Cook’s Wildlife Solutions

11/02/2026

The bat in the bedroom was never the dangerous part. Sleeping through it was.

The frightening rabies numbers you have read are almost all distorted by a sampling problem, because roughly 6 percent of bats submitted to state labs test positive but those animals were grounded, sick, or slow enough for a person to catch, which is the whole reason anyone submitted them. Bats healthy enough to fly, hunt, and hang in a roost almost never make it into that testing pool. Sample wild colonies instead and the infection rate drops below 1 percent, so the bat hanging over your insulation tonight is very unlikely to be carrying anything at all.

Now the other half of the paradox: CDC researchers reviewed every human rabies case acquired inside the United States between 1960 and 2018, found 89 of them, and traced 62 straight back to bats. That is 7 out of every 10 deaths pinned on the one mammal least likely to be infected in the first place, and not on raccoons, skunks, or stray dogs, which are the animals people actually flinch from.

The gap between those two facts is dental. A bat's teeth are finer than a hypodermic needle, so a bite can leave a mark you would need bright light and a magnifier to find, and it often closes over within hours. A sleeping adult, a toddler, or anyone who has been drinking will never feel it happen, which is why the CDC counts a bat found in a room with a sleeping person as a genuine exposure even with no visible wound, and why the standing advice is to trap the animal in a container for testing rather than open a window and shoo it out.

The stakes leave no room to guess, because rabies is essentially 100 percent fatal once symptoms appear and fewer than 10 people in recorded history have survived it. Preventive treatment after an exposure means four vaccine doses over 14 days plus a dose of immune globulin, and the bill in the United States commonly lands between $3,000 and $7,000. Having the actual bat tested costs almost nothing by comparison, and a negative result from the state lab closes the entire question in about a day, which is why nobody in wildlife control lets the animal go before they know. [VJXJY]

06/30/2026

With no visible wounds and the child acting normally, his parents saw no need for concern or medical intervention – until about 19 days later.

06/19/2026

In November 2025, a remote camera overlooking a watering hole in Arizona’s Sky Islands captured something remarkable: a jaguar.

Researchers at the University of Arizona’s Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center confirmed the animal was a previously undocumented individual—the fifth jaguar recorded in the state over the past 15 years. They named him Cinco.

Since that first sighting, camera traps have photographed Cinco more than 17 times. He continues to return to the same drainages, water sources, and mountain corridors, suggesting he is doing more than passing through. He appears to be establishing a presence in the region.

Cinco is also part of a broader pattern. Since August 2025, researchers have confirmed seven new jaguar detections in southern Arizona. All have been male cats dispersing north from established populations in Mexico. Yet despite these encouraging signs, no jaguar breeding has been documented north of the U.S.-Mexico border in more than a century.

Jaguars once roamed much of the American Southwest, with their range extending as far north as the Grand Canyon. By the mid-20th century, hunting, habitat loss, and human expansion had nearly eliminated them from the United States.

The footage of Cinco offers evidence that the wildlife corridors connecting Mexico and Arizona still function. These pathways continue to provide the water, prey, and cover that jaguars need to survive. But growing development, climate change, and border infrastructure are placing increasing pressure on these routes.

Whether five jaguars in 15 years becomes the beginning of a larger comeback may ultimately depend on keeping those corridors open.

Sources: National Geographic, University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center, CBS News, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

06/03/2026

It has been a busy spring for us here at High Country Pest Solutions! Make sure to call or text us today to get on the schedule ASAP. We're happy to handle any issues, big or small!

05/23/2026

04/24/2026

Another momma raccoon 🦝 with kits!

04/16/2026

Guys we have two weeks to get bats 🦇 (maternal colonies) out of your house before they live rent free all Summer till August 1st. You know you got em’ 🤣. You know who to call!! (828) 457-1206

04/16/2026

This is the story of Roxie the Raccoon:

Got a call for something in the attic of a commercial building (approximately 10K square feet). After identifying the entry point I suspected the culprit was a raccoon. I did find f***s in the attic but half of the access was inaccessible so I never actually found Roxie. I suspected that Roxie probably secured this location to give birth which is quite common to avoid predators or male raccoons which will kill the kits to be able to reproduce with momma.

I set up a camera at the entry point to observe if I was correct in my assumption. I then took tennis balls and doused them in male raccoon urine and threw them into the attic areas to encourage mom to move the kits on her own. Because, if I trapped her and removed her the kits would die and that would’ve been very sad and also a stinky mess. I was trying to keep this family together. Also, don’t ask how I got the male raccoon urine. Tedious process…

The first night she left the attic no kits were observed. So then I started thinking maybe she hadn’t given birth yet. The second night you can see the time stamps but she moved 3 kits out of the attic and she never returned.

Now, I can secure the entry point so they don’t have future issues there and clean up the mess that Roxie left behind. Roxie hopefully moved her kits to a nice, safe location and will be successful in raising them.

Win for all parties involved.

04/13/2026

To customers and/or potential clients. For the love… stop using or telling people that mothballs keep wildlife away. All you are doing is damaging your own health and/or contaminating healthy environments. They are not effective at repelling anything other than moths.