Critters under the house question

[sunflower-n-ks]

Something is getting under the house. There is a skunk and some possums that have been seen around after dark. Possums have been seen in the garage. I have cats and I have seen neighborhood cats in the yard. Now the problem:

Something is digging its way through a decomposing brick wall access to the space under the house. I did a quick fix to keep the wind out, but whatever just dug through another spot. I need to get that fixed to keep pipes from freezing. But I do not want to trap anything under there. How to figure out what the critter is and how to know that it is not under there when I fix it. To go in far enough to see anything requires a belly crawl through the access place and under the house also. I am not really up to that challenge. Any ideas?

[julieq]

I have a friend who throws moth balls under her house to keep critters out. Haven't gotten the nerve to try that myself as I can't stand the smell of them!

[nc_mtn]

Just a thought but could you perhaps try those "electronic" pest control things? Perhaps run an extension cord (or 2) and put them on the end, spreading them out and away from the door, so any animal will not want to stay around?

I'm not even sure they work with things other than mice but could be something to think about?

[Bearfootfarm]

I'd set a live trap or two, and eliminate some critters

[oregon woodsmok]

If it's some critter that likes the dark, they'll move out if you put a light under there and run it full time.

Maybe you can borrow a jack russel terrier and toss him in there for a few minutes before you close the area up.

[mylala]

Set traps...it's effective!

[Molly Mckee]

Moth balls are poison if dogs or cats or small kids get into them!

[Horseyrider]

This'll seem too simple to consider; but let me tell you, this WORKS.

Light.

Skunks, rats, mice, possums, coons, etc are nocturnal and all prefer darkness for safety. Even woodchucks seem to prefer the cover of darkness. I've had all of them at different times, yes, even burrowing under the house. And if you're like me, you'll try five kinds of rat bait (red stuff, blue stuff, green stuff, granules, blocks, nail up stuff, etc), live traps, sticky traps, broken glass, dog hair, strong essential oils like peppermint, whatever you can. If you're like me you might even lose a pet or two when they eat bait or critters that have eaten bait.

In total exasperation I decided to try light. Why? Because it would leave the critters no place to hide.

My farmstead never had any kind of a rat problem. But in 2007 the neighbors about a quarter mile away had a little too exuberant 4th of July celebration. They shot bottle rockets into their old unused barn and burned it to the ground. There must've been a mass migration to my place, because suddenly they were all over my barn. Mostly in the loft and around that far side, never a single sign in the feed room where I keep stuff locked up tight. I tried traps. I tried stickyboards. I spent a couple hundred dollars on different poisons and ended up losing a barn cat. I figured dogs would be a predator so I gathered up dog hair and threw it up there along with cotton balls soaked in peppermint; but they were only momentarily deterred. They were fouling my hay to the point where I couldn't bear to feed it.

Then we went on a real campaign. All brushy everything was cleared away from the perimeter to eliminate hiding areas. Entry holes were plugged with steel wool. Fall hay delivery is really disruptive to them so I timed my light display to coincide with delivery; and when all the new stuff went in, my guys stacked it tight, straight, and in the middle. Then hubby strung lights. You know those light cages for bulbs like people use to work on cars? We fitted a bunch of them with those curly bulbs in 100watt equivalents, and we made sure there was no. dark. corner up there.

They stopped coming in the barn.

Then I had a heart attack; what if they leave and all head for the house??! So I went to the basement and root cellar and did the same thing. Lights, lights, lights. This is the first year we've not had a single mouse in the house. And nothing else, either.

No poisons, no hair, 100% vigilance, and no worry. And those curly bulbs don't cost much to run at all.

I know it's squicky to crawl in a crawlspace; but if you could save some cardboard boxes or sheets and open them up, you then have a "floor" to scoot around on. Stick a nail in a floor joist, hang some lights, and you're good to go.

For the big holes like woodchuck holes, hubby had a great idea. We bought bags of ready mix cement and poured it dry down the holes as far as we could get it. The ground moisture gets it going and cures it over time. I'm thinking the holes we had were old; but we've had no further troubles with burrowing things.

Another thing that seems to help is keeping dogs active in areas around the house. New critters aren't all that thrilled about moving in with such a strong odor of predators.

Gotta tell you; I sure feel for ya. I hope something here helps.

[Windswept Hill]

Small animals make small holes. How big is the opening?

Most will have more than 1 way in and out.

[sunflower-n-ks]

I like the light idea. I just bought a trouble light to hopefully keep the hydrant from freezing (will put it under an upturned metal barrel, but will have to do some work on that first. Anyway, I have what it takes to put one light down there. Not sure the arthritis will let me do the crawling around under there. Would not be good to get under and not be able to get back out.

I will not use poison, and do need to get the wild critters gone, but that will take some time. Need to get that hole plugged. It is about cat size so any of the small critters I mentioned could have dug it. I have not seen any other holes, but have not done a good search either. Thanks for the tip on that. The cats are usually loose to roam, but the dog is not, With a busy road and neighbor problems, he has to be penned when I am not outside.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[meanwhile]

We had skunk family under a Cabin last winter. Tried everything: moth balls, lights, radio, BBgun, baiting them with tuna, baiting with cat food, even smoke bombs! Nothing worked....

Finally someone told us that Peppermint would run off skunks, rats, mice. We bought some Peppermint Extract Oil from a health food type store........Whole Foods.....or maybe it was Green Life........in any case......we put drops of it all around the two holes where they were digging and we waited two days.......then we put more drops out going in one directions around the Cabin......the plan was to run them in one direction at a time.......towards an opening.......it took about 3 days or so......we are not sure but definately after a week we knew they were gone........

We used the Peppermint Oil in two Out Houses too and it kept the mice out. Also, rats/mice used to eat up the soap and lotion in our Out Door Shower and we put drops of it out there and it put a stop to that too.......

Now, we just put drop of the Oil around the Cabin and Out Houses about every other month....so far it works. Good Luck

[gobug]

Forget the mothballs. They are poisonous to you and your pets. Just read the label. They work fine if you have clothing moths in a tightly sealed plastic bag.

It does not sound like a skunk to me. I have trapped many. They do like to get under sheds or houses, but they are not great diggers. Their territory is not very big either. Here they would dig in soil, but not rocks.

We do not have possums in CO, but I have listened to a few stories from other exterminators about their encounters with possums. They might be the critter you described.

I suggest you lay a handfull of flour right outside the entry (enough for a thin layer). Check for footprints at intervals. Then you can get a digital photo of the footprint plus information on which critter it is and how many. In my experience trapping skunks, cat food worked quite well. Skunks do not smell up their habitat, unless confronted. If you have a dog, and a skunk is the animal, you would smell it somewhere.

Rabbits could be another possibility. They will dig, and a lot will inhabit a space they can get under. They will be diligent at digging to get back to their home. Baiting and trapping them is a lot different than skunks. At least you can shoot the rabbits and you don't get sprayed.

[motdaugrnds]

I like the Pepperment Extract Oil and plan on getting some for our house. (I am wondering, however, if that will also drive off our black snakes. I don't want these snakes to leave.)

Years ago there was a type of sulfur old timers used to "smoke" out critters (black widows, snakes, etc.). I know for sure it worked extremely well. Yes it was poisonous; but they set it out, lit it & shut the area up as tight as they could. After 24 hours, they aired that area out. (I have looked for this sulfer and about 10 yrs ago I found it in the form of "bombs". These were small canns of the stuff that you sit in some water. The water starts the bombs to fuming. It worked extremely well too.) Over the past 5 years I have not been able to find any of this stuff. All I remember about it is that is was a "sulfur". (I figure that, since it worked so well, some monopoly found a way to get rid of it; however, if any of you know where it might be found, I would greatly appreciate knowing.)

[meanwhile]

motdaugrnds:
I am not sure about the Peppermint running off snakes. We do have good snakes at our place and we like them. I saw snakes this year but now that you mention snakes.....I am not sure about the Oil and effect on the snakes. For me it is worth it to keep skunks and rats out of my Cabins and the Out House too. We have not used the Oil around our Barn and we do not use it near our Gardens and we also have several more Out Buildings that we do not use the Oil near. I would guess that any snakes we have that were offended by the Peppermint, would just move to another nearby building.

We did try Smoke Bombs under the Cabin where our Skunk family was "holed up" and even after several hits with the smoke, they did not come out! Nor did they move out. We tried the moth balls and ammonia too with no luck.

Good luck with the Peppermint Oil. We like it. I also tried some Rosemary Oil for making the air fresher in one Cabin and we liked it too. We did not enjoy the Basil Oil we tried and we did not enjoy the Lemon. It smelled too artificial. Good luck

[sunflower-n-ks]

As it is working out, this snow has covered the entry way and the plastic I had put down earlier until I can fix the problem correctly in the spring. It will need new brick work for the proper fix. As of about noon today there is no disturbance of the snow around it. If something is under there, it can still dig out through the snow. So tomorrow should give an answer, I hope. The cats have been sleeping in the garage in their boxes of hay and I suspect that possibly the skunk goes under the chicken house because I have gotten slight skunk scent there. When I have seen the skunk in the yard and garage there has been no scent at all. No tracks there this evening though, so again, tomorrow may have an answer there also. This snow may let me get both places blocked up.

[Cassanderthe1]

When I was in the Army, some of the building Caretakers tried taking care of the pigeon manure issue. They installed the electric pest deterrent systems, and from we saw, it didn't do squat. Eventually the pigeons got used to the sound.

There really isn't a cure-all for animals, they are here to stay. Nature wins out every time, she has more patience and a larger arsenal. I would learn to live with the little guys or do a Major overhaul and completely seal off the offending areas.

[meanwhile]

When you try to seal them out, you will need to dig down and put tiny wire in the hole at least a foot down or they will just dig under the bricks or blocks. We tried to keep the skunks out by nailing metal roofing pieces over the foundation area where they were going in but they just dug under it. Last summer we dug down and put wire, then topped it with metal sheeting. Good luck.

[stormywood]

Peppermint Oil works grat for ants too! They hate it, not sure where they go, but they leave ASAP!