Animals in the shed

[Zeedman]

No doubt those in rural areas are accustomed to animals in outbuildings, but I did not expect so many problems in my heavily-developed suburban area. Most recently, that has been very persistent animals which have made themselves at home in a small shed (which was originally a pool shed). One year, raccoons were hiding in the rafters, and tearing up everything in the shed. They even tore a hole in the soffit for entry, which had to be patched... and when I placed hardware cloth over another entrance, they tore it off. I eventually drove them off with several smoke bombs.

The shed has a small loft, and DD stored her trampoline there over the winter. Several times I found nests of paper & leaves under the tarp, and could hear something rustling around when I entered - but could never identify what it was. The trampoline, unfortunately, had several holes chewed through it, so it's toast. I pulled it out, and cleaned out the nest debris. Last week, DW went in to get a tool - and told me that something had been chewing on a box of DE left over from the pool! About 1/3 of the DE was gone, and there were obvious bite marks deeply into the powder... I can't believe an animal would actually eat that stuff. A dish of moth balls that we had left in the shed to deter mice had also been overturned, and the moth balls scattered everywhere.

Well, today hardly got above freezing, so I went to check the shed, hoping that whatever was living there would be hunkered down out of the weather. I had left a ladder in front of the loft, so I could view it quickly upon entry. Sure enough, it was occupied - by a large squirrel. Because I caught it in the act, I was finally able to figure out how it was getting in. The builder had wrapped ventilated metal soffit around two corners (probably in response to previous animal intrusions). The squirrel was getting in & out by climbing between the soffit & the wall. When it dries out, I'll try to seal off all possible entryways with hardware cloth... but I've got a feeling animals will either rip that off, or chew their way in again. I really hate to use poison, but it barriers fail, that may be the only solution.

 

[seedcorn]

Squirrel is mighty tasty. I know some think raccoon is but can’t comment from experience. IMO, you will not be able to convince them to leave without some heavy arguments.

 

[digitS']

Reading this and then going out to the utility room to wash a couple of new sheets that DW bought this week. Hope that the laundry detergent removes the "packaging" smell. Had planned on hanging them out on the line but it may be too windy of a day. I suppose dryer sheets will be a more familiar fragrance. Couldn't help but imagine the smell of rodent pulling them out and getting them into the washing machine!

@Zeedman , what do you think of figuring out how to repair the soffit and having the materials at hand. Pick another bad squirrel weather day and do the repairs - hopefully, trapping the rodent inside. Then, start your lawnmower or garden tiller and leave it in the shed for long enough to gas the varmint!

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I started reading that my first thought was when I found a nest of sugar gliders in an outbuilding down here. Obviously somebody's pets had escaped and had started raising a family. I left them alone but they soon moved on. I think my going in and out scared them away.

My next thoughts went to raccoons, possums, mice, and rats. I didn't even think of squirrels.

I've trapped squirrels using an appropriately sized live trap with Black Oil Sunflower Seeds as bait. It was pretty effective. If you relocate them, which is probably illegal, I'd go about 10 miles to keep them from coming back to where home is. There are more permanent solutions.

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman if not built well you'll end up with troubles like that, but if you've kept food anywhere in it that makes it even more attractive to animals. i've never heard of anything eating DE like that! so strange...

when i finally got around to redoing the shed to seal up the walls to remove mouse and bee habitat we've not had any further problems, but i also had to work on the bottom of the door to make sure it sealed well enough. since then we've not put any kind of food back in there to get it where it will attract anything back to wanting to get in. i've seen no signs of anything other than a few spiders in there now.


@Ridgerunner i'd never heard that sugar gliders would be able to survive any place that might get cold. IMO they should have been trapped and humanely put down or rehomed. there's already enough non-native species causing havoc to have yet another. even if they are a cute as all get out.