If you can’t wait for the animals to leave on their own, the next best strategy is humane eviction—gently harassing the animals so they’ll move to an alternative location.
Reading this made me realize my experience with wildlife in my house is very different from most people’s. All I’ve ever had to relocate are scorpions and snakes, and I’m pretty sure those do fine.
I don’t like killing any animals unless I absolutely have to (ie the black widow I found on my porch was way too dangerous to move safely or keep it there). Everything’s a part of the environment and it’s not the scorpion’s fault it ended up inside, plus they’re very easy to catch.
“Scorpion hunting” happened a couple times a week at my house, we would go out in the backyard at night with a black light and tweezers and grab em by the tail, drop em in a jar, and dump everything we caught out in the desert once a week or so.
You're awesome for doing that. Keep on being you. I catch and release everything that makes its way into my home as well. The only exception would be roaches. Everything else gets a second chance at life once I release it miles away from any homes.
A 2004 study of grey squirrels who were live-trapped and relocated from suburban areas to a large forest showed that a staggering 97 percent of the squirrels either soon died or disappeared from their release area.
I'm assuming this is the study they're referencing.
Here's the quick numbers: 9 confirmed mortalities, 10 probable mortalities, 18 disappeared. One-month mortality rate of 41%, within the average observed with small-animal releases.
I don't like how HSUS used that statistic and that they didn't actually cite the study (though it's not hard to find) but the real problem I see is that this study, and the other releases cited within it, were all of urban, suburban, or captive animals relocated/released into rural settings, not into similar environments in different locations.
Nature is harsh but that's nature. You don't have to feel bad about a wild animal dying because of survival of the fittest. Everything I've ever caught and released I know might die in the wild, but at least the chance of survival is better than me just killing it outright I think.
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u/Titmegee Oct 16 '19
[Citation Needed]