Two steps: where you found it, then what it looks like. 58 signs with real photos: droppings, tracks, shed snake skins, feathers and damage.
What to do: Concrete or gutter prints mean a regular route, so check the roofline and the bin lids on that wall before you set anything
What to do: Opossums are nomadic and usually leave on their own within days, so the print alone is rarely a reason to trap
What to do: A den under a porch or shed is the usual reason for the tracks; block the opening only after you are certain nothing is inside
What to do: Tracks on a roof or in a gutter mean the entry is at the roofline, not at ground level
What to do: A line of these through a garden bed is the animal, not the damage: look for clipped stems at 45 degrees to confirm browsing
What to do: Do not touch the dam: a flow device that holds the water at a set level solves flooding without trapping the animal
What to do: Damage shows up as burrows in the bank and cut vegetation: a bank burrow can undermine a pond edge or a dock footing
What to do: Dust a strip of floor along a wall overnight: a run of prints in one line tells you where to put the trap
What to do: Armadillos dig for grubs under lawns and burrow under slabs and porches: fixing the grubs usually ends the digging
What to do: Browsing damage plus ticks: the same animal that clips the plants carries the ticks into the yard
What to do: A bobcat in the yard means prey in the yard: secure the food first, keep cats and small dogs in at night, and never feed it
What to do: Report rooting to the state agency: feral hogs are a regulated invasive species, and the rules are not the same as for a native animal
What to do: Otters follow fish, so a pond with stocked fish and otter slides will lose fish: exclusion around the pond beats trapping
What to do: Dens under decks and sheds happen in spring: check in June, after the pups are mobile, before you close anything up
What to do: Old pellets crumble in a few weeks, so fresh ones tell you the animal is currently working the garden
What to do: Scat left out in the open and scratched at is scent marking, not a latrine, which means the animal is claiming the route
What to do: A latrine on a roof or in an attic is the sign that pairs with a real health risk: never dry sweep it, wet it and wear a respirator
What to do: Fox scat near a den site means pups in spring, so keep dogs away until they move on
What to do: Pellets plus 45 degree cuts on stems mean browsing, and fencing is the fix that works
What to do: A stocked pond with otter scat and slides is losing fish: exclude the pond rather than trap the animal
What to do: Feral hogs are regulated as an invasive species: report the sign to the state agency rather than dealing with it yourself
What to do: Bank burrows are the expensive part: they undermine pond edges and dock footings, so find them early
What to do: Scat at a den entrance under a porch or shed tells you where to exclude, and where to check before you seal
What to do: Droppings near a dam confirm the animal is active, which matters before you install a flow device
What to do: Because it is dropped at random, an opossum dropping in an attic is easy to confuse with a rat problem: check the size before you buy traps
What to do: Treat it as an active problem: the droppings are the proof, and the entry is inside a 30 foot radius of them. Wet them down before you clean, never sweep dry.
What to do: Small droppings in a kitchen mean the food is the attractant: seal the dry goods first, then trap.
What to do: Guano in an attic means bats, and bats are protected in these states: no exclusion between April and August, and the entry work has to be done after the young can fly. Never dry sweep or vacuum it.
What to do: A fresh, flexible shed means the snake was there within days. Indoors that is a search for the entry gap in the same week; outdoors it is ordinary and nothing to act on.
What to do: A shed that includes the eye caps means the snake came out of it in one clean piece, which happens with a healthy growing animal. Indoors, date it and hunt for the entry gap in the same week; outdoors it is nothing to act on.
What to do: Photograph both surfaces while the skin is still flat, because it curls and hardens within a day. Identity is not in the head shape: the underside pattern near the tail is what separates the pit vipers from the harmless species.
What to do: Treat a shed like this as a rattlesnake and keep your distance, because the animal is usually within a few hundred yards. Do not reach into the space it came from: a shed skin is proof of a live snake, and the bite risk is at the pile of firewood or the stone wall behind it.
What to do: Send the photo with the date and the place to your state wildlife agency if you want it identified. If the skin was indoors, use it to date the visit and then find the entry gap, because a fresh flexible shed means days rather than months.
What to do: This one is a fire risk, not a project for next month. Have an electrician check the circuit, then close the entry so the animal cannot come back to the same run.
What to do: A runway tells you exactly where to place traps and where to search for the entry, which is normally inside the same attic: vents, soffit gaps, a chimney chase or a roof return.
What to do: Check before you fill anything: a hole that is in use in spring or early summer can have young inside. Once you are sure it is empty, dig a skirt of hardware cloth into the ground and close it properly.
What to do: The animal is not the only issue: a burrow under a foundation, a driveway or a septic line can undermine the structure. Keep it away from those areas and close it only after it is empty.
What to do: Beavers are managed by the state and the work is rarely a trapping job: tree wrap, a flow device on the dam and advice from the state agency solve most of it.
What to do: A peg on a bag is not a barrier: rodents go through the plastic, not around the peg. Move what matters into glass or hard plastic with a lid, then deal with the animal and the entry.
What to do: Move paper and fabric into hard plastic bins with lids rather than cardboard boxes, and clear out the material that has already been nested in, because the same corner gets used again. If there is nesting material in the house, the animal is living inside, so find the entry.
What to do: Line the bin and the ground under it with hardware cloth, stop adding cooked food, meat, dairy and oily scraps, and turn the pile more often.
What to do: Moles eat earthworms and insects, not grubs and not roots, so the grub treatment that helps with skunk damage does nothing here. What works is trapping in the active runs, or changing the food supply in the soil.
What to do: The hole under a step or a slab is the one that matters: it washes soil out from under concrete. Exclude with hardware cloth and keep bird seed off the ground, because a feeder is what usually keeps them there.
What to do: Patch the pipe and then cover it, because the animal comes back to the same spot. Deal with the water and with whatever it was eating: a grooved pipe in a loft usually means the run and the food source are both there.
What to do: Woodpeckers are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so the fix is never lethal. If they drill in a line they are after insects in the wood, so have the siding and trim checked for rot and carpenter ants, then repair and paint.
What to do: This is the classic squirrel or raccoon entry, and it is usually the second one you find: the animal has been using it for weeks. Check inside for young before closing anything, then repair it in metal rather than wood.
What to do: Treat the grubs in late summer, when the larvae are small and near the surface, and the digging stops because the food is gone. Until then, a rolled-up patch can usually be pressed back down and watered.
What to do: Pick anything ripe, clear the debris and the low cover around the patch, and keep a mown strip between the garden and the nearest brush: voles move along cover, so taking the cover away does more than anything you can put on the plant.
How to get rid of voles in the yard
What to do: The damage ends when the season does, but a young tree can be girdled and killed, so wrap the trunk with a guard in late summer and leave it on until winter is over.
What to do: Native bird feathers are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so photograph it and leave it where it is. Blue jays around the yard are also the loudest alarm system you have: they call at cats, hawks and snakes.
What to do: Protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so photograph it and leave it where it lies. A robin standing on the lawn with its head cocked is listening for earthworms underground, not looking for seed.
What to do: Protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act: photo, not a souvenir. If you find several feathers at once, look for a window strike or a cat, because the bird is usually still close by.
What to do: Doves are protected too, so leave the feather. Several dove feathers in one spot usually mean a window strike: check for the mark on the glass and fit a deterrent.
What to do: Raptor feathers are the most heavily protected of all under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and possession carries real penalties even when the feather was simply found. Photograph it, leave it, and do not collect it.
What to do: Native bird feathers are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so photograph it and leave it where it is. Several blue feathers together in spring means a hawk plucked a bird: check the ground nearby for a carcass.
What to do: Owls are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and even a single feather cannot be kept without a permit, so photograph it and leave it. A fresh wing or body with no sign of a collision belongs to the state wildlife agency, not in your pocket.
What to do: A turkey is a game bird rather than a songbird, so unlike an owl or a hawk feather it is not covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and a hunter may keep what was legally taken. Outside the season, check your state rules before you pick one up.
What to do: Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so leave it where it is. A scatter of flicker feathers on the lawn in autumn usually means a hawk took the bird, because a flicker feeding on ants has its head down and its guard low.
Nothing on this list matches that combination. Try the other sign type, or the place where you actually found it: the two together are what narrows it down.
Photograph droppings instead of picking them up, and wear gloves and a mask to clean them: rodent droppings can carry hantavirus, raccoon latrines can carry roundworm eggs, and bat guano can carry histoplasmosis spores. Feathers of native birds are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so photograph them and leave them where they are.
For more detail on a single kind of sign, the identification charts go further than the tool:
