Here in Florida, we live out in the country, on 30 acres. We have small rattlesnakes and use moth balls to keep they away, do not like the smell.
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Kaiserdr, yes, moth balls smell awful. Thatâs why we only use them in the sheds. I didnât realize they also repel rattlesnakes. Thatâs good to know.
We left off a (our house) screen and a rat climbed an untrimmed tree, came inside, I saw it, so did Bella and Loki, chase ensued. It climbed up a torchiere pole, fell off, ran inside the stove, I turned on the oven, it came out⌠and was never seen againâŚ
We use regular traps personally Iâd rather a guilliotine to the electric chair. I built a bucket with swinging styro plate and ramp style trap, that has been pretty successful.
Iâm sure some of our guests have seen overgrown mice. We are in nature, open animal habitat all around. I wish we could have kitties, but they would have a bad demise in raptors talons or coyotes jaws! Someday maybe we will adopt some semi-feral barn cats.
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I was getting in my car in the garage to go to work one day when I heard huge thuds, and barking, coming from the adjoining wall of my laundry room. Went back in to investigate. A cat in full hissing defensive mode was atop a pile of clean laundry in the basket in the corner, with my two extremely excited terriers absolutely hurling themselves at the basket repeatedly, barking their heads off. Cat had come in through the dog door. I had to drag the dogs to another room and maneuver the cat out the door. Cat never came back.
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Have you tried putting moth balls outside the perimeter of the house? I wonder if that would keep the critters away.
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Iâm sure your terriers loved it, just like my border collie and lab did! Best game ever!
A friend has horses. She was worried about barn cats being safe. Coy wolves moved into area. She found her cats sleeping on the backs of the horses in the barn. Smart cats.
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I have heard that mothballs are toxic to humans and dogs, so I donât think spreading them around is ok. I do hang them in punctured bags in my closet, after moths wrecked a beautiful jacketâŚ
We also wonât use rat poison as the up food chain results are a horrible fate to coyotes and big cats.
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All our housesâAirBnB and regular unfurnished rentalsâare 70 to 115 years old.
Weâve had, at various times and in various houses, the following inside the houses: mice, bats, birds, raccoon and her kits, squirrels and various bugs, like paper hornets, mud wasps, and yellow jackets. We had a skunk and her kits under one house. Weâve had groundhogs burrowing under the porches. No snakes yet but Iâm sure that will happen one day.
We humanely trap and release (10+ miles away, out in the country). We employ Orkin. We have become deft, experienced wildlife handlers and no one (guests or us) has been bitten or scratched yet.
All AirBnB guests that have encountered the wee crittersâand the not so small ones tooâhave been understanding. Even though the houses are in town, this is West Virginia and the motto the state tourism board touts is âWild and Wonderful.â 
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My favorite guest was the one who offered to help us catch a bat flying through the first floor.
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Our coolest guest like the tarantula crawling across the front window⌠exterior!! I think they left us this artwork, he is so talented!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!
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Oh my goodness! You have no idea. I am in the same situation as you AND we have a large fruit and vegetable garden so there is always food for them and a million rat and mouse friendly hidey holes. Itâs a constant battle but so far the suite has been good, knock wood!
When my girlfriend came over from France for a holiday here, she stayed in the suite, and I went to wake her from a nap and GASP!!! I walk into the bedroom and there is a baby mouse writhing on the floor (not sure what happened to the little guy. I donât put out poison so maybe he was stepped on or a cat got him, etc but he was not moving anywhere quick!
I counted every last lucky star that a guest wasnât staying there then! Can you imagine??? I feel sick whenever I think of it! So, I know exactly how you feel. I am super diligent about protecting the suite now but hey, its a possibility and I always try not to worry about things like that until they happen. KNOCK WOOD they never do!
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What are coy wolves? They interbreed? Smart coyotes! 
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Jack Russells are manic all the time. A friend had one that would literally climb the wall (about 6 feet!) if the doorbell rang. He was neutered, but he was just wired. His favorite activity was jumping at Frisbees. A squirrel would have him totally wired for at least an hour.
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Iâve seen one jump up and down for at least an hour straight. Over and over and over. Left to his own devices, I always wondered just how long that would go on.
One of my chihuahuas has caught two so far. Maybe I should hire outside help!
Funny thing os that one of my chiâs is half dachshund and they were bred to go to ground and hunt badgers. She doesnât bat an eye when a mouse walks on by!
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Coyote & wolf interbred. Carry traits of both. Social & hunting packs & intelligent problem solvers like wolves. Smaller like coyotes. Occasionally feral domestic dog in the mix. All black is rare & pelt valued.
Follow train tracks to expand territory.
Thought to originate with Eastern coyotes & wolves found along Canada& USA upper northeast.
Yip like coyotes. Not bark. Not howl. Nocturnal. Will wipe out local deers, rabbits, turkeys if not culled.
Generally will avoid humans but not always if sick, starving or Cubs close by.
Can adapt to city life. Iâve seen them in my condo neighborhood.
If I take dogs out at night I always look up & down street before going out.
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My two yorkies saw a chipmunk. Their expressions were like âoh look at that. Gotta gave me some of thatâŚâ barking and being dragged into the house ensued. I made the mistake of picking the old dog up. My sweet, well behaved senior citizen about clawed my arm off trying to get down to the chipmunk.
TerriersâŚgotta love âem.
I usually just lurk here and have learned a lot from all of you, but I had to respond to this post about pests in the rental space. Nearly all of our guests are nature lovers (birders and hikers) and are not surprised by an occasional pest. Guests tend to leave the door open while they relax on the cabin porch, and if the lights are on, especially in the evenings, well, thatâs a perfect scenario for inviting pests inside. We stay on top of it and dutifully clean the cabin after each booking, but we are surrounded on three sides by national forest so we are very much in the country. Once we had a couple of city folks comment on finding a common small spider in the cabin so I added the following to our listing description: âWe keep the cottage very clean (check our reviews) but you might hear the chirp of a cricket in the bathroom or find a moth fluttering near the porch light. Natureâs local residents are our neighbors.â If that deters a potential guest from booking, so be it but frankly most of our guests get it and understand.
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If my guests freaked out about wildlife, I would have had to stop hosting almost as soon as I started. I live in the tropics- insects are plentiful and diverse. Like you, I clean thoroughly, even flipping the bed frame on its side and vacuuming it (a single bed with a foam mattress, so not at all difficult). But I warn guests not to leave food or food wrappers around, as the ants will move in quickly, to shake out their shoes and clothes before getting dressed, as there can be scorpions, etc. I mention it casually when they arrive and Iâm showing them their room, just like I show them where the light switches are, and which side faucet is the hot water, so they seem to take it in stride.
And like your guests, mine often have the door to their room open, while they are relaxing in bed reading or doing online stuff, because they have a great view out the door- jungled hillsides and a tree where all sorts of cool birds perch.
I feel like guests should research something about the area they are travelling to, not just assume itâs like some pretty photos in travel magazines which donât mention the realities of what wildlife might be around.
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I may have mentioned this before but we had guests who BROUGHT a snake into our house. It wasnât a pet but we think it crawled out of their suitcase. It wasnât local to our area but more from where they lived, which is how we guessed it was brought in. And thank goodness it was them because it was small which means a nest! We do have house millipedes which we can never eradicate but that means we are extra diligent about cleaning corners, small spaces etc. we have regular pest control but those things come in from outside.
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