Kritters under the house.

[Jim Bremner]

So, I have a raised fondation house that has the worlds tightest crawl space. I've notice that one of the vent screens has been pushed out and has rabbit or cat fur on it. I can send my cattle dog under but I would prefer not.

Any idea how to remove any and all with out killing them under the house/ I would really would hate to smell rotten feline for 6 mo.

[pwd72s]

Perhaps lure them out with food...let whatever it is go in & out a few days to get used to the food, then set up a live trap. I've had success with the "havaheart" brand. I've relocated lots of raccoons...

[creaturecat]

skunk fur?
The dog might end up being the stinky one.
racoon fur?
The dog might end up with rabies.

rig the screen to self - lock when said animal leaves the premise.

[azasadny]

Hav-A-Heart traps work very well. Bait it with a chicken wing or two... Tie a cord to it so you can pull it out from under the house once you trap the critter(s)...

[Jim Bremner]

Though about bottle rockets

[creaturecat]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

Though about bottle rockets

might burn your house.
down.

[Jim Bremner]

Originally Posted by creaturecat

might burn your house.
down.

What could go wrong?

[vash]

i had that problem. i spread diametaceous (spelling?) earth at the openings and sealed them shut. i took a look the next day to see if i could see footprints. i was lucky..i found none so i buttoned it up tight.

if i had found footprints. i had plan to leave one opening unobstructed and close it late in the evening when hopefully whatever left for the night.

[Evans, Marv]

I have a raised foundation house also. But I have about 3+ ft. of clearance underheath and three large enties with walled recesses to get to the entries. After the house was finished, I had tons of things to pay attention to & didn't think of buttoning the entries up. It wasn't too bad, but I began to hear what I thought was mice chewing on things at night. I went underneath the house & placed bait trays around and made screened frames for the crawl space entries. Then I made plywood covers for the walled recesses with a second, inclined cover (roof) with roofing material to keep out rain. The plywood covers left almost no space for entry and I stapled garage door seals along the sides to make an even better seal. Shortly after the munching at night stopped, and when I went down a month later I found some dead mice and a couple of dead ground squirrels. Didn't notice any smell in the house, probably because I put a screened, 6 in. x 12 in. hole in the recess covers for circulation. I realized I should have had that at the top of my list from the beginning. If you have larger animals underneath, the trapping plan sounds good but if there are several, the ones that don't get trapped may learn not to go into the trap. At that point you might just have to buy some clothes pins & go for the poison.