
Because waiting for a squirrel to strike or a bird to strike can be catastrophic. So, proactive means controlling a situation before it's occurred, rather than just reacting to what happened. We also talk about the fact that our products are a barrier or a blockade. We're not just a cover, we basically stop the animal from going where he wants to go.
And then the definition of, "Well, what is a guard?" Well, there's lots of guards on the market offered and sold by lots of different companies. And so, that guard is how do you protect that underlying equipment? In our case, our guard is actually not protecting the underlying equipment, it's blocking the access to it.
So, a lot of these may be very familiar to most of you in the audience. You see everything from the ubiquitous bushing guards, down there on the right, to various forms and creations based on the size, the voltage, the clearance is necessary for any of the underlying equipment.
But in all cases every one of these guards is custom-engineered and custom-molded for that specific size. Critter Guard takes a different approach. So, when you specify those guards, you have a lot of questions.
Which one do you need to use? Where do I need to put it? Will it even fit? Because now you've got phase-to-phase clearances to deal with, you've got air gaps and insulation resistance and all of those technical issues. Maintaining it can be problematic because your guys have to get up there, remove the guard for thermography or any other sort of asset maintenance, especially if it's pole-mounted equipment.
And then, secondly, is, like, "Well, okay, is it even the right guard? Am I just creating another problem by putting this guard on?" Sometimes a fix here creates another problem downstream. So, we see all those kinds of challenges with putting up animal mitigation systems. But with Critter Guard, we're different.
Distinctly different, we say. And the difference is we block the access to that asset rather than cover the device. So, and the reason we take that approach is we tried to look for what's consistent or what's common with how a guard needs to work.
And the answer is, regardless of voltage, regardless of current, regardless of use, capacities, all of those things, they're all connected by a conductor. It may be a single-phase conductor, it may be three-phase, it may be a triplex, any number of different configurations, but there's always a conductor that, basically, acts like a highway for the squirrel or critter, as we would say, to get to wherever they want to go.
Now, they're attracted to that asset because of maybe it's humming or it's buzzing or maybe there's some heat being generated or maybe it's just on the way to some place else they want to go, but because they're naturally curious critters, they're going to stop and check things out.
Even if you've got a cover or a guard over a device, the animal will still stop and check out that cover. They may chew on it. Squirrels are interesting, I didn't know this years ago, but squirrels tend to be...or not tend, they are related to beavers.
Kind of an interesting little fun fact. Beavers are those animals with the long teeth that you've seen in cartoons and other issues but their teeth will grow, a squirrel's teeth will grow, up to 9 inches a year if they don't continually gnaw them down.
So, they're not actually chewing or eating to eat necessarily, they're chewing and working on wire, working on insulation, a piece of aluminum, a piece of flashing, whatever it might be, they're doing that not to eat it but to keep their teeth gnawed down. If they don't do that, they'll actually end up looking like a prehistoric animal.
And so, that's kind of a...I wish I could get a picture of one. I've seen one but I didn't capture it at the time, so, it's a pretty weird thing. So, the conductor is a highway, the overhead conductor. But also there's another highway, and that's the power pole. The power pole allows the critter access from the ground up to the overhead conductor...to, again, why do they want to go up there?
Well, first of all, there's no other predators up there. So, if they're on the ground, they're at risk. It might be a dog, it might be a cat, it might be a fox, it might be a raccoon. Anything else that could take the squirrel. But once they go up on the overhead conductor, they're safe. And so, going up and getting across the overhead structure is one of the first things they always do.
And the question is how do you get there? Well, they might go up another building but, if there's power poles around...and we've learned it doesn't matter whether it's a wood pole, a steel pole, a concrete pole, they'll go right up, like, nobody's business.
And so, getting access to that overhead highway is what they want to do. So, our products act like an overhead fence by blocking that highway. You've all got fences around your substations but do you have a fence overhead? That's tough to do, unless you're doing it with Critter Guard.
So, Line Guard is a near universal solution for overhead asset protection. In other words, we don't care whether it's 110-volt line to your house or if it's a 38-kV line into a substation or out of a substation or anywhere in between.
We've got some customers that actually apply it on transmission lines, at least that we know of, up to 77 kV. And the reason they can do that is because this is not an insulator, it's not applied or used like an insulator.
So, there's no difference to the line and the conduction in the line, whether it's got a series of rollers on it or not, because it doesn't affect the electrical flow, the insulation resistance, or any of that because you've already got established air gaps and you're not any closer by putting Line Guard on it. So, Line Guard's a fairly universal solution for overhead assets.
And as we say, it can be a little bit confusing because we call it "Line Guard," so, the name would imply that it's guarding the line, but, in fact, it guards the assets on the line. Because again, it blocks the highway. So, the design is one that actually...it's kind of like the game show, I don't know how many people see this, especially outside the U.S., but there's a fairly popular show that comes on, it's called "American Ninja Warrior."
And they have these contestants that have to jump onto barrels or tubs that are out in the water. And, as soon as they jump onto it, the barrel spins. So, it makes it hard to keep your balance. That's precisely what Line Guard as a system does. The system doesn't move by default, it doesn't spin by default, it mostly sits there.
But when an animal engages it and comes down the line, and I've got a short video here that we'll look at to show you what it does, once he does that, it makes him unstable. And it's very difficult, if he's hanging upside down, to be able to go forward.
He's pretty much got to go backwards the way he came. So, as opposed to covering a device, it actually blocks them from even making any forward progress. And so, they just, ultimately, give up and go back the way they came and look for another approach.
So, and then, because this is what's great about crawling animals, it doesn't really seem to matter whether it's a squirrel, a snake, a rat, you know, a chipmunk, even monkeys, even sloths, very slow-moving creatures, but they're about the size of a raccoon, they have those massive sharp claws and they move extremely slowly.
So, we've had good success protecting them because, in some countries where they will cross phases and, obviously, kill themselves, or at least desperately hurt them, they also knock out the equipment.
And so, there are sometimes environmental regulations that will come into effect, just like we have in the U.S. with birds, if you are responsible for killing a bird, especially a protected species, nobody wants that regulatory nightmare. So, I have a link here, due to the vagaries of presentations I'm not going to play it from here, I've got it loaded, and we'll go here.
Randy, can everybody see that?
- [Randy] Yes, it's fine, John.
- Okay, very good.
- Oh, wait, no. Click on the link.
- No, I pulled up a different screen. So, oh, I probably need to go...hang on a second. I probably need to go back to the screen to say what share is it...
- Yes, go back to stop sharing your screen and then share a new one.
- Here we go, we'll share this screen. How's that?
- Good.
- Okay, very good. So, yeah, it's sometimes that link in the presentation doesn't work. Now, in the materials that you'll receive, you'll be able to go directly to the YouTube site. So, what you see here is this is a customer's overhead service access line, service entrance line. It actually, by side, it's pretty hard to tell but it looks like a triplex line.
And that animal, we call it a squirrel but, if you look at the tail, it actually looks more like a big rat. Six of one half does the other, as far as the system is concerned. You see the animal come down the line like a highway. He reaches the wheel but it spins him upside down, his own weight and the lack of friction on that wheel turns the animal upside down and he can't figure out what to do.
So, if they're really ambitious, they'll go back as this one does. And you'll see him come back here and he's going to try again. So, they keep working at it sometimes, and that's the reason there are five individual rollers there. There's not one long roller because, while this line looks fairly taut, most overhead lines, especially utility lines, will have a droop.
And there you see him try to jump, and it's all she wrote. So, once that happens and they try to jump over that wheel and land on one of the other rollers, once they hit the ground, you pretty much see them, they go somewhere else. There's like, "We're not going back there." So, that's just something to keep in mind how that works.
And we'll go back to the presentation. Everybody see that okay again?
- Yep.
- Okay. So, again, as we mentioned, you can use Line Guard on just about any... ...downlines, doesn't really matter. Doesn't matter whether it conducts electricity or not. It might be a guy-wire, we have them installed on a number of places with guy-wires because the guy-wire is an excellent access point for squirrels to overhead lines.
The ideal point is to install it anywhere on the line. You don't have to put it where it's going to be in your way, you can put it anywhere on the line between where a critter would come on the line, like, for instance, a pole or another building downstream, and the device you want to protect.
Maybe it's pole-mounted equipment or maybe it's a substation. If it's a substation, you definitely want to have the Line Guard installed outside the vertical line of sight of your fence, your physical fence. So that, when an animal drops off, like you just saw in the video, they drop off outside the fence, not inside the fence.
We have a number of different options. Most of these, to my knowledge, are installed de-energized but we have some customers with no choice where they're like, "No, we have to put it up hot," and in some cases they just use gloves, appropriately-rated gloves. In other cases they'll have their own clamps.
We also supply an optional hotline clamp using a hot stick. So, that works well. Again, the opening for the rollers by default is 1 inch. That covers the bulk of most overhead conductors at this voltage level. But there are triplex bundles and things like that that could be substantially larger than 1 inch in total diameter.
And to accommodate that, these rollers are made so they can be cut back in the field to whatever size you want, up to about a 3-inch cable bundle. So, the key requirement is make sure that each roller spins freely and independently of the others when you install it.
Okay. A second major product for Critter Guard is what we call Pole Guard. As I mentioned before, the power pole is also a highway for the animals to get up to the overhead assets, and Pole Guard blocks the highway. It uses a similar concept, we're using physical rigid plates that surround the pole, but then the same rollers that you saw in Line Guard.
So, those plates act like a blockade as the animal comes up from the ground to the overhead asset. Or to the top of the pole, maybe it's a crossarm or, you know, or a transformer, what have you, might be at the top of the pole, the plates make a physical blockade and it forces the animal to the outside of the plates.
It actually has holes throughout the plate that are designed to sort of fool the animal, to make them go to the outside. They can see through it. And so, they're like, "Oh, okay. Well, I'll just go around this." And as they try to go around it, the rollers are attached on the outside perimeter of these plates. And again, they're coming at it from upside down and they have to reach up over the spinning roller and try to grab it.
And because it spins and it's a very hard surface, they can't get their claws in it and they fall off or give up. So, that's one of the major issues with Pole Guard is that there's no way to jump it. There are other pole wraps and things like that on the market, we've seen animals go right over it. They get a running start and they act like it's not even there. But with Pole Guard, you can't go over it.
Because, once you jump out, well, you can't jump around it. So, that's one of the major advantages of Pole Guard. Again, I'm going to do this a little bit differently. We'll go up and share another screen. This is not nearly as good a video. And I've not fortunate enough to have a video of Pole Guard on a power pole, but you can see it works just as well on a tree.
As long as the tree or the pole is less than 12 inches in diameter, it'll work. So, you can see the squirrel going all around it, 360 degrees, trying everything he can to access up to the top of that tree, which happens to be a pecan tree, so, he's going for the fruit, but he can't do it. And after several attempts, he just gives up and goes back on the fence and says, "I'm going to go somewhere else."
So, that's really...I mean, it's a quite simple concept but it works like a dream. So, here's some examples of both Pole Guard and Line Guard. This particular one happens to be a water utility.
So, it shows a wooden pole, they had huge problems with this site for a number of years, tried a number of different things. You can see, on their guy-wires, they've got the traditional guy guards installed, but they said the squirrels were going right over them. Once they put up Line Guard on those lines...and it's interesting because that shows Line Guard in a less than horizontal mode, so, it shows you can install Line Guard, obviously, horizontal, which is the primary use of it, but it also will work on a guy-wire like this.
And you see Pole Guard on the wooden pole. Once they put this up, the animal outage is stopped. We also have iterations of Pole Guard. Customizations, if you will. You see on the left, there's a steel power pole. It's the exact same system but uses a different mounting system around the pole.
Same mounting system as would be used by utilities for mounting street signs or stop lights on steel poles. So, it's a tension banding system. And it's quite strong, it'll hold, you know, way more weight than the Pole Guard is designed to repel.
Also, you see on the right a fairly customized version with a fairly large riser conduit next to it. And the standoff was such that there was no way to make this work without making this customization. But again, once we did it, the animal stopped. We've also done customized projects for people.
In this case, with concrete poles, the example you see there was for a mining company with sort of a modified pole that was square or rectangular on two opposing sides and round on the other two opposing sides. But we had enough plate to be able to modify that, that worked fine.
And again, that job was for monkeys and that stopped the monkeys. In the case where the pole is smaller than 12 inches, we have what we call a gap filler. It's just a very simple piece of flexible conduit but it's an 1.5 in diameter and wraps around the pole...
- Sorry, John, somebody had their microphone turned on, I've muted it.
- Okay, very good. So, yeah, we can support poles down to about 9 inches in diameter, up to 12 inches in diameter. And again, there's no required mounting height.
Since most power poles taper as they rise, it's usually pretty easy to find an acceptable mounting height where the clearance or spacing between the pole and the pole guard plates is quite small. Obviously, if it was too large, it wouldn't be of any use, the end will go right between it.
So, that covers the crawling animals. And so, now, what about birds? How do we stop those? Well, this is a reasonably new product for Critter Guard, we've been offering this now for a couple of years, had some good success with it. We call it BirdBloc. And the reason we like it is it's actually very similar in concept to our strategy with Line Guard and Pole Guard.
It doesn't get in anybody's way. It's not a guard, it doesn't cover a device, it doesn't cover up a bushing on a transformer, it doesn't cover up, you know, a switch. It, basically, keeps the birds away from wherever that situation is. Most often it's in a substation over the top of a transformer pad or a bus bar or something like that.
And they'll create a nest and they'll make eggs. And, as they make eggs, then that attracts other animals. So, it's not a mechanical solution, it's a scent-based solution. So, when you get it out of the box, you're like, "Oh, okay. I know what this is."
So, that means, when you get it, you want to put it up right away, this is not something that you buy and put in inventory and wait till the next time your maintenance crew says, "Let's go address the bird issue." No, it's got to be put up as soon as you get it. So, it takes a little bit of planning. The advantage of this product is it's not like a fogger or any other typical mechanical diverter. Because of the smell, the smell has been engineered and the formulation has been engineered to last up to four months, we actually have two different formulations, one is really strong for initial installations, and it chases them out, and then the second one is a follow-up that will last up to four months long.
And the idea being that, if the birds in a couple of weeks decide, "Hey, let's go back and try again," they're going to smell this and not like it and move on. So, we've had good success with it with a number of different bird species. Pigeons, crows.
I will say that smaller birds tend to be a little more problematic because smaller birds don't breathe as much air at one time as a large bird, for instance, if it's a hawk or an eagle or an owl. We've had good success with Osprey Eagles, especially on the East Coast where they're hunters, and they'll perch on top of a tower, maybe even a transmission tower, and then, of course, they start building a nest.
And now you do have problems because, once they've built the nest, you can't get rid of them. By law. So, the challenge is, "How do I create an area where they don't want to build the nest?" And that's what BirdBloc does. It's not pleasant for humans. In other words, when you open the box, you're going to smell it.
But it won't harm you. And it doesn't harm the environment and it doesn't harm the bird. All the ingredients are EPA-registered, so, it's completely safe. We say it's basically like a vapor barrier but it's not a "Star Wars" energy field. The birds will fly through it, they just don't like hanging out once they smell it.
So, if they perch on a particular area and this material is deployed in that area in the right concentration, the birds will get a whiff of it and, over the course of sometimes one day up to three or four days, most of those birds will leave. There might be one or two hangers on but, over time, they'll leave because it, basically, gives them a headache is the best way we know how to describe it.
And so, there is a timed release on the odor. It will withstand rain and snow and freezing weather. But the idea of the timed release is that, again, plan your deployment but set it up such that you're accommodating the nesting season.
If you can keep them from nesting and building nests and hatching eggs during that season...which in North America is primarily the late winter early spring up through this time of year. And so, by this time of year, they've all hatched the nest and gone elsewhere and, you know, it's kind of hard to figure out what they're going to do.
But the other advantage of this, much like our Pole Guard and Line Guard products, once you put it up, you don't have to take it down, you don't have to maintain it, there's no work involved, you just leave it there and it chases the birds away. There are some prerequisites to deploying it, and number one of those is clean the area down, remove all the nests.
If a bird has nested in a place before, like last year, it's fairly well known they will come back because that scent of home, even in the old nest, is very strong. So, they want to keep coming back to where they were before. So, you have to remove those, you have to clean it down, maybe even disinfect it because you don't want their odor from the previous season to be there when you deploy BirdBloc.
You can use it in a lot of different areas. Substations is very popular. But overhead lines or bushings or anything over a bussbar you can just hang it...it lubes, there's no mechanical fixture required, you literally drape it with some yarn over the structure.
In the case of a substation, the physical structure, the i-beams, you can just drape it around those things and hang them close enough together so that the smell permeates that whole area. But it could go on crossarms, on poles, any place where a bird or multiple birds would perch and do damage.
A bird perching and leaving is not necessarily a problem, given wingspans and phase clearances, air gaps on your installations. So, you'll have to analyze that, whether that's a useful place to put it or not. But another popular place you see with depots and warehouses, we've got them in airport hangars and other maintenance depots.
Where there's a high bay ceiling, where the doors routinely open, the birds fly in and roost in the upper rafters and joists, but then they crap on everything down below. And it's a horrific nuisance, as well as a potential technical problem if that equipment down below is powered equipment because the acid from the bird droppings is lethal. It's not good.
We also got a number of power-generation stations that use it, again, because of the critical nature of that station and where the birds could cause damage, that's where it's been deployed. So, there's a couple examples here. On the left is one of those power-generation stations. This was a nuclear station.
A big, huge bunker. That was a 500 kV transformer, gas-filled, you know, phase conductors at the top. And the birds were all over it. And the linemen used their hot sticks and reached up and hung it around structural members up there, got them pretty close together, no birds since.
So, that's been fantastic. Another example on the right, and this is a pretty good example. I can't show the detail because it's already been cleared up but you see sort of the typical bushing guard around the phase connectors in the substation. Because of the proximity and size of those guards, they created an overlap.
So, one circle, if you will, would overlap the adjacent phase. That created a perfect area right behind it for a bird to build a nest. That went undetected for probably a year until that bird had eggs. And that attracted a coon that got into the substation fence.
That coon created a near miss. And so, it destroyed the coon, almost destroyed the substation, but they survived it. And then they put this up. You see the lineman hanging, again, using a hot stick, the bags. These just look like pouches, it's a granulated material.
In this case, we decided to group them together, that made a stronger sense in one location. Because the substation was powered and they couldn't shut it down for several weeks until planned shutdown time. And so, because they had this installation planned, we said, "Well, let's double up on it or triple up on it."
So, we put more bags of the product in one location, because we recommend to have these bags 3 to 5 feet apart. Based on the close working and safety practices of that particular substation, they couldn't get closer than 8 feet. And so, we doubled them up and tripled them up and hung more bags in one location, then went 8 feet away and hung more bags.
And I physically went back and visited the substation about a year later and they said, "That's been great, we haven't seen a bird since." And that's interesting because this particular location was right next to a wildlife preserve. So, they always had birds and waterfowl from the wildlife preserve, and now they're gone. So, they're a very happy customer.
So, again, to summarize, that's kind of the way Critter Guard goes about the ounce of prevention. It's not expensive to do it if you do it before you have an attack. But if you have an attack and you've already had an outage, well, you know what the damage is, it's not fun.
So, our point is you know it's coming, it doesn't really matter where you live. Sooner or later you're going to have an animal outage. So, what we do is we block the highway. We don't just cover the asset, we block the way of getting to the asset. And there's not a lot of engineering required. You don't have to figure out, "Is this going to work on that line?"
The answer is, "No, it'll probably work on that line." I mean, if you have a question, by all means, give us a shout and we'll help you out. And it can be put up hot. Obviously, with Pole Guard, there's no issue there, that can always be installed anytime. And key point, once they're installed, you don't have to go back.
You don't have to take them down, you don't have to fix them, you don't have to replace them. They're there. We have customers that have initial installations from more than 20 years ago, they're still in place and still working fine. No maintenance required. So, it's a very simple but very different type of animal mitigation approach. And we encourage you to come get some more information.
So, again, Randy, I appreciate that. That's it.
- Okay, great. Good presentation, as always. Thanks very much, John. The first question, this is from...okay, "What is the purpose of having a red-colored ball on the overhead lines? Is there a kilovolt restriction?"
- Well, generally, those are sold by another supplier but, generally, those are for one of two purposes. One is aircraft detection. So, the aircraft coming in to a landing strip, in many cases, especially out in rural areas, if you see those big orange or yellow balls on the line, look the opposite way and you'll probably find a short landing strip, you know, a private operator or something like that.
The other reason is for low-flying birds, such as turkeys, wild turkeys, or even geese, that, especially in areas like dams or water hydro power-generation stations, where those lines are generally pretty low-level to the surface, whether it's water or ground, but those lines are fairly low.
And what will happen is those particular species that I mentioned, the geese, the wild turkeys, they don't see very well. They smell pretty good, their sense of smell is good, but they don't see very well. And so, there have been outages where the birds will literally fly in through the phases, and that's a problem for, obviously, both the utility as well as the birds.
So, I'll be the first to admit, we don't have any installations like that, I'd love to get one because it would take a drone, but just like you could use a drone to install those other diverters, you can use a drone to install this product. So, again, we haven't done that because it's relatively new but we've certainly investigated it and there's no reason it wouldn't work.
- Okay, great. "Is the BirdBloc chemical methyl anthranilate?"
- Anthranilate. Yes, it's based on that. MA is the easy way to say it. MA is a fairly well-known bird deterrent. Years ago, it was used in foggers, still may be used in foggers. The problem with foggers is that they only last about a day, if that.
What we did with this formulation is we created a way with the time release where it hangs in there a lot longer.
- Okay. How do you install Line Guards on a live conductor? Is it hot-stick capable?
- Yes, it is. Normally, this is all done by bucket truck. And, you know, the product basically snaps over the line. So, these rollers that are shipped to you are fashioned like clam shells, identical clam shells. And they snap together in only one way, you can't screw it up.
And so, you put the clam shell hinge together first, so, now you have this kind of open book. And then, when you go up to the line with the appropriately-rated gloves for the voltage you're working on, you snap it over. And when it snaps, it snaps into place with a button stop.
So, once it snaps, it's not going to come apart. The wheels on each end have a split-wheel design, so, they slide right over. So, you don't have to touch the line at all. The only challenge is the fasteners on each end. Some customers use our built-in fasteners.
We have stainless-steel zip ties, as well as hose clamps. Some of our customers are like, "When I'm doing a hot installation, we won't use that." So, we also sell another eye-bolt design, C-clamp, if you will, that's used by a number of utilities, with a smooth face on one side and the eye bolt.
So, you can just hang the C-clamp on each end and then use your hot stick to fasten it down and secure it. All you're trying to do is keep the system from sliding apart. There are five independent rollers and wheels, all the rollers are identical, but you want them to spin independently.
If one of them or two of them slide away because of the droop on the line, the system won't be nearly as effective.
]]>One of the best ways to safeguard your energy usage is to check your heating system. Your HVAC unit can easily burn excess energy if it isn't running at peak performance. You can check out the system on your own to see if anything seems off, but it's best to contact your HVAC contractor for a thorough inspection.
Many homeowners have damaged or worn insulation in their homes and don't even know about it. Damaged insulation can cause drafts, cold floors or walls, and lead to skyrocketing energy bills as your heating system struggles to keep up. If you have damaged insulation, replace it as soon as possible and check for signs of wildlife infestation. Wild animals who invade your home often target insulation to make their nests.
The temperature fluctuates throughout the day, usually getting warmer in the afternoon before dipping into colder temperatures at night. Pay attention to your thermostat on a regular basis and adjust it so that the temperature is comfortable but not too warm. By maintaining a consistent temperature in your home, you'll save energy and keep your bill manageable.
If you're struggling with excess energy consumption in your home, the answer might well be wildlife infestation. Critter Guard's effective, humane, wildlife control products can help prevent animals from accessing your roof and damaging your home. If pests are invading your home this fall, contact Critter Guard to learn more about our line of pest control products.
]]>A downed power line can be a life-threatening hazard for drivers. These high-voltage lines can cause severe injuries or death upon contact. When they touch a vehicle, the entire car can become electrified. In addition to posing a risk of electrocution, downed power lines can also start fires that threaten anyone nearby.
If a power line has fallen on your car and there's smoke or fire, here's what to do to evacuate safely:
Critter Guard offers products designed to prevent critters from chewing on and causing downed power lines. By installing Critter Guard's innovative solutions, you can help ensure the integrity of power lines in your area and reduce the likelihood of them falling onto roadways. Contact us today to learn more about how our products can help reduce the risks of downed power lines.
]]>However, before you rush things, it's important to know the most common Do-It-Yourself (DIY) pest control mistakes to ensure your DIY methods are successful.
Overlooking the cause will prevent you from getting rid of all the pests in your home. It's a mistake that can keep pests returning to your place, and the mistake happens when you only focus your efforts on the visible pests. Taking time to find the source of the pests can help you deal with issues more efficiently.
A pest is a pest, right? Wrong. There are many types of pests, and it's crucial to identify exactly what you are dealing with to know the right pest control method. While some methods work great for controlling rodents, those same methods might not work at all for controlling nuisance birds.
You might be tempted to think that more is better when using pest sprays, but this is a mistake you need to avoid. This is because most chemical-based pesticides are highly concentrated and can lead to health issues when used in large quantities inside and outside your home.
Pests love untidy spaces. An unkempt house will give those pests a shelter where they can multiply. Keep a tidy kitchen, with crumbs quickly swept away each day, dishes done, and trash removed. Further, regularly vacuum the carpets, remove the dust on the surface, and keep clutter to a minimum.
Avoid making the above DIY pest control mistakes for your home. Each type of pest requires a specific treatment, so it's crucial to use the right pest control products.
At Critter Guard, we provide humane and top-quality pest control products to help prevent pests in your home before they become an issue. To learn more about our pest control solutions, contact us today!
]]>The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), enacted in 1918, was established to safeguard numerous migratory bird species valued as a food source or for their role in controlling harmful insects. The primary objective of the MBTA is to extend protection to specific bird species based on their migratory behavior rather than their population size. This federal legislation safeguards hundreds of bird species, including Canada Geese, swallows, chimney swifts, woodpeckers, and gulls.
You cannot hunt, trap, or kill migratory birds unless issued a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit. Only three nuisance bird species are not federally protected: Feral pigeons, European starlings, and House sparrows.
Pest birds can pose a significant nuisance and financial burden to property owners. Some may resort to lethal methods to eliminate bird-related problems, unaware that such actions can violate both state and federal laws. These laws are in place to safeguard migratory birds from harm, and those who violate them may incur substantial fines.
Property owners may, under certain circumstances, obtain a permit for bird removal if the birds in question are causing destruction, posing health risks, or simply proving to be a nuisance. In other situations, experienced pest control professionals can employ humane methods to deter birds without causing harm. The laws protecting migratory birds are intricate and should be taken seriously. Professionals, like Critter Guard, can provide environmentally-conscious solutions for managing protected birds.
At Critter Guard, our BirdBloc product is designed to deter birds from nesting and roosting on or near your property, preventing the problem before it starts. You can easily hang BirdBloc from supports, tree branches, joists, rafters, or most overhead equipment. It offers a more convenient and cost-effective solution than covering each vulnerable area individually. To discover more about BirdBloc and how it effectively keeps nuisance birds away from your property, contact us today!
]]>Keep reading to discover some of the ways in which pest control can impact your property's value.
Pest control plays a crucial role in preventing significant damage to your property. Some pests like rodents and termites can cause structural damage, which might eventually cause your property to lose its value.
Termites and rodents can infest your homes and weaken wood, which is integral to your home's structural integrity. This can decrease the stability of a home and cause a significant dip in its value. Pest control can help maintain a property's value by eliminating pests that pose a threat to the property's structure.
Pest control can help improve the general appeal of your property. Some pests like bed bugs, cockroaches, and rodents can give an unattractive appearance to your property and this can cause a decrease in its overall value.
Controlling pests in your property is the best way to protect your home's general appeal because most renters and buyers consider the appearance of a home when evaluating its value.
Pest control not only maintains your property's value but also aids in improving the overall health and well-being of the occupants. Managing and eliminating pests can reduce the risk of suffering from allergies, disease, and other pest-borne ailments.
Many renters and buyers pay close attention to the health and safety of a home when choosing a home. Thus, pest control helps in maintaining a safe and healthy environment in your home.
At Critter Guard, we provide property owners with humane pest control techniques that will help in maintaining the value of their property. Our pest control products help to prevent pests from accessing your property to improve its overall value. To learn more about our pest control solutions, contact us today!
]]>Wild animals like squirrels, mice, and other rodents are known for their gnawing and chewing tendencies. They have a tendency to chew on wires, and this means that they can cause significant damage to your home's wiring and electrical equipment. Damage to electrical wiring can put your home and family's safety at risk.
AC ducts provide a perfect hiding spots for wild animals when they invade your home. They provide a soft and warm place where they can hide and stay away from visibility.
Raccoons and squirrels can tear AC ducts and use the materials to build their nests. Some raccoons that stay in the AC ducts can also cause wear and tear when walking around. Most wild animals will also defecate and urinate on your AC ducts, leading to significant tears.
Rodents have a tendency of causing significant structural damage to your home due to their chewing tendencies. Squirrels and mice chew on any material in their quest to keep their teeth short.
Wild animals can chew on plastic, concrete, drywall, metal, and wood which can significantly weaken your home's structural integrity. In the long-run, this can make for expensive repairs.
Many wild animals can gain access to a home through the roof. Animals like mice, raccoons, and squirrels are good climbers, and they can damage your shingles in the process. Most roof damages will need major or minor repairs.
At Critter Guard, we provide humane and environmental-friendly solutions to prevent wildlife from accessing your building or home. To learn more about our BirdBloc, Pole Guard and Line Guard products and how they can help prevent damage to your property, contact us today!
]]>Fortunately, you can deal with a raccoon infestation in several ways successfully but humanely. Keep reading as we go over several strategies for keeping raccoons off your property.
Raccoons not only cause damage to your property, but also to electric lines that can cause business downtime. Here are ways to get rid of these destructive bandits in a humane manner:
The primary reason raccoons will come to your property is the availability of food. Raccoons are omnivores, meaning they will consume almost everything they can get their paws on. Therefore, you need to make sure that all your trash cans are secured and all your pet feeders are empty at night, including bird feeders.
Trapping and relocating raccoons is another successful and humane method of dealing with a raccoon infestation. Animal-friendly raccoon traps are available and may be used to catch these pesky creatures. To be sure of success with this procedure, however, you should consult and work with an authorized wildlife control expert.
Keeping your compound clean and free from debris is another effective way to keep raccoons away from your business premises. This is because debris in your compound is suitable habitat for insects, grubs, and larvae which are raccoons' favorite foods.
You can also use repellents to keep raccoons off your property. Raccoons are partly attracted to trash because of their acute sense of smell. Even through sealed bags and garbage cans, they can pick up on the faint aroma of food. As such, you can use ammonia, cayenne, vinegar, or mint-scented trash bags to deter raccoons.
Finally, you should install Critter Guard's Line Guard and Pole Guard to protect your business premises from unplanned power shortages. These products will help you reduce unplanned business downtime caused by raccoons messing with power lines and electric cables. Therefore, don't hesitate to talk to one of our experts and learn more about how our products can help you keep raccoons off your property.
Safeguarding your business from the troublesome presence of raccoons basically means preserving your property's integrity and ensuring the safety and functionality of your business environment.
Raccoons, while intriguing creatures from a distance, can wreak havoc that extends beyond just material damage. By proactively addressing raccoons, you're taking a significant step toward maintaining a secure and hygienic space for both you and your customers.
]]>Safe electrical habits from home should also apply to the workplace:
Warning signs can keep employees mentally present as to the dangers of certain spaces they enter. Electrical wiring in seemingly safe locations is still connected to high-voltage vaults and pull boxes that can set off fires if improperly maintained.
Even in a straightforward office layout, there will still be server rooms and other high power consumption areas that could be dangerous. Installing warning signs in these areas help keep people safe.
The simple cable organization recommended above is as far as the average employee should go with electrical work. Frayed, exposed, or otherwise dangerous electrical cables, power supplies, or surge protectors should be handled by professionals only.
Even properly maintained and handled cables can become damaged due to accidental liquid exposure, or exposure to small animals. Many pests, such as squirrels and other rodents, are known to habitually chew on cables, which can turn safe workplaces into dangerous fire hazards without anyone noticing.
At Critter Guard, we specialize in preventing this exact situation. Our pest control products are designed to safely and humanely prevent the damage that wildlife can cause over time to electrical equipment. To learn more about our innovative, unique methods of keeping both customers and animals safe from electrical hazards, contact us today!
]]>Portable generators are generators that can be moved and they have a smaller size compared to standby generators. Most are powered by gas and it's essential to keep them outside or in an area that is well-ventilated due to the carbon monoxide fumes produced.
Compared to standby generators, portable generators are considered to be more cost-effective. The power output may be less compared to that of standby generators, but they are still an ideal option if you need a lower power output.
The price of a portable generator can range from $500 to $3000 depending on the power output. They are available at local hardware stores or you can purchase them online.
The ease of movement of portable generators is an obvious benefit. You can take them with you for camping and they will still serve your power requirements.
Portable generators are easy to install and this makes them user-friendly. The installation process also takes minimal time and maintenance is not challenging since they don't have any complicated parts.
One key disadvantage is that portable generators don't start automatically in the case of a power outage and need to be manually kick-started. This can be especially difficult during winter when you have to go outside to start the generator.
Portable generators do require maintenance and will need the gas tank to be refilled regularly. The last thing anyone needs during a power outage is to have a generator that shuts down to insufficient fuel.
Since portable generators have a lower power wattage, their use is limited. Most are only capable of powering a single essential appliance like a refrigerator in an emergency. You won’t be able to use them to continuously power luxury and major household appliances or a central air conditioning system.
At Critter Guard, we provide a range of solutions to prevent frequent power outages and your reliance on portable generators. Installing our Pole Guard, Line Guard, and BirdBloc products helps to ensure that your power keeps running without any hindrances. Please contact us today to learn more!
]]>Every species plays a pivotal role in the ecosystem. Trapping or poisoning wild creatures can disrupt their ecosystem, especially if they are an endangered species. Humane wildlife control ensures that the animals involved are not harmed and that they return to the wild. This in turn helps to support the local ecosystem.
Unlike other solutions, humane animal control gets rid of wildlife without causing unnecessary stress, pain or harm to the animals. That way, the likelihood of the animal feeling cornered and becoming aggressive towards you and your family members is greatly reduced. Similarly, humane methods do not involve the use of traps and poisons that could harm your pets. As such, humane animal control is safer for wildlife, pets, and humans.
Humane wildlife control solutions focus on eliminating the current problem as well as preventing recurrent issues. In addition to getting rid of the animal, the technician will find the source of the infestation and recommend a lasting solution. This may involve maintaining a clean home, replacing a broken shingle on the roof, or filling foundation cracks to seal off the animals' path into your home.
Compared to other methods, humane wildlife control makes for a more cost-effective option. Humane removal does not involve the use of traditional traps and poison to get rid of unwanted animals. Also, humane methods emphasize prevention and ongoing monitoring to keep wildlife at bay. Lastly, humane wildlife solutions are more effective in preventing the problem before damage is caused, saving you money in the long run.
Oftentimes, wildlife will invade your space for safety, warmth and security. Even after removing them, the animals will want to return to your property provided the space is still available. Humane wildlife control measures discourage such behaviors and promote adaptation to new patterns. That way, the animals will learn new routines, safely thrive in their new environment and stay away from your property.
At Critter Guard, our wildlife control products are designed to humanely deter various animals from gaining access to your property. To learn more about our humane wildlife control solutions, contact us today!
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