Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 78 Curious Critters: Navigating Animal Encounters in Bergen County
Dive into the fascinating world of animal control with Anthony Baglino, the mastermind behind Dapper Trapper. Transitioning from a successful career as a pharmacist, Anthony shares his journey of how a love for animals transformed into a thriving wildlife control business in Bergen County. With fascinating insights into the natural behaviors of groundhogs, foxes, and raccoons, he discusses the seasonal patterns that dictate animal encounters and offers invaluable tips on humane wildlife management.
Listeners will gain a deep understanding of the dos and don'ts of handling wildlife encounters, from securing garbage cans to understanding animal behavior, especially in busy seasons like spring. Anthony explains the role of natural predators and the significance of maintaining ecological balance while addressing human-animal coexistence.
Throughout the episode, listeners are encouraged to embrace a humane approach to wildlife control and learn more about preventing unwanted animal visits to their homes. With his approachable manner and wealth of experience, Anthony ensures that anyone listening can feel equipped to navigate their encounters with local wildlife effectively and compassionately.
Join us for this engaging conversation, and don’t forget to connect with Anthony and the Dapper Trapper for all your wildlife concerns. Subscribe, share, and leave us a review to help others discover the value of humane wildlife management!
The Dapper Trapper
Anthony Baglino
(347)-979-2607
dappertrappertony@gmail.com
We cover Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York, and Bergen County in New Jersey.
NWCO #: 2516 / Fully Insured
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. I am your host, doug Drohan, and today we have a special guest. I've interviewed a lot of different business owners, some of them. You know we tend to have overlap with realtors and therapists, but I have to say this is the first time we've had a wildlife control or trapping business owner. Everybody, please welcome Anthony Baglino from the Dapper Trapper. Good morning everyone. Yeah, so you are in Crestville, new Jersey.
Speaker 3:Actually I'm in Upper. I just moved recently to Upper Saddle River.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're no longer neighbors because I'm in Harrington Park, but we're still in Bergen County, right? So you know it's interesting. I think I saw you on Instagram once and you know we talked about. You know where we live in Bergen County there's a lot of groundhogs, there's a lot of foxes, raccoons, uh, squirrels not as many skunks.
Speaker 2:It's funny, when I lived in hudson county, right on the cliffs overlooking the hudson river, skunks were like everywhere. I had my dogs got skunked a number of times. Uh, right on the cliffs, right in the backyard. Uh, like right above river road in the big park. There there were skunks. I haven't seen many skunks around here. Maybe that's because they have natural predators that take care of them, like coyotes. But you know, let's backtrack. So you know you're in Bergen County and at what point did you say you know? I think we need because there are pest control companies, right, but I think mostly they work with, like you know, insect pest control companies, right, but I think mostly they work with, like you know, insect pest control, right. We don't really think of a pest control company when it comes to animals. So when did you, how did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:Well, it's kind of a long story. Started as a as a child, I lived in Queens. I grew up in Queens and I what part of Queens Howard Beach. I lived in Queens, I grew up in.
Speaker 2:Queens? What part of Queens?
Speaker 3:Howard Beach.
Speaker 2:My grandmother lived in Ozone Park. My neighbors yeah. I used to go to the Carvel on Crossbridge Boulevard there, yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't think that's there anymore.
Speaker 2:No, really Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a long time but anyhow so you know, as a child you can ask my parents, my backyard was a zoo I've had probably every animal you could think of, except a dog or a cat. I wasn't allowed to have a dog or a cat and honestly I don't think I'd want either. So with that, you know, I got older. I didn't really think there'd be any kind of a calling to do animals at the time. So you know, I went to school to be to become a pharmacist. With that I graduated, opened up a store in Brooklyn with a partner. Then we opened a store in Manhattan, the store I had in Brooklyn.
Speaker 3:I had, I had a 15 year lease and my original landlord winds up selling the building to these developers and the developers wanted me to leave. I had three years left on my lease. They told me Apple wanted my spot, my location, and they were going to pay $300 a square foot where I was paying 35. So I knew I couldn't afford that. They told me they were going to make my life miserable. Until I left I said, how about making me retire? So I gave them sort of an astronomical number and they gave me 90% of what I asked. So I sort of retired. Yeah, so it all worked out. So you know I still had my city store, that I didn't work as a pharmacist but I did the finances and the mail and stuff like that. So I'd go in once a week but I was home a lot and at the time my wife she's like you can't be home with me all the time. You have to find something to do so with that I also have a home upstate New York, maybe about 10 minutes from Monticello.
Speaker 3:I've always had a thing, like I said as a child, for animals. So we bought this home and now it's now it's 14 years that I've owned it and I have 14 acres. I'm on the nevis sink river. So when I was sort of retired or semi-retired from pharmacy, I would go up there a lot and just set traps to catch animals, just to see what I would catch. And then my wife said well, why don't you see if you could make some money catching animals, since you like it so much? So I looked online and in New York there is something called NUCO Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator.
Speaker 3:So there was an exam I had to take. I took the test, I passed it, my brother's an attorney, I had the accountant for the pharmacy. So everything was pretty easy and I came up with this name. More or less it was. It was a goof or a hobby turned into a job Again. You know I didn't plan on it getting as big as it did. I'm very happy so, but you know it was more for fun, just to get me out of the house, like I said so, and and that was pretty much it, and you know, ever since then you know yeah, and what year was this?
Speaker 3:This was when I closed my pharmacy in 2015. So it's almost 10 years now. It's been 10 years that I've been doing this, but I love to do it. I enjoy doing it and it's a lot different. You know, when you the pharmacy and you're you're dealing with people, it was more or less them screaming at you about their co-pays or you know they're not being covered and this is more or less. Please save me from you. Know the animal house, so it's a lot different. It's so you know you get a lot more appreciation.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, and you know, I think the uh, the animals appreciate it too, because it you are capturing them. It's humane, as you call it, humane nuisance, wildlife control, and, um, it's not about, you know, using old, you know, bear traps or traps. It's, uh, you have cages or some kinds of uh things that I guess you just lower them in and you'd take them away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:And then you bring them over to Howard Beach, right? You drop them off in the hospital over by Louise Clambar. Yeah, so, actually. So Bergen County I mean for people that don't, obviously our listeners were Bergen County based, but when I talked about other people in parts of the country, new Jersey has this Sopranos connotation of it being the Turnpike and oil refineries and smokestacks and whatever more urban. They don't understand that it's called the Garden State for a reason. Now we know we have a deer problem and you can't capture deer, but has it become more? Have you seen more of a nuisance with certain animals over the last 10 years?
Speaker 3:Not really. I mean, it's basically the same. It's seasonal. So right now is spring, so I'm going to be getting calls like crazy. Like I, from probably the middle of November to the middle of February is kind of a downtime for me, which is perfect because it's right around the holidays. But now you know, I've been getting calls, seven or eight calls a day. You know all the animals are out there mating. Our babies will be born, groundhogs will be coming out of their burrows, chipmunks I ran into a couple of chipmunks yesterday. So it's not more or less the species of animals, but the time of the year that will bring on different animals being caught.
Speaker 2:Got it, got it. What I find is that chipmunks, squirrels and groundhogs are the things that we see. I don't know the difference between a groundhog and a woodchuck, but it's the same. Okay, so they're the ones that might be in my backyard. The coyotes, you know, they're going to be in the woods. The foxes are going to stay, although raccoons will be in your backyard. I can't say I've ever seen a possum here, but nevertheless, you know there's different techniques to capturing different types of animals, depending on their size.
Speaker 1:How, like how many calls do you get about?
Speaker 3:foxes that people need removed, just a handful. I mean, foxes are great and, I'll be honest, I try to tend to not remove a fox. There are ways of handling fox. If you see a fox just running through your yard, I would just leave it alone and I tell people it's great to have, they'll take care of all the rodent population, which is great. The only time it can be a nuisance is if they actually make a burrow under a shed or deck and they give birth and they'll have their babies there. That becomes a problem because as the babies get older they come out a lot. If you have a small animal or a small child and the baby fox are out and the mom is there and your child comes out or your dog comes out, she's going to be protective like any mother. So there are ways of handling that and it's more or less spooking them, right, right, yeah, because she's like, oh, my family's in danger, so nobody's harmed, but now she'll move because she's concerned, so that's how it is Okay.
Speaker 2:So I guess sheds in your yard are probably the most popular place for certain animals to kind of make a home pretty much, you know yeah what happens is the groundhog is the animal that makes pretty much all the balls okay and then funnel in.
Speaker 3:So a groundhog will go under a shed or under a deck or even even under, you know, the HVAC unit in the yard. And the reason why they do that is when they poke their head out, they want to make sure the back of the head is protected, and they only have to look forward. So you know, that's why you won't see or generally 95 percent of the time you won't see a ground or hole on a flat piece of ground unless there was a tree or a stump there, and then they just keep using it over and over again. And then what happens is all the other animals will, you know, burrow into that hole and actually share the burrows like a rabbit will share. Oh really, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:So yeah, the only way to prevent animals from going under like a shed or a deck is to do exclusion work, and that could be costly, you know, depending on the size of, you know, the shed and things like that. I mean, best way to have exclusion work done is when they're first building the structure. You do your work as they're doing it, and then you pull the concrete around it and then wow, we'll never have any animals. But most homes are already built and established so that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, last year and I think the year before that, I heard a lot of neighbors complaining that it seemed like there were more chipmunks than ever. Is that, did you find that? Or it's really, as you said, seasonal and there hasn't been an explosion of chipmunk population? Because I often thought you know who's their natural predator and you know, maybe it's fox or you know, coyotes, but has there been, or is it just our imagination that there has been an explosion of chipmunk population?
Speaker 3:No, it's very possible. I mean I don't. I mean I tend to shy away from chipmunk calls because I could remove 10 a week from your property and then you have the next week. So you know, again, exclusion is the best way to handle that. As far as the population, it really depends on the food source.
Speaker 3:I don't know if too many people calling and complained it was more chipmunks than ever. But again, I guess it depends on your location. And but I do remember a few years ago I think it was maybe three or four years ago where there was an explosion of squirrels and you would see them littered all over the street from the cars just you know driving. Them littered all over the street from the cars, just you know driving. And I googled it and they said the reason for that is that the acorns when there's a lot of acorns, so acorns don't always fall. So the year you'll have a lot of acorns, there's a lot of food for the squirrels, and then you'll have a lot more squirrels and a lot more babies, and yeah, that's pretty much it's based on the food source, I believe right.
Speaker 2:So the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and I guess the squirrel doesn't fall far, or the acorn doesn't. I'm trying to make an analogy. It's not working, but you got me to laugh so it's interesting. So so how does somebody you know they're, I'd imagine, all right, listen, I have there's a raccoon in my backyard. Can you help me with that?
Speaker 3:How does the process work Basically? They just call me up, usually, go to the home. I'll be honest, I don't really charge for a consultation. We'll sit there, we'll talk, I'll look at what's going on, how many animals you have, how they're getting into your home or under your home, and then you know. Know, that's it. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. You know, I have special. I honestly have over a hundred traps, and a lot of them do different things for different animals in different situations, so I'm pretty equipped to handle most jobs. My only issue, though, is I'm actually afraid of heights, which is not the greatest of things, because you know there's a lot of opportunities out there that I can't handle because I won't do roof work or I'll only do like story buildings and such if we had?
Speaker 2:uh, like I live, my backyard is up against a wooded area that it's owned by the water company, so it's kind of like a forested area and there was a raccoon and a tree right over our property line with a fence, and I have a big dog and he was just barking at that thing and and because he was right there, the raccoon just stayed in the tree for hours, um, and it was during the daytime. So if you see a raccoon in the daytime, is that a warning that there's something wrong, like maybe it's rabid?
Speaker 3:no, not always.
Speaker 3:I mean, yes, you, if you do see a raccoon or a fox or an animal out in the daytime, it can be sick, but I'll be honest, most of the time they're not.
Speaker 3:You could tell a raccoon that has rabies, or even a fox that's sick, because they don't act normal, you know they'll. They'll act like a drunk person, you know they come out, come out they, they waddle, they'll stand on two legs. But I mean a real, a real reason why an animal would be out in the daytime and especially now, now in the spring, you're going to see a lot of animals out in the daytime is because the mom and she has babies and she needs to produce her milk, obviously, so she needs to eat more and so she'll be out during the day and leave the kids home and then she'll come back and feed them. So, yeah, if you see an animal, you know, and I tell people all the time if you see an animal and you clap your hands or make a loud noise and it runs, then you're good. But if it, as it looks at you or maybe comes towards you, then then that's, that's an issue so what?
Speaker 2:what do the fox? What do foxes normally feed on Rodents?
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And then what about raccoons? They, they might.
Speaker 3:They'll go in your garbage and whatever you throw out there.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. So if you, um, you know, obviously, if your garbage pails aren't secured, if you have, um, you know it's, it's a good idea to keep your garbage pails closed and, um, you know it's it's a good idea to keep your garbage pails closed. And, um, you know other things I guess you could avoid. You know my dog likes to eat out of his can, so he'll take the can of dog food outside we have a dog door and maybe he'll leave partial you know food in the can and leave it there and maybe go back and eat it another day. So, um, interestingly, the birds like to eat dog food, which I, you know. I looked in the birds, like in his, in his can, eating it. But you know I guess that would invite it, like if there was food in our backyard that is inviting raccoons to come in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that's a very good point, because I I mean, I get a lot of calls and when I get to somebody's home, you know, they tell me there's a raccoon in their house. And when I get there, there's cans and plates of cat food everywhere or feeders everywhere. I'm like, well, you're feeding the animals, you know, and you think the raccoon is going to eat your yard and decide I'm going to go home two blocks away. No, it's going to just go upstairs to your house, go to sleep, wake up and come down.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, it's funny. So you, um, I I see on your website there's a lot of different associations, uh, wildlife and trapping association membership, the nwcoa uh, the new york state trappers association, the new york state wma uh, I think. So what do those stand for and what does it mean to be a part of those organizations?
Speaker 3:Okay. Well, a lot of them offer information and that's where I get a lot of my information from. Again, I didn't grow up trapping, I just liked animals and I was a pharmacist and I didn't really know much. So before COVID, I was going to a lot of these organizations nicole and new york state trappers. They offer classes, or maybe not class, but on a weekend they'd have a seminar, and I would go to a bunch of them. Now I was going there as the new kid on the block and these guys, you know, they were all in their 50s and 60s and they were doing a lot of this trapping, honestly, since maybe they were 10, so maybe 40 years or so, and they knew everything. You know basically everything, and I would just absorb all the information I could from them and that's how you know I got to where I am today because I actually enjoy doing it and I was able to listen to people and understand how to do it the right way.
Speaker 2:Okay, so on your Instagram you have a disturbing picture of a bat. Yeah, I guess you do some control as well.
Speaker 3:Well, I do. Yeah, If I have a call that there's a bat in the house.
Speaker 2:In the house.
Speaker 3:In the house I actually have a lot of calls for bats in schools. A bat could get into a hole the size as thick as a pencil. So to find that hole is kind of hard and especially if it's a school or home and they're older, there's going to be holes. It's just the nature of things. And if a bat gets in a lot of times they'll feel. If it's cold outside, they'll feel warmth coming from this little crack and they squeeze in. And if it's a big structure they can't find that hole to get out because they don't see, basically, bats they have, you know, they use echolocation, so they wind up in the classroom or a bedroom and I get a call for it and then I just go and grab it.
Speaker 2:So, on a different note which is interesting is that, um, we know the price of eggs are, like you know, $12 a dozen in some cases. Um, and a lot of people in my neighborhood in Harrington park I was surprised I say a lot, I mean more than I thought is a few people that have chickens that, um, I guess you could say, raise their own chickens and have eggs, which is great because they're saving a lot of money. You get involved in that too. You can help people start like a chicken coop.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so in my home in Monticello I actually started raising chickens. I actually love my chickens. I've been raising them for over eight years now and almost every year I just keep expanding on the coop and the size. I actually have 30 hens at the moment, and in the summer is when they produce the most eggs, because the days are longer and it's warmer. I could get up to eight dozen eggs a week. So I don't have a shortage here with eggs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, are you selling them or are you just? No, I just eat them and then I just give them away to yeah, yeah, that's great, that's great. So, anthony, how would people, uh, you know contact you? How would they reach you?
Speaker 3:well, I mean, I have, uh, I mean the easiest way, honestly, the only social media, which social media I really do is Instagram. I have a Facebook account.
Speaker 1:I have my email and that email, honestly, is antiquated.
Speaker 3:My son's friend made that about 10 years ago and I never updated it. But Instagram is the easiest way they can see all the information on there. But they can just text me. I mean my phone number's on there as well. They can just text me or call me and reach out and say I have this in my house.
Speaker 2:So your phone number is three, four, seven, nine, seven, nine, two, six, zero seven. Instagram you are dapper trapper, tony. All one word, and I mean your website, is dapper trapper, tonycom. But as you say, the but, as you say the best way is on your Instagram page or phone numbers there 347-979-2607. So if somebody calls you today and says I have a bat in my attic, how soon let's say they're in Bergen County, how quickly are you able to respond typically?
Speaker 3:Well, I honestly, 95% of the time I'll get there the same day. If I'm in close proximity, I'll get there as soon as I can, yeah. I don't have a time restraint. Thankfully my children are older, um, so I could leave anytime early and get home as late as I want, uh. So yeah, I pretty much get to every call I get on the same day.
Speaker 2:Okay, and uh, you know I don't have a pool, so luckily I've. I don't think I'll be calling you because there's a snake, you know a huge snake in the pool, but was that in bergen county where somebody had a huge snake?
Speaker 3:in the pool. Well, that was fake.
Speaker 2:I thought it was a real snake they have that up in new york and and that was Rye.
Speaker 3:I mean there are snakes in Bergen County. There are snakes pretty much everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that size I mean. I've seen garden snakes.
Speaker 3:Well, further up, if you go further up in Bergen and Westchester, you come across a black rat snake, and they can get up to over six feet, and I actually had a call about a black rat snake that was in somebody's attic and when I caught it it was five and a half feet long. Woo.
Speaker 2:And they're not venomous, but still.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's hardly any venomous snakes in the area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the reason I bring that up for our listeners if you go to Dapper Trapper Tony on Instagram, there's a picture of a snake from Glen Wild, New York, back in just last July. So you know it's interesting and you know, and I think you know, if you're a wildlife kind of person or you just enjoy a lot of wildlife, it's interesting just to look at all the content that you have up there. You know the typical ones, like the fox and the squirrels and the raccoons, but then there's bats and there's snakes and things like that. So this was a really informative. Uh, anthony, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Um, is there anything else that we that we didn't cover that you want to just uh get across to anyone?
Speaker 3:no, I think we've covered everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, all right, well, bear with us for a few seconds and you and I will be right back. Thank you, Thank you for having me Absolutely.
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