THE LAST DAY OF MUSTACHES FOR MOVEMBER

We did it! We made it to the end of the month. Our team at Gates Wildlife did an amazing job this much growing their mustaches and doing their part to raise awareness for the cause. Our team has surpassed our target by raising $1370 so far. At the end of the day I will be going over our reviews for the month and will donate $5.00 per review to our donation page.

For our final animal in our series, we bring you the Patas Monkey. These monkeys are long-limbed and predominately found on the ground in the grass regions of West and Central Africa. The adult male Patas Monkey has shaggy fur with a white moustache and white underparts with a build like a greyhound. The email has a similar but less-striking pattern and build.

Fun Facts: 

• Patas Monkeys are the fastest primates on earth as they can run up to 35 MPH.
• They are diurnal and spend the day grooming, interacting socially and foraging for food. At night they spread out in the trees as protection from predators.
• Their predators include hyenas, raptors, cheetahs, jaguars, tigers and humans!
• Their lifespan in the wild is 15-20 years and 21-24 years in captivity.

Damage Thursday

Roof Soffit Intersections can be easily manipulated by an animal looking to establish a den inside the attic space.

Although raccoons do not hibernate, they do hide away in their dens during the extremely cold, snowy periods. They are capable of sleeping for weeks at a time in order to conserve valuable energy. This is a good survival strategy on their part as their food is either buried under the snow or frozen solid. This means that a raccoon living inside your attic will start spending longer periods of time inside, potentially causing more damage for the homeowner.

It is a great idea to schedule an inspection with us before the winter comes  if you suspect you have an animal inside your attic.

Orphaned Baby Raccoons Get Rescued!

Little did we know, that at the beginning of this job, the mother raccoon was no longer in the picture. While doing the removal we never saw the mother and after leaving the trail cam on for two days, she never appeared on camera nor exited our one way door. This is not entirely uncommon as homeowners and our competition will trap and relocate adult raccoons far away from the capture site.

Watch how Gates Wildlife Control rescues these baby raccoons from the attic, where they would have starved as they did not know how to forage for food on their own yet.

Watch the video at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax_AdhGYmkE&t=14s

Moustaches for Movember

Canadians really love their mustaches—and with those cold winters, who can blame them? In fact, Canadians have raised $85.8 million (to date) for Movember, despite the U.S. being home to approximately 133 million more men than our northern neighbor.

Internationally:

All those mustaches, from France to Norway, Austria to the U.K., have raised a staggering $769 million dollars combined to date.

Thanks to the money raised during Movember, there have been some major cancer research breakthroughs. For example, there is now a genetic test that helps predict the risk of recurrence among prostate cancer survivors.

Movember isn't just about prostate cancer. Mo Bros have raised money for testicular cancer, mental health, and 1,200 different men's health issues since 2003.

Yes, the mustaches are great. But the Movember Foundation hopes that by 2030, the funds raised by Movember will have reduced the number of early deaths in men by 25 percent. That should be reason enough to put down the razor!

Stove and Bathroom Exhaust Vents make ideal nesting sites for birds and sometimes squirrels. This results in noticeable sounds, odours and insects.

This particular mother bird decided to nest inside the stove vent. As you can see, the vent was full of nesting material, preventing the homeowners from properly using their stove vent. Using a ventilation hood will help prevent a build-up of grease. Proper ventilation also helps prevent the growth of bacteria and mold leading to less toxins and unpleasant odours in your home.

When a family of birds are living inside your vent, you are not able to properly use your vent and therefore may be exposed to odours and bacteria.

Make sure to check the vents around your home to make sure a louver is not missing, which would indicate an animal has broken in. Gates Wildlife offers the service of screening the vents around your home to prevent this from happening to you!

Behind The Scenes!

Did you happen to see Gates Wildlife on City News this past May? Audra Brown interviewed Brad Gates, Owner of Gates Wildlife Control and caught us in action while we removed 5 baby skunks from under a deck in Richmond Hill.

As you can see in our YouTube videos, we try to give our followers a “behind the scenes” view into our jobs. Although, we often don’t think to show a behind the scenes of our photos on our social media. These baby skunks were born under a front deck of a home.  The deck had be rebuilt over top of 2 other decks in the past, which meant we had to break past 3 layers of deck boards to access the babies. At the time of this job, we knew City News was prepared to come film us on a job site so we called them immediately.

The story covers our humane removal process, tips for homeowners and cute wildlife babies! 

You can watch the video at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiQSP9pLERE&feature=emb_title

Moustaches for Movember

Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide

Since 2007, more than five million guys have defied cultural expectations, and sometimes the protests of their loved ones, and declined to shave their upper lips, all in the name of helping men living longer.

Did you know Movember didn’t start in America?

Movember has only been stateside for 11 years, when folks stateside joined the cause in 2007. However, the charitable effort originated in Australia in 2003.

It all started with a pair of Australian blokes in a pub, who wondered why men don't grow mustaches anymore. They created Movember as a holiday to celebrate their favorite form of facial hair, and to encourage other guys to grow a mustache for a month.

We have great news! We have raised $645 so far and are so appreciative of everyone who has donated. 

Our donation page: https://ca.movember.com/team/2350164

Chimneys make ideal living quarters for raccoons. When a raccoon sees an uncapped chimney, they see an open invitation to a safe and sheltered space to live in, give birth and raise her young. In the Spring, chimneys make for the perfect play pen for baby raccoons. Baby raccoons born inside a chimney typically take longer to start foraging with their mother as it takes more strength and skill to make the climb up the chimney before doing so.

Squirrels and birds often fall into open chimneys and become stuck at the bottom. In this case they would need rescuing in order to survive. Sometimes these animals enter the living space of the home, which will result in a very scared and frantic wild animal running in all directions looking for a way out. If this ever happens to you, it is best to open all doors and windows to ensure a direct path out for the animal as they will look for the daylight and head towards it.

Moustaches for Movember

During the month of November, Gates Wildlife will be donating $5.00 for every review that is posted about our company.

To help us reach our goal, we would appreciate receiving a review from anyone who has used our services over the years. It would mean a lot to us if you could take one minute to tell us how we did on our HomeStars account at https://bit.ly/2NyF81q

Our Donation Page: https://moteam.co/gates-wildlife-control?mc=1

This week we bring to you an amazing bird called an Inca Tern.

Inca terns have some of the most exceptional, refined mustaches similar to the Hungarian mustache style of humans. These mustaches can be found on both the female and the male birds. This bird is easily recognizable with its dark gray body, and red-orange beak and claws, and its perfect white moustache.

They are typically found on the Pacific coast from Peru to Chile and will breed on inshore islands and coastal cliffs.

Inca Terns feed on anchovies and other small fish as they feed by plunge diving and surface dipping.  They will also scavenge scraps from sea lions, dolphins and fishing boats.

Unfortunately, their populations are declining quickly because of the loss of nesting sites. and declining fish stocks are another reason. They have been included in the “close to vanishing species” category. Inca terns in the wild live up to 14 years and in captivity up to 20 years.

Roof Vents are a very common point of entry and are constructed of various materials such as light weight aluminum (which most people refer to as metal) or plastic.

We often have customers saying “I have the metal roof vents, the animals can’t get through those.” All roof vents, no matter what type, are no obstacle for animals seeking entry into attics.

This picture was taken on a job site where our customer had squirrels inside their attic. The squirrels were very easily able to chew through the metal siding of the roof vent and gain access into the attic.

Squirrels are rodents and are habitual chewers, meaning that their front teeth are always growing and they must continuously chew on anything and everything to grind those teeth down, including metal roof vents!

Raccoons are also able to break open metal roof vents very easily. They are highly intelligent (they can twist handles, open doors and even figure out how to open “animal proof” green bins!) and have very dexterous paws.

Roof vents are no match to both raccoons or squirrels. We highly recommend screening  your roof vents to prevent any future wildlife intrusions into your home. It is very important to protect your #1 investment!

Playing Possum

Playing dead is a survival strategy performed by hundreds of different species, including lemurs, lizards, ants and sharks. But why do animals do this? This bizarre behaviour, know as tonic immobility (TI) or catatonia can be used as a defence or offence.

Since most predators avoid dead or rotting animals displaying catatonia is usually enough to keep predators from killing and eating them. An opossum for example, assumes an odd body posture, sticks out its tongue, drools and oozes a foul smelling liquid from its anal gland. Disgusted, the predator usually decides it’s not the meal it was looking for and leaves. After a few minutes the opossum jumps up and heads on its way.

Animals also play dead in order to catch prey. There is a species of beetle that pretends to be dead and is carried away by ants to their ant nest. Once inside, the beetle springs back to life and feeds on the ant larvae.

In all of my years dealing with them, I've never been attacked, confronted or even approached by one. Nine times out of 10 they open their mouth, fall on their side and fake dead.

This opossum was found in a homeowners garage. We typically don’t receive many calls about opossums, mainly because they are constantly on the move. They tend not to stay in one location long enough to be a disturbance.

Some fun facts:

Size: 35–95 cm long without the tail

Weight: Up to about 6 kg

Distinctive look: Naked, prehensile tail

Best known for: "Playing possum" — feigning death as a defense mechanism

Range: Central America to the southern edges of Ontario and B.C.

Food: Omnivore

Life span: About two years in the wild

Raccoon Rescue From FresCo

This raccoon was found in a recycling dumpster at the FresCo by High Park on Friday. As you can see in the photo, the owner of the building attempted to help the raccoon out by placing a ladder inside for him to use but had no luck getting him to leave. 

Gates Wildlife Technician David arrived on site and was able to use our catch pole to lift the raccoon out of the bin and release him at the back of the parking lot on site.

Although raccoon’s are amazing climbers, they are often frightened in situations like this and are less likely to use the ladder placed into bin due to the fear of being caught.

Picture taken by Gates Wildlife Technician David.

Mustaches for Movember!

As you all know, this month our team will be raising awareness and funds for the amazing cause that is Movember. With the beginning of Movember, we bring you our new series “Animals with Mustaches.”

Using the moustache as the driving symbol of the movement, Movember focuses on the three key areas of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health & suicide prevention.

Introducing the Emperor Tamarin Monkey, which displays one of the animal kingdom's rarest and most breathtaking mustaches.

These monkeys live in the southwest Amazon Basin. They inhabit tropical rainforests, living deep in the forest and in open-tree covered areas. The Emperor Tamarin Monkey is a diurnal monkey, spending most of its days in the trees.

They typically live together in groups of 2-8. The oldest female leads the group above several mature males. The mutual grooming plays an important role for bonding and socializing.

The Emperor Tamarin Monkey is an omnivore, primarily eating fruits, insects and sap. They also eat bird eggs and small vertebrates such as tree frogs. Due to its small weight it can reach food far on the end of branches, which heavier animals can not reach.