Wildlife Under the Porch or Deck

First, decide whether the animal's presence really poses a problem for you. If not, leave her alone. Most wildlife is harmless and will not bother you. If you really believe the animal poses a problem, you will need to determine the animal's entry point. This will often be a hole dug under the edge of the deck or porch. Once the entry point has been found, you will need three things: a bright light such as a mechanic's trouble light, a radio and some type of safe repellent, such as ammonia-soaked rags.

Shine the light and place the radio under the deck or outside the animal's entrance. Tune it to a hard rock or talk show station. Soak rags with ammonia and place them near the entrance. Now you have made this dark, quiet place bright, noisy and smelly.

It is important to do this for three days, both day and night, wetting the rags with ammonia two times a day. If the animal has babies, this will give her enough time to relocate them safely. The radio can be turned down to a level that allows you and your neighbors to get to sleep!

To determine if the animal is gone, heavily sprinkle flour or baby powder in front of the entrance. Alternately, loosely balled newspaper can be placed in the hole. If there are no tracks or the newspaper is not disturbed in a 24-hour period, the animal has probably moved out and the entrance should be sealed off immediately.

Trapping and relocating an animal is usually ineffective in the long run and often inhumane, especially in spring and summer when babies could be left behind to starve.

Please remember, anytime you have an opening underneath a deck or porch, wild animals will make a home there. To prevent a future wildlife problem, seal off all openings using bricks, hardware cloth or heavy metal mesh, ideally the bottom of which is buried 12" below the ground.