Best Advice on Pesky Wildlife

If wild visitors have decided not only to take over your living space but to dismantle it while they're there, it could be time to call in the experts on peaceful inter-species co-existence. Since 1987, Wildlife Masters have been available to provide advice on discouraging incursions by a wide variety of small varmints, from rodents and snakes to skunks and pocket voles. This time of year, the more than two dozen volunteers in the county's program, modeled after the Master Gardener volunteer corps, field a number of calls about getting rid of woodpeckers, or, more likely, the northern flicker, which has a habit of drilling huge holes in the sides of houses. Here's a tip: Fake owls don't work. Check out www.ext.colostate.edu/coop/ ctylist.html for a list of extension-service offices in other counties.