Town creates wildlife nuisance brochure

The town of Longboat Key has created a brochure called “A Citizen’s Guide to Nuisance Wildlife,” in an attempt to inform residents how to keep critters away from their neighborhoods.

Vice Mayor David Brenner and Commissioner Lynn Larson have pushed for some sort of education about nuisance wildlife ever since Emerald Harbor resident Weldon Frost warned the Longboat Key Town Commission last year that raccoons were a big problem on the Key.

In November, Frost approached the commission at its workshop, looking for help with what he perceives is a raccoon population that’s getting out of control.

Frost sent an e-mail to Town Manager Bruce St. Denis outlining his concerns.

“They are a nuisance because of the messes they make and the piles of manure they leave behind,” Frost wrote. “They are a menace because of the diseases they carry — not necessarily limited to rabies.”

“I haven’t seen a bird in Joan Durante Park in months,” Frost said last year. “I suggest to you that we have a serious problem.”

But the commission believed it shouldn’t get into the pest-control business.

Brenner and Larson, however, kept pushing for the town to do something.

Over the last couple of months, Public Works Department Director Juan Florensa and receptionist Donna Spencer researched what kind of educational brochure could be crafted to educate residents about nuisance wildlife, such as raccoons. The brochure will be sent out to utility bill customers in the next couple of months.

The brochure states that “understanding is the key to wildlife problem solving” and that “knowing why the snake is in your garden, the armadillo is digging up your lawn” or “the raccoon is getting into your garbage is an essential first step toward resolving these and other wildlife nuisance problems.”

The majority of the brochure talks about when raccoons appear the most often (at night or early in the morning), the diseases they carry and how to avoid them from knocking over garbage cans.

The brochure warns people not to feed raccoons, because it’s the main reason the animals lose their fear of people. It also states that it’s illegal to feed the animals in Florida.

Overfilling bird feeders and leaving food out for other animals also exacerbates the problem, the brochure states.

Putting out garbage cans in the morning, rather than the night before, also can keep them out of neighborhoods in the middle of the night.

The brochure can also be found at Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].