ANIMALS. CAN’T LIVE WITH ’EM, CAN’T…no, wait. You can live with them—and at the cottage, you have to. Getting along with your human neighbours usually takes a little compromise; so does getting along with your animal neighbours. “When people pay me to help them deal with their wildlife conflicts, they’re also paying me to educate them,” says Gary Ure, the owner of Second Nature Wildlife Management in Gananoque, Ont. “You do have to co-exist with them. Part of that is understanding the biology of the animal.” The other part is realizing that easy solutions rarely work, but persistence and attention to detail does. You don’t have to be smarter than “nuisance” wildlife and cottage pests. You just have to be more determined. And, sometimes, you have to pick your battles.
COTTAGE WRECKERS
PESKY PILEATED WOODPECKER
Typical MO Hammers the life out of your siding, either to get at tasty carpenter ants, or while drumming in spring to establish territory and announce itself to mates.
What to do Say thank you. If Woody is going after ants, he has informed you of a potential infestation. And rest assured that spring drumming won’t last through the summer. (At least not to the same degree: woodpeckers do peck wood.) But we get it—that’s not much consolation if a woodpecker destroys all the knots in your cedar. Like other birds, woodpeckers will become habituated to, and then ignore, most deterrents. But something that’s motion- or sound-activated could work, says Doug Tozer of Birds Canada. (See “Fakery Gets You Nowhere,” p. 76.)
CLEVER BEAR
Typical MO Breaks into the cottage; ransacks it looking for food.
The best way to deal with a problem bear is to avoid creating one in the first place. Get rid of all bear attractants outside the cottage. That is, get rid of anything that smells remotely edible, unless you can store it in a bear-proof container. Also get rid of bear attractants inside the screened porch—gasoline, empty beer cans, fridges. (Don’t ever leave a bucket of fish inside the porch. Ask us how we know.) When there’s the possibility of food around, bears food,” he says. (A food-conditioned bear won’t necessarily attack, but you’re still best to not interrupt its meal.) Even if you or your lake neighbours have never had bear problems, it doesn’t mean that you never will. Black bears are more likely to turn to human food sources when their natural sources are low—for example, in the summer thanks to a poor berry crop, or in the fall when there’s an acorn shortage.
