Christine G. Barlow, CPCU

From the October 2007 issue of Claims Magazine

 From skunks, to opossums, to raccoons, to squirrels, the animals like to come inside. While they may be cute on the nature channel or at the zoo, when a homeowner finds a skunk in a crawl space or a raccoon in the attic the response is often dismay followed by “How do I get it out of there?” Then the insurance policy comes into play. Is there coverage for the damage caused by the animal? Was the animal a rodent or a vermin, what's the difference, and why does it matter? 

 For damage to Coverage A and B, the HO 00 03 excludes birds, vermin, rodents, insects, or animals owned or kept by an insured. So the damaged door that Fluffy has been scratching on for the past few years is not covered. That's the easy part. So are birds and insects; they're readily identifiable and aren't usually confused with mammals. Then we get to the tricky part, rodents and vermin. Well, what exactly is a rodent, and how is it different from vermin? Aren't they the same and if not, how do you tell the difference? The policy doesn't define either term, so we're left to our own devices to sort out the wild things.

Let's start with rodents. Merriam Webster Online defines rodent as any of an order (Rodentia) of relatively small, gnawing mammals (as a mouse, squirrel, or beaver) that have in both jaws a single pair of incisors with a chisel-shaped edge. Here we see that a certain type of teeth characterizes a rodent, and a rodent is also a scientific classification that designates the order of the animal.

 Biologically speaking, every living thing is classified by Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. This makes the identification of rodents easier; squirrels, rats, mice, chipmunks, porcupines, and beavers are all of the order Rodentia, so they are unquestionably rodents. Hence, squirrels and rats are related, the squirrels just have bushier tails. The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology has a website from which you can determine the order of whatever critter you've encountered.

 Now we're ready for the really difficult category, vermin. This generates much confusion and discussion, and, as mentioned earlier, the policy does not provide a definition of vermin. (Note the new AAIS form HO 0003 01 06 does define vermin; the ISO policy still does not.)

 As with any policy language, when the term is not defined we go to the dictionary. Merriam Webster Online defines vermin as: a: small, common, harmful, or objectionable animals (as lice or fleas) that are difficult to control; b: birds and mammals that prey on game; c: animals that at a particular time and place compete (as for food) with humans or domestic animals.

 Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary considers vermin small animals and insects that can be harmful and difficult to control when they appear in large numbers.

 While not mentioned in the Merriam definition, in order for lice or fleas to be difficult to control you really do need large numbers. Controlling one flea may appear to be difficult, however one shot of flea spray and he's gone. The problem starts when you have large numbers of fleas or lice.

 Objectionable is subjective, and since some people have relatives or in-laws they consider objectionable, we'll leave that for now. So we have small, harmful animals that are difficult to control in large numbers that prey on game or compete with humans/domestic animals. Let's take a few animals that often appear in our subscriber questions and see if they fit the definition.

 Skunks are creatures that get an immediate reaction from most people. The first thing associated with a skunk is the smell, but remember, they only spray when they are frightened or threatened. Skunks are actually quite passive creatures, preferring to keep to themselves and eat large quantities of insects. So as long as you don't scare them, they're rather helpful to have around. According to our subscribers they do have a fondness for crawl spaces, but a crawl space to a skunk is a ready-made home that's hard to pass up. Why build when you can just move in?

 Bats are other animals that commonly get into a house and raise the “is this a vermin” question. Like skunks, bats elicit an immediate response from most people and, like skunks, the reputation is ill-deserved. Most varieties of bats eat copious amounts of insects and are thus beneficial to humans. They're not competing with us or our pets for food, and they don't infest an area as lice or fleas might.

 But what about other animals that aren't under the crawl space or in the attic quite as often, such as opossums and raccoons? First, they're not rodents. They are a different order, so the easy answer is out. Opossums eat insects (including cockroaches), carrion, rats, and mice so they are helpful to humans in that regard. They are also more resistant to rabies than any other mammal, including humans. So while tremendously ugly, they're not vermin.

 While raccoons are omnivores, they don't compete with humans for food; being opportunists they'll get into trash cans because they can. Again, if the humans are kind enough to provide an easy dinner, the animal is more than happy to accept the offer. Their diet typically consists of fruits, grass, leaves, insects, frogs, fish, mice, carrion, etc.

 I mentioned earlier that the new AAIS policy now specifically defines vermin. This is due in part to the fact that the animals discussed previously aren't rodents and don't fit the dictionary definition of vermin, but they are creatures. The AAIS definition of vermin is as follows: animal that is prone to enter or burrow into or under a structure to seek food or shelter including but not limited to: armadillos, bats, opossums, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, snakes. This broadens the category of vermin to include animals that behave with less than proper manners.  Again, because these creatures don't fit the definition of vermin, AAIS has expanded its definition to include them so there is no question that they are excluded.

 So here we are, having identified which creatures are rodents, which are vermin, and which are neither. No matter how nasty the reputation of some beasties, let's remember that looks can be deceiving, and some animals are just rats with bushy tails.