Ideas on removing critters from crawlspace

[Twitch]

Bait and bow hunt.  Great practice during the off season.

[Dustbuster]

A friend had a squirrel dilemma,the  critter ridder came out w have a heart traps,trapped 3 and took em 20 miles away.his claim was that they will come back as they have nothing better to do and the criters will always opt for familiar areas over re settling...made sense to me.after they were gone he sealed the area with chicken wire,wood and spray foam to keep the gang from chewing their way back in.Hope this helps......

[vaiger]

We have probably trapped 10 possums over the past couple of years.  We have chickens and the possums love to come and kill the chickens.    We tried cat food, dog food, bacon, old produce, and a million other things we saw online. Over 3 weeks we lost several chickens and then a little old lady who grew up on a farm told me to bait my trap with a honey bun.  She said it "works every time."  Sure enough, we baited the trap with a honey bun and a big fat possum was there the next morning.   Since then, we have caught at least 10 possums the same way and it generally only takes 1-2 days to catch them.

 

I thought the possum would die instantly after eating the preservatives in the honey bun, but we had to shoot them.

 

If only those flying squirrels were so easy to trap and kill.   I live in a log house and those things love to come and chew on it at night.   10/22 with a tactical light seems to be the most effective approach for them.

[tercel89]

I had possums under my house. I used a live trap with cat food just outside the entrance point. Caught them all, one at a time. Then they suddenly died.

THIS ! A live trap with food is the best . Use cat food or just raw meat . Also raw smelly rotten meat.  WOrks like a charm

[tercel89]

Bait and bow hunt.  Great practice during the off season.

HAHAHA awesome !

[RAJTENN]

Smoke bombs as an idea but traps and the Decon would work for me.

 

A population of squirrels have began to over run the yard and ravage my bird feeders so for the past 4 wks I've been trapping them and releasing them about 3 miles from the house. Beginning to wonder how many I actually have/had, I've carried off my tenth one today. Also wondering if they're finding their way back?  :unsure:

I trapped and and spray painted day-glow orange on a squirrel rump...was back in 4 hours from about 2.5 crow miles...now I take them 5+ miles...I haven't had any painted squirrels return. I do like the skunk disposal method...I have always feared catching a skunk, rather the skunk catching me with a good spray. I do have a nearby pond.

[jtmaze]

Smoke bombs as an idea but traps and the Decon would work for me.

 

A population of squirrels have began to over run the yard and ravage my bird feeders so for the past 4 wks I've been trapping them and releasing them about 3 miles from the house. Beginning to wonder how many I actually have/had, I've carried off my tenth one today. Also wondering if they're finding their way back?  :unsure:

You only have one family of squirrels and they just keep coming back. You will never keep tree rats off bird feeders. Three miles by the road is nothing for a squirrel. In hunting season I will wipe out a whole family in the woods behind my house and wait 3-4 weeks and I will go out and kill 5-6 more. I have never seen anything like it.

[R_Bert]

We have been having raccoons raid the garden.. I got one on the game camera last week that literally could not fit in the 12x12x24 trap. He was 6-8" too tall. One we *did* get was 15+ lbs.

[Guest Charis]

What you need is a natural predator and a tenant willing to remember to put out some food once in awhile.

 

If you have some feral cats near by, all you need to do is start putting out a small amount of whatever cheap cat food you have available. This will encourage the cats that hunt nearby to include your yard in their hunting path. It takes a little more time than other methods, but it also requires the least amount of work and the least tension with the neighbors if you happen to have those kinds of neighbors that frown upon the killing of animals that are simply living the way they were made to live.

 

If you do not have any feral cats near by, I would suggest calling your local shelter and farm/feed stores for barn cats that need adopting. Please fix the barn cat(s) you adopt, it is healthier for them, and you do not start your own feral cat colony.

 

Do not seal up the hole, as it will be the perfect place for the cats to hang out, and if the cats are there, the various rodents won't be. Loose the barn cat under the house, put some food and water in a safe sheltered place near this area, and make sure to keep food there for awhile. If you are felling really friendly, and want to ensure your barn cat thinks your place is the best place ever and stays, make a nest for your barn cat with some hay and old blankets in an area that is wind blocked and rain proof, especially in winter time. If you have a garden, create this home near the garden, the cats smell will build up in that area and make it THE hot zone for rodents to avoid at all costs, no matter WHAT kind of goodies are in there.

 

The cats will mark the area and hunt the rodents, and before too horribly long, most rodents will take a pass at your yard, and most likely the yards all the way around you. You will still occasionally see them, especially if you have a super easy food source for them available like bird feeders, but in general this will keep you rodent free for years, and unfortunately feral cats and barn cats are always in ready supply.

[Glenn]

Have you never seen the "Turtle Man"? Just crawl in there and grab them.

[kieefer]

You only have one family of squirrels and they just keep coming back. You will never keep tree rats off bird feeders. Three miles by the road is nothing for a squirrel. In hunting season I will wipe out a whole family in the woods behind my house and wait 3-4 weeks and I will go out and kill 5-6 more. I have never seen anything like it.

I carried 12 off this year and was amazing we had that many. They finally disappeared in May and we have....what appears to be two still visiting but they are not bothering my feeders as of now.

 

I've also sprayed a few tails thinking they were coming back but my drop off area must be more fertile than the backyard.  :shrug:

 

Be careful about skunks and poisons and pellet guns, if they are wounded or dying they may go hide under your neighbors AC unit. Don't ask me how I know this.  :ugh:

[kieefer]

Have you never seen the "Turtle Man"? Just crawl in there and grab them.

 

You also saw him sitting in a tub of tomato juice  :screwy: Born with a set of bull balls this man was.  :usa:

[jtmaze]

I had a flying squirrel show up at the house last night. Relatively tame and could get really close. I(or my family) have lived in this house since 1977 and have killed thousands of gray and fox squirrels but have never seen a flying squirrel in this part of the world. I live about an hour from Natchez Trace state park and 5 minutes from Chickasaw state park, for those who don't know Natchez Trace has a huge population of flying squirrels, I am wondering if maybe the state has transported some to Chickasaw.

Edited July 23, 2013 by jtmaze

[whitewolf001]

 

Hey, gets rid of them AND gives you that skylight you always wanted, two critters with one HE stone!

[Guest copperhead_1911]

Think of the "critters" as the voters who put Obama in office. You will get rid of them with extreme prejudice. 

[kieefer]

After watching the movie Phantom I looked out in the backyard and see a skunk roaming around. What's the movie got to do with a skunk you wonder?, it gave me an idea  :devil:

 

I put a wood floor in my trap and it would really be better to cover with sheet metal along with the sides because they will try to scratch out. Then I put the set trap in a large trash bag and tossed some cat food in with it. 

I had my skunk trapped this morning, this is where the movie comes in. The skunk torn up most of the bag and why the sides should be covered but I used my large trash can also with a bag in it and put him and the cage in it.  Pretty well sealed I started up the truck,... you get the idea  :death:

 

Through the bag I could open up and slide the skunk out of the trap and in to the trash bag. Double bag if needed and carry off to an outside trash can at your local "no guns posted" establishment.  ;)

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I'm gonna have to figger out something to do about squirrels in the outside shop building. They never hung around when I used it every day, but I don't use it so much lately and they moved in.

 

We haven't ever had trouble with house rats or insects, but the last 6 months we've had a ghost mouse.

 

Wife watches TV with the lights pretty dim. I was programming one evening in the downstairs office and wife came down and said she saw a mouse flash by. Then she came back later and said she saw it again. I went up to look but didn't see anything. We joked about hallucinations, then we were standing in the TV room and the little gray flash went by again. I put out some traps, but never caught anything.

 

So then about a month later was in the basement office in the daytime. Daughter's heinz 57 dog will spend half the day chasing a fly that gets in the house, and she was napping on the floor. I see a movement in corner of eye, and this tiny little mouse strolls out from behind the refrigerator in the basement kitchen, ambles right in front of daughter's dog a foot away, then wanders in between a book case and the laser printer table. Then a few minutes later it strolls back out and calmly walks past dog again, back in behind the refrigerator in the kitchen. Dog just stared at the mouse walking by, like "what the heck is that?". If the coon hound had been there it would have solved the mouse problem. He'll spend all afternoon out in the woods digging a hole to china just to catch a rodent snack. He'll be down so far in his hole that all you can see is the tail. And he's fast. OTOH if coon hound had gone after the mouse he might have knocked down the bookcase and laser printer doing it.

 

I put traps around the refrigerator but never caught the little mousie or saw him again.

 

So after not seeing him for a couple of months, had woke up in the middle of the night, sitting on the john about 4 am. So this little gray streak came speeding out from somewhere the other side of the bathroom, ziggzagging randomly across the floor. I'm pretty sure it was a mouse but honestly he was traveling so fast all you could see was a gray blur. He ran up to me, circled my legs and jumped into my pants on the floor. Then twitched around about a second, leaped out, ran around the toilet and disappeared. I jumped up and couldn't find the dang critter, or even any tiny mouse hole he might have escaped into, or any tiny mouse hole he might have come out of. It happened so quick, just a tiny gray blur. The kind of thing you wonder if it was a trick of the eye, some kind of hallucination.

 

So if that was the same "ghost mouse", he moves faster at night than in the daytime. :) We can't keep a cat. Cats are just coon hound snacks on the hoof.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[R_Bert]

I'm gonna have to figger out something to do about squirrels in the outside shop building. They never hung around when I used it every day, but I don't use it so much lately and they moved in.

 

We haven't ever had trouble with house rats or insects, but the last 6 months we've had a ghost mouse.

 

Wife watches TV with the lights pretty dim. I was programming one evening in the downstairs office and wife came down and said she saw a mouse flash by. Then she came back later and said she saw it again. I went up to look but didn't see anything. We joked about hallucinations, then we were standing in the TV room and the little gray flash went by again. I put out some traps, but never caught anything.

 

So then about a month later was in the basement office in the daytime. Daughter's heinz 57 dog will spend half the day chasing a fly that gets in the house, and she was napping on the floor. I see a movement in corner of eye, and this tiny little mouse strolls out from behind the refrigerator in the basement kitchen, ambles right in front of daughter's dog a foot away, then wanders in between a book case and the laser printer table. Then a few minutes later it strolls back out and calmly walks past dog again, back in behind the refrigerator in the kitchen. Dog just stared at the mouse walking by, like "what the heck is that?". If the coon hound had been there it would have solved the mouse problem. He'll spend all afternoon out in the woods digging a hole to china just to catch a rodent snack. He'll be down so far in his hole that all you can see is the tail. And he's fast. OTOH if coon hound had gone after the mouse he might have knocked down the bookcase and laser printer doing it.

 

I put traps around the refrigerator but never caught the little mousie or saw him again.

 

So after not seeing him for a couple of months, had woke up in the middle of the night, sitting on the john about 4 am. So this little gray streak came speeding out from somewhere the other side of the bathroom, ziggzagging randomly across the floor. I'm pretty sure it was a mouse but honestly he was traveling so fast all you could see was a gray blur. He ran up to me, circled my legs and jumped into my pants on the floor. Then twitched around about a second, leaped out, ran around the toilet and disappeared. I jumped up and couldn't find the dang critter, or even any tiny mouse hole he might have escaped into, or any tiny mouse hole he might have come out of. It happened so quick, just a tiny gray blur. The kind of thing you wonder if it was a trick of the eye, some kind of hallucination.

 

So if that was the same "ghost mouse", he moves faster at night than in the daytime. :) We can't keep a cat. Cats are just coon hound snacks on the hoof.

 

Get some new traps, and a jar of JIF Creamy (don't skimp on this).  *before you open the package of traps* use the JIF like hand cream removing any scent from your hands. After opening the package, rub a extremely thin (just enough so it smells good) layer of JIF all over the trap. Then put a glob of JIF under the trip bar (so then mouse has to "wrestle" with it even to lick it). 

 

Set several of these out and you will get him tonight. 

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks for the good advice, will try that.

Was thinking about just putting out Dcon rat poison in the outside shop building for the tree rats, bacause the dawgs never get to go in that shop. Was worried maybe they would die in the shop and stink it up, but I dont use the shop much atm and the stink would eventually subside. The poison package says they go outside to die, but dunno if that is reliable. Also was wondering if a dog would get poisoned if they find and eat a poisoned tree rat that died in the back yard or back woods.