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He stalks skunks, raccoons, foxes, snakes, and more—any wild varmint that’s invaded city or suburb. Got bats in the Attic? Rick Wilberschied is on the case.

5 Questions for Rick Wilberschied from Chicago magazine on Vimeo.

The faintest whiff of eau de skunk had just pricked my nostrils when Rick Wilberschied, moving with the deliberation of an explosives expert sweating over a ticking time bomb, waved me over to him, a finger to his lips.

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The setting was the back porch of a lovely home on the lovely White Deer Run golf course one lovely sunny June afternoon in Vernon Hills. Wilberschied, whose job is to trap rogue critters stirring up mischief in the urban veldt, had been summoned to investigate a family of skunks that had taken up residence under a concrete stoop at the back of the home. A few days earlier, Wilberschied had scouted the location and set two traps. The bait had been a tried-and-true blend of 11 herbs and spices that Wilberschied—a.k.a. the Critter Hunter, a.k.a. Dog the Bounty Hunter of the nuisance wildlife business—had hit upon during hours spent plying the fast-food byways of suburbia: the three-piece wing meal from Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Read the rest of Bryan Smith’s profile of Rick in the September, 2008 issue of Chicago Magazine >>
Listen to Rick\’s interview with Spike O’Dell on WGN Radio 720.