The Urban Herpetologist Pest Control and Wildlife Removal

The Urban Herpetologist Pest Control and Wildlife Removal The Urban Herpetologist Pest Control Service makes your family's safety our top-and only-priority. When it comes to the security of your house and family.

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles. We specialize in the removal of venomous and nonvenomous snakes, other reptiles and amphibians but also certified in the removal of bats, birds, mice, rats, moles, voles, squirrels, and other vertebrates, and the extermination of spiders, ants, flees, bedbugs, cockroaches and wood destroying pests plus many m

ore. Todd Georgel has over 20 years experience in environmental research, a Bachelors in Science from East Carolina University and a masters degree in Environmental Science from Christopher Newport University.

Always nice when a client calls with a copperhead issue and 24 hrs later we catch one in the trap!
07/12/2025

Always nice when a client calls with a copperhead issue and 24 hrs later we catch one in the trap!

Juvenile copperhead caught in someone's yard. Give us a call and we can remove any snake that may be bothering you. Simp...
06/06/2025

Juvenile copperhead caught in someone's yard. Give us a call and we can remove any snake that may be bothering you. Simply take a picture of it and text it to us and we'll tell you if it's a good snake or not. 804-937-5214
Zoom in and see the big wolf spider with babies on the snake!

02/22/2025

In 2020, the turtle known as the matamata (Chelus fimbriata), also written mata mata or mata-mata, was split into two species. The turtles in the Amazon river basin remain under the scientific name C. fimbriata, while the population in the Orinoco river basin are now classified as C. orinocensis. Scientific research utilizing genomic analysis found a deep split between those populations. Coupled with previously observed distinctive morphological differences between the populations, this made the taxonomic change a logical decision.

Matamata turtles are fully aquatic and can grow to around 46 lbs at maturity, with a carapace that can resemble submerged tree bark, or a log, and a large flat head which can resemble submerged leaves. Its head and long neck feature numerous tubercles and flaps of skin which help break up its outline and allow the turtle to camouflage itself at the bottom of slow-moving streams, pools, marshes, and swamps. It also has a long, tubular snout, which allows the turtle to stand in shallow water and reach the surface to breathe without having to fully expose its head. The turtles are ambush predators, feeding mostly on small fish, and some aquatic invertebrates.
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The photograph used in this post shows the face of an Amazonian matamata (Chelus fimbriata) underwater at an aquarium. The photo was taken by Miguel González Novo, and was shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) license. The image was not altered for use in this post.
View license information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

02/19/2025

Artificial light at night impacts more than 20% of the Earth's surface—and it’s growing fast! Research shows that artificial light at night speeds up the development of American toads, reducing their growth by 15%, and even changing their nighttime behavior.

These effects can carry across all stages of their life, highlighting the need to dim the lights and nocturnal ecosystems. To learn more about how “Artificial light at night decreases metamorphic duration and juvenile growth in amphibians” visit https://bit.ly/3EPsVDV

02/18/2025

Online Exhibit 🐢 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating

This rare fossil was discovered not far from the Museum and is on display in our Florida Fossils exhibit!

"It’s incredibly rare in that it’s a complete skeleton of this animal which has never been seen before," said fossil preparator Jason Bourque. "It’s about the size of the modern Gopher Tortoise. We don’t know if they dug burrows or not like Gopher Tortoises, but they did have an armored pad on their tail."

🎧 Read + listen to more with Jason: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/object/dwarf-tortoise/

Feature:
Dwarf Tortoise (Hesperotestudo incisa)
From Alachua Co., Florida
Lived ~100,000 years ago


📸 Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

Anyone relocating snakes in Virginia starting in 2025 needs to fill out this form and send it to the DWR. I believe you'...
12/20/2024

Anyone relocating snakes in Virginia starting in 2025 needs to fill out this form and send it to the DWR. I believe you'll need your Commercial Nuisance Animal Permit, although you can down load this form from their web site.

Had a European hornets nest in a dormer ceiling. Vacuumed the adults up and pulled out an average sized nest. Another we...
09/27/2024

Had a European hornets nest in a dormer ceiling. Vacuumed the adults up and pulled out an average sized nest. Another week or two and those capped cells would have produced another 50 hornets and you can see larvae in there waiting to be feed!

So the middle of May I got a phone call from a client that she had a snake in the gutter of her house. The photo of just...
07/14/2024

So the middle of May I got a phone call from a client that she had a snake in the gutter of her house. The photo of just the tail hanging out the gutter. I told her keep an eye on it, it looks like an albino of some sort. I got there and the snake was still in the same location. I was like dang an 18" albino rat snake! It was unfortunately really stuck in some roofing tape! Nothing like the glue boards I'm used too! The snake had been in the tape for a while. It had a bad cut on its side from trying to get itself unstuck and some sticky dirt all over it. Anyway after about an hour of slowly working this guy out of the tape, it was in bad shape. Half way through I was almost like it may be best to put it down! But I kept working. I got it out, it was limp and in bad shape. I placed it in a shallow container of water where it drank alot. I took it home and over the corse of the next two months it has eaten about 10 pinky mice, shed twice, and the cut has almost completely healed.

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4567 Darby Town Road
Richmond, VA
23231

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