Racoons under the porch

[jazon48]

Do you folks have any advice for my sister?

I need some help trying one last thing about keeping the animals out from under my deck. The best choice is to have it ripped up and replaced with a concrete patio. However, I think that will cost me at least $10K. I'm going to get an estimate but want to try one more thing before I do that. Right now I have at least two ground squirrels and a raccoon living there who come out periodically in the day/evenings.

Do you have any ideas? A good idea is to dig a trench deep enough all around it and put in short fencing so the animals can't dig underneath. However, that's too hard for me, and I can't buy the fencing small enough (it's in huge rolls at Lowe's/Home Depot). What has worked is rocks--but wherever I put them to block their entrance they just avoid that area and dig another hole to get in and out. I don't think I can find enough rocks to totally surround the deck.

I have hired a high-school kid to help me in a few weeks. He will do the physical labor based on my idea. So, I have a few weeks to decide what to try this time. Any ideas?

Thanx in advance Jason

[Red Green]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:0f83d772-4bde- [e-mail]:

Well, if you make under the deck inaccessable, you just may find them sitting in the chairs on the deck!

[Bert Byfield]

Whenever you think they are in there, get a weapon of your choice and climb in after them. They will tire of this challenge very quickly.

[Dick Adams]

This is what assault weapons were made for! ;)

Have you called your county animal control yet? They set traps for these suckers.

Dick

[Mark]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:0f83d772-4bde-4069- [e-mail]:

Get a dachshund and let him loose under the porch.

[nick hull]

With racoons the only workable way is to trap them and terminate them.

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

** Posted from **

[HeyBub]

Why are raccoons under the porch a problem? Loud, raucous parties? Would you rather have armadillos under the porch? In other words, what problem are you trying to solve? Whatever the problem, moving the 'coons may not be the solution.

[TD]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:FqmdnbpLz-XIZwvVnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Rabies.

[HeyBub]

Oh, well. That's not really a problem.

They have shots for that.

[TD]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:i-ednQly0- RMggrVnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Are you volunteering to be bitten by the critters?

[David Nebenzahl]

On 8/4/2008 5:47 AM HeyBub spake thus:

Not sure, but having had skunks living under my house at one time, I'm going to guess: the stink?

[Heathcliff]

Mark your territory the way animals do - pee around/under the deck. Use a jar if you are shy. I am serious, I have known people for whom this worked -- try it for a few days, the cost is zero. -- H

[salty]

For years, I had a cycle of raccoon families, followed by skunk families, then the raccoons again, etc. in a crawlspace under part of a home.

Every 6 months, I scatter a couple boxes of moth balls down there, and I haven't had any critters for many years.

[Art]

I had a family of opossums move into a space under a staircase in my garage. We used to keep the door partly open for a cat.

I went out there one night and started screaming at them.

The family moved out that night. Didn't like the neighbors, apparently.

[HeyBub]

Uh, no. But thanks for asking.

[HeyBub]

Could be, but opossums are the gypsies of the animal world. They hang around one spot for a couple of days, then move on to their next stop. I have a opossum that visits me (I recognize it). He stops by about once every eight weeks or so, chows down on the outside cat's never-empty food bowl, then moves on. He's (or maybe she's) been doing this circuit for almost two years.

Every once in a while, one of the cats gets pissed and chases him/her up a tree, but, in large measure, the two species tolerate each other.

[Red Green]

Mark wrote in news:Xns9AF03C55211EEsingsing@194.177.96.78:

Yea, they're kinda expendable I suppose.

[Red Green]

nick hull wrote in news:nhull-478FF5.06523104082008 @blackdragon.nntpserver.com:

What about trap and relocate?

[salty]

Illegal in many places, and not terribly effective. If you have a "habitat" that is attractive to these critters, there is always a supply of them waiting in the wings to move in as soon as you create a vacancy.

[jazon48]

e:

Thanks one and all for the answers. Lethal is illegal where she lives and live traps just relocate members of an apparently inexhaustable supply of racoons who ". . .move in as soon as (she) create(s) a vacancy. . ."

-J