The author follows an ADC husband-and-wife team through their daily grind and finds out just how tough the job can be.

By Jason Houser

What do you get when a radio station marketing guru and a legal assistant for an Alabama law firm are ready for something new in their lives? No, this is not the start of a corny joke. This is the beginning of Boswell Wildlife Control based out of Greenville, Alabama.

We all have our goals in life and sometimes they are right in front of us, and we don’t even know it. Talking with Doug Boswell, who operates Boswell Wildlife Control with his wife Alissa, I do not think he would have taken the bet a year ago that he would quit his radio gig and go into Animal Damage Control trapping for a living. I can certainly guarantee you that Alissa had no intentions of leaving her job at the air-conditioned law firm in exchange for removing bat guano from an attic. But the road of life sometimes takes unexpected turns.

Over the course of the last few months, I have gotten to know both Doug and Alissa and have spent some time trapping with them. My curiosity got the best of me, so it was time for me to dig a little deeper to find out what motivates them, what their “typical” day is like and what in the world they were thinking with this career change.

Let me be the first to tell you that if you think ADC trapping and running a trapline for a few months during the winter are anything similar, you are mistaken. Yes, there will still be some problem furbearer jobs, but that will not be your typical day unless those are the only jobs you accept. There is nothing typical about ADC work.

If you can think of it, the Boswells have tried to catch it, remove it or eradicate it in their short time in business. I had the opportunity to trap with Douglas shortly after the birth of Boswell Wildlife Control. At that time, his main job was problem beavers that were flooding out roadways. Calls were just beginning to come in for other jobs at that time. I felt the need to check back in with Douglas a few months later to get a feel for how things were progressing. Going well is an understatement.

Douglas got his foot in the door trapping problem beavers for the county highway departments. From there, the business has exploded to the point that they have been approached about franchising into the neighboring state of Georgia.

So, what do people need help with? Mice and rats, squirrels, bats and snakes seem to be their top calls. “We get the occasional call from livestock ranchers, farmers and hunting clubs that need predator control, calls for skunks under houses, we even got a call where a woman had multiple tortoises laying eggs in her backyard, but our top calls are residential areas and the nuisance animals that come along with it,” Doug said.

Except for snakes, those animals do thousands upon thousands of dollars of damage to homes once they have a way into a home, and do so much noticeable damage so quickly, that it is not surprising that those animals will make up most of the calls.

I happened to be trapping problem beavers with Douglas when he got the call for a bat job. Not just any run-of-the-mill bat job, though. A complete bat eradication job that took several months for them to complete.

Spending that much time on one job is extremely rare, but it was a major job that fought them every step of the way. Douglas added, “When we went to the initial inspection, we noticed some materials used in bat eradication, and learned that there had already been a company working on this removal, and they quit.”

After witnessing the bats exit and return to the attic space, they estimated the colony was between 500 and 1,000 bats. The home had holes everywhere behind the vinyl siding, and it took the use of thermal imaging equipment to finally locate all of them.

The repairs were extensive and took much longer than normal due to the number of holes in the home. After eradication was confirmed, the husband-and-wife team began the cleanup of the guano and replacement of the urine-soaked insulation that covered the entire attic. As bad luck would have it, their vacuum stopped working on them early in the cleanup, so they removed more than one ton of guano in total weight by hand. The homeowner had been dealing with the bats for more than 10 years!

After the job was completed, the homeowner was so excited that she hugged Alissa as hard as she could and cried. Alissa said, “It was a wonderful feeling knowing that we had changed this homeowner’s life by doing what others were unable to complete.”

Alissa added, “This was probably my favorite job to date. You could tell these poor folks were at their wit’s end. They had had bats in their house for roughly 10 years. They had used two other companies to try and rid them from their home, one of which took their money and never came back to finish the job.

“This job took several months to complete, as you can imagine. There were a lot of bats that had made their attic a home for a very long time! The final day at the house was after the bats had already been eradicated for several weeks. All of the outside sealing had been finished, with no sign of any stragglers, golden. We started the day early by hand-shoveling bat guano. Yup. Respirators in check, Super Bright Headlamps from Bossman Outdoors, garbage bags, dust pans, hand shovels and 100 degrees of stank. It was gloriously disgusting. The hard work was all worth it, though, because that led to the finish point: deodorization and blowing in new insulation, which dare I say was so fun to do! It was like throwing fake (itchy) snow all over the place! It’s the little things.

“When I tell you that attic went from smelling like what an attic would smell like after a lengthy bat infestation, to a fresh, clean-smelling, white, powdery wonderland; it was so rewarding to witness. When I came down and told the lady just how happy I was with the smell and how 110% better it physically looked up there, she got very emotional. In that moment, I was so happy that we were the ones that were able to do that job for her and her husband,” Alissa said.

A lot of individuals want to get into ADC work to be able to trap full time. Well, as you read above, it is a lot more than being out trapping coyotes or ‘coons year-round. Let us not forget you had better be handy at fixing things, too.

Wild animals absolutely destroy homes when they take up residency. Squirrels, mice and rats for instance, have teeth that never stop growing, so they are constantly chewing to help keep those teeth ground down. Once they have chewed their way into your home, next is the wiring, the support beams, the insulation around your A/C ducts and piping, and so much more. When Boswell Wildlife Control leaves your home or business, their goal is to have it looking as it did before the animal made its way in. This means replacing fascia and soffits, gutters, vinyl siding and any plywood or sheetrock that may be soaked with urine or droppings. This is the goal of most guys and gals doing ADC work.

Douglas did add, “Anything that is deemed dangerous for the homeowner, such as fire hazards from wiring being chewed or structural integrity due to rotting boards, we refer out to others, but the basic repairs to damage, we take care of ourselves.”

“Once the animals are out of the home and the repair work is complete, next we go through preventative upgrades to the home to ensure this problem doesn’t come back anytime soon,” Boswell added.

In most cases, this includes a lot of metal work with custom-cut materials around soffit vents and ridge cap vent spaces, but also may include custom-building chimney caps or gable vents that are better suited for guarding against these animals. Douglas went on to say, “I honestly can say we spend more time doing repair work and customized prevention than we do actual trapping.”

There is a business side to ADC work that is often overlooked by individuals looking to get into the business.

Marketing is imperative for growth, especially when you are new. If you are not comfortable marketing, find someone who can help you very quickly. Word of mouth is great, but that takes time. Douglas and Alissa spend no less than an hour and a half every single day marketing their business. “Don’t be scared to knock on a few doors. You’d be surprised as to how many people have a major animal issue but have never thought to call anyone for help,” Douglas said.

I could not walk away from Douglas without asking what advice he had for someone looking to get into ADC work. “Don’t stop learning. This industry is constantly growing. For instance, the introduction of the RBG, Round Body Grip, trap opened a ton of newer versions of older trap sets, and even created some brand-new sets of its own. Their shape allows us to put them in much tighter spaces than square bodygrips. For us, it has simplified trapping smaller animals, especially. Constantly staying on top of industry growth will make you a great solution for your clients, and may even set you far above your local competition,” Boswell said.

Another issue that comes with ADC work is what to do with the animals you have to trap. The laws vary by location. You might be required to dispatch the animals, relocate them or even turn them over to a rehab center. It is not like trapping during the season that many of us are accustomed to, when we can head to the fur shed and skin the animals out. Not only might this be illegal, but in the summer months it would not be worth the time. Also, don’t forget that many animals that are trapped in ADC work are not even furbearers.

What does it take to be an ADC trapper? This job can be extremely stressful. While every day is fun, every day is extremely dangerous. You must be always aware of what is around you while still doing the job at hand.

“There could be a gator that wants our trapped beaver for lunch hidden in the swamp we are walking through, or a cottonmouth sunning on that same beaver’s dam. Just checking our beaver trapline in the summertime gives us a daily chance to get face to face with known killers,” Boswell said. In dealing with wild animals there is always the chance of rabies exposure. “In fact, another ADC guy just south of me tested positive today for rabies from a raccoon,” said Alissa. Also knowing it is estimated that one out of every 10 bats has rabies, so going through an attic space that has a colony of several hundred, you know full well there is a very good chance there is rabies in the attic, too.

“We spend most of our days in attics with possible exposed wires, crawling through crawl spaces with no idea what may be waiting on us just out of view, dealing with every animal in the wild that is known to attack and even kill people. We cover quite a few different phobias. You must be tough, mentally and physically. Physically, it is demanding. You can expect to spend the day climbing ladders, scaling rooftops, and replacing insulation in an attic in 105-degree heat, or trudging through swamps in the pouring rain. Just like working a regular trapline, you are constantly on your feet, manhandling wild animals, and doing manual work to get those traps set and ready,” Boswell said.

For those that have a love for the outdoors, working with wildlife and trapping, there is not a better career out there. However, it can be overwhelming at times. When you get started, don’t feel obligated to respond to every single type of call you receive. There is nothing wrong with having a niche and only focusing on specific species. Being able to offer a wide variety of services, though, allows you more opportunities for work.

Each state has different requirements for ADC work. It may require testing or something as simple as purchasing a license. The work is hard and not always glamorous, but the rewards are often great. If this is something you might be interested in, contact your state’s game and fish department to find out what steps to take to get started.

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