Ketch-Um Wildlife Control

Other than being a bit pricey considering the work performed, no complaints.

Called Sam from Ketch-um Wildlife Control, who came out promptly, looked at my situation and formed a plan. He clearly explained his fees, which include a setup fee of $149, plus $75 per animal caught and removed. There was some specific legal paperwork from the State of Oregon that I had to sign as the homeowner in order to engage his pest animal control services. He baited two live catch traps, one inside the shed and one outside near the likely entrance point. I just had to keep an eye on the traps each day, and call Sam if I saw one of the traps had closed. Sam or his assistant always came out promptly to service the traps whenever I called. First thing we caught was a neighborhood cat, which was none too happy until Sam arrived to set it free. Then we started catching possums, and actually caught three possums over a two week period. Very pleased with the results.

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Ketch Um performs the service they advertise. Trouble is, they do nothing to remediate a rat problem, for example. $45.00 per capture adds up quickly! We just had to draw a line and tell them to stop, and we still had the same problem and had to go to a more comprehensive solution anyway.

When I found mysterious piles of poo in my side yard that weren't like dog or cat, I realized my house had a raccoon "latrine."   While worrying over that, molehills began popping up in my backyard, and I had to take action.  I did some checking online and realized that animal control operators in my area are licensed to operate in specific counties, so I had to find who to call for my area.  I also wanted to find someone with a good reputation, but I found very little information or reviews online, including here on Angie's List, for wild animal control in my area.  My county extension office referred me to a list of possible companies, but I still wanted a recommendation to help me choose.  Not finding animal control reviews, I called the highest reviewed pest control companies and asked them who they would recommend.  They pointed me immediately to Ketch-Um Wildlife Control.  I called and reached their technician, Sam, in the field on his cellphone.  Sam Gilman is the son of the owner, and has been working in his father's animal control business for over ten years.  He got my details and arranged a time to meet at my house.  He arrived right on time.  He drove an unmarked truck and wore casual work clothes, offering his business card by way of ID.  He checked out my animal problems, talked to me about the difficulties of catching raccoons and explained how their service works.  They charge a fee of $125 to set up all the traps, plus $65-$85 per animal caught.  The lower amount covered small rodents like my moles; the higher amount covered larger animals like my raccoons.  Their usual service period lasts about ten days, but he indicated that varied somewhat based on the situation.  I had to sign their service contract and the state's nuisance animal trapping forms.  Sam set two baited live-catch cage traps for the racoons in the area near where they'd been pooping, and buried multiple kill traps in the molehills, all marked visibly with flags.  Raccoons are active at night, so my responsibility as the homeowner was to check early each morning to see if the cage trap doors were shut, meaning there might be something inside, and if the door was shut, to call his cell number before 8am so he could put me on his schedule to come out that day.  Luckily, Sam set up the traps so I could check this from a distance.  He warned me a skunk might accidentally get caught, so I should just check the door, and if it was shut for any reason, just to call and he'd come deal with whatever it was.  Unless I contacted him, his pattern was to check on the traps about every four days.  I must praise their responsiveness to my calls.  Also, if Sam had to be out of town, he provided me with another technician's cell number to cover my needs.  Our final results:  he caught a medium sized possum in the cage trap, and he did catch the mole.  Never caught my raccoons, though he kept trying for longer than normal.  We had the traps out for a total of 22 days.  With no new use of the "latrine" areas, we had to assume that the raccoons may have moved on.  Overall, Ketch-Um's service was good, but just a little less professional than I'd like.  I'd use them again unless I had a particularly strong recommendation on another provider.  My only service complaint is that Sam tended to just show up without calling first, so I didn't know when to expect him, and he'd go straight into my yard to check on the traps rather than coming to the front door.  He also had to borrow some cardboard boxes from me to camouflage the traps; what if I hadn't had some big cardboard available?  I had also hoped to get a bit more information from him about what to watch out for with these animals, and perhaps some recommendations for what I should do to make sure they aren't able to create dens beneath my house or outbuildings, but Sam didn't offer much info in response to my questions about that.  I think most homeowners would appreciate the added value of getting that kind of info from an animal control expert who would know what to look for, and how to prevent future problems.

Traps were set on the 1st and removed on the 4th.  Three skunks and one possum were caught.  Sam Gilman was very professional and efficient.  I would recommend their service.