About the
California NWCO Association
 

The purpose of this Trade Association is to represent the professional, economic and political interests of California Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators and others engaged in the business of nuisance wildlife management and animal damage control.

They call us NWCOs and it sounds like newcoze or glucose. We are the private sector, the small business operators of the nuisance wildlife control industry and the California NWCO Association exists for the purpose of representing our professional, economic and political interests.

We may be known by other names, but we're all NWCOs just the same. Animal Damage Control Specialists, Vertebrate Pest Control Technicians, Nuisance Animal Trappers, Wildlife Removal Operators are just some of the job titles used by members of this large and diverse NWCO family.

Some of us are "generalists". We're the ones who have difficulty saying "no" to any plea for help or to any opportunity to make a few dollars. We trap and remove raccoon, skunks, opossum, fox, squirrels, feral cats and other nuisance animals. We exclude the bats, and control the birds. Others of us are "specialists". We are the ones that only take on certain kinds of work such as removing bee or yellow jacket nests or trapping gophers and moles while turning away or making referrals for work outside our particular area of interest.

The nuisance wildlife control industry is a young and burgeoning field. As we continue to develop and extend our suburban communities to meet a growing wildlife population, incidents of animal and human conflict will surely follow. NWCOs must be prepared to meet this challenge.

The nuisance wildlife control industry is an outgrowth and/or convergence of two related fields - the pest control industry and the rural fur trapping industry. We are similar to our cousins, the fur trappers, in that we deal with some of the same animals, use a lot of the same tools, and tend to work alone or with a few helpers. We're different in that we work mostly in the urban or suburban setting, deal with customers or clients instead of fur buyers, and work at a faster pace often racing around town trying to keep up with the daily demand for our services. We're similar to our cousins, the private pest control operators, in that we are both in the business of controlling pest animals, we operate in the same towns and cities, and we share similar professional, economic and political concerns. NWCOs are different from PCOs in that we tend to deal with different animals and thus work with different tools and equipment. Most of the NWCOs clients are one time or short term business relationships while the PCO's customers tend to be repeat and long term arrangements. In general, NWCOs rely more on traps and physical exclusion materials than they do on pesticides or other chemicals for controlling pests. A NWCO has to be a pretty good handyman as he often is required to do a little carpentry, masonry or sheet metal work to keep the critters out of and off his customer's property. Of course, these are over-simplifications and may not always apply. There is a lot of overlap in what we all do, but viva la difference!

WE BELIEVE