Animal under my house

The animal is under my cottage actually. Our cottage is roughly 300 feet from the Mississippi River. Having raccoons on our property is know surprise but we have owned the place for 20 years and never had animals in the crawl space before other than mice. The cottage is a modular home where it was brought to the lot in two halves then bolted together.

Last July I observed the hardware cloth covering one of the crawlspace vents was pushed away like an animal had been under the cottage and made his own exit. I repaired the hardware screen over the crawl space vent a couple of times. Ten days to two weeks later it would be torn away again. It was obvious an animal made an exit. I'm fairly sure the animal is a raccoon or raccoons. I bought some snares thinking I could snare the animal on his way out but no luck with snares.

Finally setup a live trap and my trail cameral to capture the critter or take his picture. Never did get a picture of the animal coming or going into the crawl space vent. But, I did get lots of pictures of squirrels, possums, raccoons, local cats and one picture of a ground hog. Captured a possum, small kitten, and a squirrel.

Got desperate a couple of weeks ago and decided to place Decon and some fly bait (golden Malrin in coca cola) in the crawl space and hoped the varmint would exit my crawl space on his way to his funeral. They claim a raccoon will only walk 30 feet before Golden Malrin and Coca Cola kills them. A few days ago it was obvious something died in the crawlspace because I could smell some kind of dead animal down there. The raccoons ate the Decon cubes like they were candy so I put out 4 cubes at a time.

Tomorrow I have an exterminator coming to remove the dead animal and appraise the animal situation in the crawl space. My project will be removing a 6' X 16' deck on the front of the cottage and check for the entrance the animal has been using to access my crawl space.

Here is one of my questions. Hopefully I'll find the entrance the animal has been using. I already bought some 24" wide X 25' hardware cloth to screen off the entrance and all future possible entrances. How deep should I bury the hardware cloth so the animal does not just borrow under it. I'm thinking 8" to 10"

Thanks, Jim

To keep animals out of our garden, MOTHER EARTH NEWS showed to bury the hardware cloth or in our case, chicken wire, 5" deep and then the rest of it parallel with the ground so that your building (our fenceline) has an "apron under the ground". Most animals are too stupid to back up and try digging deeper. We have been here 5 years and no incursions through this fenceline yet. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the replay. 5" deep sounds much better than 8 or 10

Don't y'all have dogs up there?

Alan

There's a dog that lives in my back yard. His name is Mr. Dog. His one and only job is keeping interloping varmintry bayed up where I can deal with it accordingly. He just sits around most of the rest of the time.

Alan

Only 32.4% of Illinois households have dogs where 44% of Texas households have dogs. Know idea why that is other than dogs need to spend more time indoors in the Mid-West and Northern states. I do not have a dog even though I'm quite fond of dogs and pets in general.

More pet info: http://dogtime.com/trending/17160-us...t-owners-named

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Originally Posted by jim Glass

Only 32.4% of Illinois households have dogs where 44% of Texas households have dogs. Know idea why that is other than dogs need to spend more time indoors in the Mid-West and Northern states. I do not have a dog even though I'm quite fond of dogs and pets in general.

More pet info: http://dogtime.com/trending/17160-us...t-owners-named

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We have 2 dogs,.... so I got you covered......

Location would have little to do with it since a large part of KY is north of a large part of IL and KY has more dog owners than TX.

I have been claiming for years that there was something inherently wrong with Yankees and this just proves it.

Most of the dog loving states are in the south and most of the dog hating states are in the north.

That chart correlates closely with several other key issues if you look closely. Just color the states red and blue.

Arrived at the cottage 5 hours ago. Pulled the deck away from the house with my 4-wheel drive Ranger PU. Found the entrance and have a trench dug for the 1/2" hardware cloth. What is disturbing is last Friday, 3 days ago, I left 4 cubes of decon just inside the crawlspace vent where I could see it. All 4 cubes have disappeared,,,,,yikes!!!!!! Taking a beer break and a catnap while I wait for the exterminator to arrive. While the exterminator is under the house I'll stand guard at the exit hole with my 9mm AR-15.
This is going to be interesting, I'll report back.
Beautiful day though, nice day for a raccoon shooting and then a boat ride.

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Originally Posted by kyratshooter

Location would have little to do with it since a large part of KY is north of a large part of IL and KY has more dog owners than TX.

I have been claiming for years that there was something inherently wrong with Yankees and this just proves it.

That chart correlates closely with several other key issues if you look closely. Just color the states red and blue.

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Southern Illinois is part of Illinois by default. We offered it to Kentucky and they didn't want it. So today, Illinois has three zones,
the Republic of Illinois, better known as Chicago, Northern Illinois, where I live, and Southern Illinois.

Easy there. Southern Illinois does not encompass Central Illinois. We don't claim it. Never have. You might get by with claiming S. Illinois is anything south of I. 64...maybe. S. Illinois is actually Little Egypt. Anything in the 618 Area Code. And we're proud of it thank you.

Jim, putting rat poison blocks out loose is a bad idea. They can be carried off and then who knows what (or who) can get into them. They are best used inside bait boxes.

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

Jim, putting rat poison blocks out loose is a bad idea. They can be carried off and then who knows what (or who) can get into them. They are best used inside bait boxes.

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Understand what you are saying but the poison blocks are secured inside my house. Any animal that eats them should not be inside my house in the first place. The poison blocks outside in the garage are in bait boxes. My granddaughters little dog had a long enough leash for the dog to go in the garage and eat a box of Decon. We found out in time and rushed the dog to the local vet. The vet drugged the dog and he emptied out in about 20 seconds. It was then we learned the dog ate the pellets and the box the pellets we in. He is a cute little guy, a Min-pin, but boy is he dumb. 3 years old and not house broke yet!!!!! That little episode cost grandpa $200. The poison is in bait boxes now.

The kid I hired to inspect my crawl space did in fact find a dead raccoon and some raccoon scat all of which was dried up. Did not appear to have been a raccoon family. He identified another entry point I was unaware of so I think I have my place raccoon proof.

Getting my deck ready to be moved away from the cottage:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...the%20deck.jpg

Pulling the deck away from the cottage with Ranger PU
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ing%20deck.jpg

Ah-Ha, raccoon entry point finally revealed
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ess%20hole.jpg

Digging the trench for the hardware cloth wire mesh.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../trenching.jpg

Wire mesh held in place with screws, ready to be buried
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0installed.jpg

Repositioning the deck, final adjustment with truck
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ing%20deck.jpg

I worked Monday night until 8:30 by flashlight. Sprayed the crawl space with a weed sprayer with 50:50 water and ammonia thinking the odor may flush out another possible raccoon somewhere in the crawl space. I left exits open for the night in case a raccoon wanted to leave then sealed up the place the next day. The next project will be building a one-way varmint door and mounting it over one of the crawl space vents. A good project for the machine shop. Before returning home I left a couple of trays of Golden Malrin (fly bait) and Coca Cola in the crawl space in case any more varmints show up.

Still have the live trap setup. So far captured a possum, small kitten and a squirrel.