Posted By: pass-thru
What animal does this sound like?? - 07/24/18 02:14 AM
I stopped by a house today that had been empty for three years, until the current owner bought it and moved in 2-3 years ago. It is an older house on a crawl space with stone foundation and front porch, low back porch with one side that is open about 5' across but very low to the ground at that point (this is the only access point I could find). The house was sagging so she had foundation work done in March, and they put down a vapor barrier as part of the job. They were back for a follow up last week and told her she has critter problems as the crawl space is filled with poo.
There are 3 large dogs in the house that are let out to use the back porch. There was another that is now gone that used to get excited around the back porch but nothing unusual from the current dogs. Cat hangs around the house all day sometimes goes under the back porch. She saw a greyish animal scurry under the back porch during the day several months ago. Also heard scratching under the kitchen several months ago. So she was surprised to hear there may be something living under the house.
I took a quick peek in the crawl space. There was brown irregular droppings all over the place, not concentrated in a toilet. I would say thy were on the large side of medium. At the following website not dissimilar to either possum or skunk, but nothing like ground hog: https://adventuresinecology.weebly.com/wildlife-scat.html
And sounds like she saw a groundhog months ago. But it seems like if this were a ground hog, she would still have seen or heard in the meantime and the dogs would give more attention to the deck. I could not tell how fresh the droppings are but they did not look terribly old. The foundation guys told her they found puddles of urine as well.
Seems to me it could be a possum. There was no hint of skunk odor. I closed off the opening in the back porch with sticks poked in the ground to see if it is an active entrance point. If they are pushed over in a few days obviously it is. If they are not pushed over then I recommended she clean up the poo on the vapor barrier and see if more reappears.
Now, I guess there is some chance it is their own cat that is going down there from under the porch and pooping in the crawl space. But that would not account for the scratching or the animal she saw running under there.
What animal does this likely sound to be? Is there a bait that is good for both possums and groundhogs?
There are 3 large dogs in the house that are let out to use the back porch. There was another that is now gone that used to get excited around the back porch but nothing unusual from the current dogs. Cat hangs around the house all day sometimes goes under the back porch. She saw a greyish animal scurry under the back porch during the day several months ago. Also heard scratching under the kitchen several months ago. So she was surprised to hear there may be something living under the house.
I took a quick peek in the crawl space. There was brown irregular droppings all over the place, not concentrated in a toilet. I would say thy were on the large side of medium. At the following website not dissimilar to either possum or skunk, but nothing like ground hog: https://adventuresinecology.weebly.com/wildlife-scat.html
And sounds like she saw a groundhog months ago. But it seems like if this were a ground hog, she would still have seen or heard in the meantime and the dogs would give more attention to the deck. I could not tell how fresh the droppings are but they did not look terribly old. The foundation guys told her they found puddles of urine as well.
Seems to me it could be a possum. There was no hint of skunk odor. I closed off the opening in the back porch with sticks poked in the ground to see if it is an active entrance point. If they are pushed over in a few days obviously it is. If they are not pushed over then I recommended she clean up the poo on the vapor barrier and see if more reappears.
Now, I guess there is some chance it is their own cat that is going down there from under the porch and pooping in the crawl space. But that would not account for the scratching or the animal she saw running under there.
What animal does this likely sound to be? Is there a bait that is good for both possums and groundhogs?