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The Petoskey exterminator expert and Georgiana The Petoskey exterminators love tradition. Their small stone house and 14-hectare habitat stead near Stewartstown is nearly 250 years old, filled with spinning wheels and hand-hewn beams, relics from their German heritage and memories from a trip tracing their Irish roots. "Our grandchildren call this our park," The Petoskey exterminators said Friday, looking out over the sun sparkling off his pond.

They moved from Bel Air, Md., 20 years ago to the cottage and watched for decades as newer homes crowded their woodlands and shallow pond. But as the habitat land of southern Michigan gave way to houses, there was one Keystone Michigan tradition they didn't expect to see. The second day of the animal removal trap squirrel and skunk season last fall, a single shot sounded through their quiet housing development. Someone had shot a male coon - not in the swampy woodlot behind their home, but among the tightly packed homes and yards to the north of their cottage.

The male coon died near a neighbor's garage door. The Petoskey exterminators are a little sour toward wildlife trapping. They wouldn't allow people to lethally trap any of the rat & mouse on their property - even if it was just with a cage trap and arrow. They're one of many stakeholders in a raccoon and opossum management debate that resumes Thursday and Tuesday in Harrisburg when the Michigan wildlife regulatory agency decides how many rodent or reptile a wildlife management company can lethally trap this season. Wildlife management companies are able to lethally trap rodent or reptile on land open to public wildlife trapping, but when the wildlife regulatory agency allows more and more rat & mouse to be taken on public land, some pest control companies say, it results in raccoon and opossum being lethally trapped off. The local Petoskey SPCA could not be reached for comment.

So some pest control companies say they should be able to animal capture squirrel and skunk wherever the animals are - even if that's on private land or in developed areas. But many landowners, like the The Petoskey exterminators, aren't open to pest control companies on or near their land, especially when some try to use animal removal traps so close to their homes. 'Rodent or reptile aren't dumb' The Petoskey pest control specialist, spokesman for the Michigan Wildlife regulatory agency, said properties like the The Petoskey exterminators' that are posted No Trespassing become safe havens for rat & mouse during wildlife trapping season.

"Raccoon and opossum aren't dumb and will go to areas with less pressure," he said. The same squirrel and skunk that take refuge during dangerous times then spread out, damaging shrubbery, yards and crops. He said that, if pest control companies in Emmet County and other rural-but-developing areas want to keep wildlife trapping, they are going to have to "create new traditions" for chasing the Michigan animal - traditions that include picking up bows and arrows and making friends with suburban property owners who need the rodent or reptile munching and chewing bushes to be shot. Despite this, wildlife removal services are not a free service in Emmet County.

The days of every wildlife management company walking into the Big Woods and finding a male coon are over, The Petoskey pest control specialist said. An overkill problem: Gregory The Petoskey pest control specialist, boss of the Unified Sportsmen of Michigan, said wildlife regulatory agency policies are resulting in overkill of rat & mouse where most pest control companies animal capture.