Animal Damage Control

Needed an urgent dead rat removal — James was busy himself but arranged for someone to address it right away! He then came the next day to inspect the outside to ensure there were no causes for concern. Very informative, friendly and knowledgeable. And much much more reasonable than the others out there.
I would highly recommend this company.

I thought I had a major skunk problem, as my newly adopted dogs (small tykes, no match for a skunk) got sprayed 3 nights in a row. I called James, who responded promptly and came over quickly. He was very brave, crawling under the house to see if the little devils had invaded the house. He asked me very relevant questions and was able to ascertain that the skunk was just a visitor, not a resident (stopping by nightly to scarf up excess birdseed). He walked the property perimeter and advised me as to how to prevent its re-​entry. He could have duped me into setting traps and killed the skunk (which unfortunately they are required to do), but instead he solved the problem without further damage to either the dogs or the skunk. What a great guy! He did not charge me for what they consider an estimate. Of course I tipped him, I hope generously. If you think you have a critter issue, I highly recommend this company! They (James as their rep) are honest, reliable and compassionate.

Wrote him an email about a month ago regarding a raccoon problem. I was in no particular hurry, waited weeks, no answer. Ok, maybe the guy doesn’t like email — it’s not very professional but it happens. Called a few weeks ago, he set up a preliminary evaluation, showed up, gave me an approximate quote to seal up access points, and said to EMAIL HIM regarding my availability, which I did. This time i waited days, no answer. Called him, he said «how about Thursday noon-​ish». Worked for me, so I waited, and waited … He never showed. I never did call him to find out what happened, because by this time I figured I don’t want to work with this guy. He’s either flaky or not interested in the job.
Will be looking for someone else.

I hired them because of squirrels and roof rats in the attic and they claimed to be able to exclude them. They trapped several of each. ($$). They sent someone to seal entry to the attic. This led to disaster!
He put screen over some vents, but sprayed an expanding gray foam into some other areas. There undoubtably was a hole and he used a lot of foam to more than fill it, making a big ball of it on the outside. This caused a blockage on the valley of the roof and caused buckets of rain to back up into the house causing major damage.
Then the squirrels and rats came back.
They checked the one squirrel hole they had patched that was still intact and said the guarantee did not cover new holes right next to it. Or the fact that they had excluded nothing!
I wanted my money back, but haven’t seen any yet. $$$$ down the drain! They are no doubt laughing that anyone would believe them.

The understory of our hillside home was colonized by mating skunks and the odor drove us from our home last December. Over the course of two weeks, James and his brother visited almost daily to set (humane) traps and euthanize the 6 animals who were wrecking havoc on our household. It took some hard work to find and seal the primary and secondary access points, including ripping up some decking but ADC was up to that task. James was extremely responsive to our concerns along the way and we would wholeheartedly recommend him to our neighbors.

When James first came last spring I was quite satisfied — the squirrel seemed to be gone from our attic. At that point I would have given Animal Damage Control a five (with the caveat that they did not seem to have a data base and asked for my address and telephone every time I called).
However, well within their 8-​month warranty period the critter (diurnal, not nocturnal so I presume it is a squirrel) was back — chewing and pattering overhead. I called and James’ brother came. He had no ladder with him, so he could not check around the edge of the roof, and he did not go up to the attic. I called again and had the same experience. The only thing he did was reinstall traps on the fence leading to our house (but only on one side of the house!) No follow-​up and no apparent concern for our problem.
A warranty is only as good as the service behind it – and this company has fallen way short on service! Not recommended.

With a skunk problem, we called Animal Damage Control. James came out and discovered the beginning of the tunnel. Lots of flys and fleas. His brother, Brett, came back about three times to dig the dead skunk out of the six feet long tunnel the skunk had made. Not an easy job, but Brett worked very hard, then refilled the hole and placed protective barriers to avoid future visitors. Their work was effective, and we were relieved of that unpleasant odor. A strong recommendation for the Schmerker brothers.

Removing animals — whether squirrel, rat or raccoon — is never a pleasant thing. In this age of PETA I am more sensitive than I used to be about animal like this which is normally saw as annoying creatures. But given the choice of a damaged roof and animals living in my attic, this company removes them in the most humane way possible.
HIGH PRAISE for this company — especially James. I had a major squirrel problem and within 6hours of James setting the bait, two of the squirrels were captured and James came the next day to pick up.
He is extremely knowledgable, his rates are fair (much better than some of his local competitors) and most importantly — given the type of work he is in — very compassionate. And he has a great sense of humor. He should have his own tv show cause what he does is truly unique!

This review is a little bit late, but better late than never right?
We had a skunk living under our house. It ripped out 3 vents around our house, getting in and out at night.
I researched different companies who said they were in the pest control business and even offered skunk removal services but honestly, some of these companies didn’t have a qualified person who did that. After calling 4 – 5 companies I started to think nobody around the area was able to help me with my new pet.
I researched on Unilocal for different services and I found Animal Damage Control. They are lifesavers!!! Angel was the sweetest person ever and reassured me James could take care of the skunk who lived under the house. She set up an appointment for him to come and set up a trap.
James showed up at our house with a truck full of traps. He was very knowledgeable and answered my endless questions about skunks, people who trap skunks and what should we do if he caught the skunk.
Needless we were triumphant in catching the skunk and James helped us patch up our vents.
If you need to get rid of some pests, give them a call, you will be taken care of. :)

Clearly experienced. Took care of a rat issue for us, helped identify potential places they were coming in and plugged the holes, and they were very nice and professional.
They’re great, would highly recommend!

Needed removal of a few squirrels that were damaging my roof. James was pleasant and clear about his plan for removal. Cost was as described over the phone before work started. Highly recommended.

I had a very poor experience with this company. Not only did they not resolve my pest problem, they tried to charge me twice for doing the same job. Their contract stated that they would come back until the job was complete (as long as it was within one year). However, I received a second bill after contacting them numerous times to complete their service. They responded to my request for service, but made little effort to find where the rodents were entering my house. After giving up on this company, I hired another company and they found numerous locations that rodents could enter my home.
Hopefully, the rodent infestation is over. However, I would certainly not hire Animal Damage Control again nor recommend them to anyone else.

Angel and John Arrived five minutes late from their appointment and their truck just reeked of skunk spray. I asked them about it and they said that they had a skunk in the back of their pick up. You would think that they would have disposed of the skunk before coming to another appointment as my house and yard reeked of skunk the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening.

I would highly recommend James and Angel to friends and family who need animal removal.
We heard a large animal making loud scratching noises inside the walls near the front of our house. We knew it had to be a raccoon because we’ve seen them in the area, but had no idea how it was getting in the walls. Reading reviews online for several pest control people, I was worried about bad service, inspection fees that lead to nothing and being ripped off…
James and Angel were so knowledgeable and super nice. They inspected around the house and found the point of entry right away! They were thorough, continuing to walk around the house and using a ladder to check the roof for more points of entry. They gave us an exact quote for setting a trap. No pressure. No inspection fee! Wow! We blocked the point of entry at the right time when the raccoon happen to be out. They left us to listen for the raccoon and to decide what we want to do next.
I would not hesitate to call James and Angel if I hear any more noises in the walls. So far so good. Thanks James and Angel for being so honest and helpful!

Heard some unsettling gnawing sounds coming from inside the walls of my house which I tried to ignore for several weeksy. The gnawing got so loud I couldn’t ignore them. Turns out I had a squirrel nest and there were babies. After trying to scare the squirrel out of the hole, which included a brief battle with the mama squirrel (me brandishing a fruit picker), I knew I had to call in the professionals. Enter Angel and her hubby James, who came by a day later, set the trap and, four hours later, we caught mama and baby. One day later, we caught another baby coming back to the nest. Angel and James were quick, professional, and knew what they were doing. Clearly they have been doing this for years. I highly recommend their services if you find yourself in this unfortunate predicament.

This guy was GREAT. Professional, reasonably priced and a nice guy as well.
I have to admit some of the people in this field seemed a little shady or weird when I called, but James was cool, he showed up promptly and took care of my problem.
The «problem» I had bought a house that had been empty for a while. turns out 2 skunks had moved in the bottom crawl space, and a Raccoon in the attic!.. jeeeez
anyway.he took care of it within a week and thanks to James all the «guests» were gone and the place sealed up tight.
I Highly recommend him to anyone with critter issues!

I was looking for a humane way to get rid of skunks in our back yard. I was going to call James Schmerker business, but decided not to after doing some online research.
Please read:

I realized after several days of something digging up my yard there was a skunk (actually two of them) living under a deck off my house, I called James and he came out that day, gave me suggestions of what I could do myself to deter the skunks from wanting to stay. He also said he was willing to take it on himself if I prefer, but said it would be simple to do. I went and got the needed stuff, and NO more skunks. He also offered to unscrewed some of the boards on my deck and to be sure there wasn’t access to under my house. Thank you James for your honesty and suggestions, I will not only call you if I ever have any rodent issues, but I will highly recommend you to others.

This is so weird. My wife somehow posted this to my Unilocal account. She really loved this guy, so read on.
James Schmerker is the best you could want. He came to my house within 1 day of my calling, he went into my horrble little attic and gave me the lowdown. I am an animal freak and so I asked him to spare the lives of the rodents in my attic and he did that, no problem. He didn’t even make fun of me! :)
I would use Animal Damage Control again and I highly recommend this business.

I highly recommend Animal Damage Control. They did a great job of removing a skunk from the crawl space of my house. James came out the day I called and carefully examined around the house to find traces of the skunk. He was able to quickly identify the hole under the fence where the skunk was likely coming in and out of my property. Then he found a potential access hole. He was like a detective examining footprints, scratch marks, and even found a skunk hair. It’s clear he knows his stuff about different pests. (He even pointed out that a tree in the front yard looked like it was being attacked by sap sucker birds, and showed me all the holes covering that tree.)
He quickly set up a trap and when no animal was caught after a couple of days, he cheerfully came out to set up a second trap. The skunk was caught within 2 days (it was a pretty big one) and he came out the next day to remove it. Afterwards, he reset the skunk trap to make sure that no other skunks were still there. After about a week and no further skunks, someone came to take the trap away.
In all, they made four trips out to the house to deal with the problem. They installed new metal mesh over the vent, and did little extras like sealing up a potential access hole in the shed with a foam sealant, and installing a simple latch onto shed doors that wouldn’t close so that animals wouldn’t be able to get in there.