What Could These Pests Be? (Seattle, Vancouver: living, fence, yard)

[RAT]

Originally Posted by KidBlue

Glad to know my mortal enemy, the acorn woodpecker, is not in Washington. Another reason to move there! I think I'm going to try covering the edge of the roof with aluminum and glue the edge of the roof (composition) down and see if that works. I've read lots of stuff on why the 'peckers are attacking, but what seems to be happening on my house is that they are substituting my house (which is two stories) for a tree. They are in cahoots with the squirrels which stick acorns under the edge of the roof. Then the birds steal the acorns (pecking the heck out of the house in the process), drill a hole in the trim boards and then stick the acorn in the hole. Most of the trees around here are oaks and are too hard for the birds to drill, so the nice soft pine on the house is very nice for them.

If the metal doesn't work, I'll also be replacing some of the siding with Hardy Plank which looks like cedar but is made of cement and wood fiber. It's supposed to be too hard for woodpeckers but mine seem unusually persistent. I'll let you know how my plans work and if I will be living in a tent after spending all of my money getting rid of the woodpeckers.

I got so desperate I did try using a gun (luckily it was a B-B pistol) but those pests are so smart that as soon as they hear the door open, they fly off and come back as soon as I go into the house.

Try the mesh net, it work for my sister.

[washinton native]

hypothetically speaking, a .20 gague would work nicely on the woodpeckers. they only are protected if bodyguards are in tow.

[lilypad]

Sounds like moles, yes. My dad is in PNW and has them on his property. He used either peanut butter or gum, they swallow it and strangle. Terrible way to go I guess, but he has kept them under control.

[lady_jet]

There are quite a few creatures who live under the ground. Moles, voles, ground squirrels, gophers, and more.

However, I think what's living under your house could be feral cats, raccoons, opposums, or rats, especially if they're gnawing on the substructure. They fight like that because one's in another's territory. I'd get a pest control guy for the house.

For the yard, you can use poison grain pellets that you put in the hole they dug (you can buy that at a lawn store, home depot or lowe's, I think), various types of traps you can buy at home depot or if they don't have it, lowes or they can recommend where to get it. If you lived in the country, you'd go to a feed and grain supply store. You can even get poles to stick in the ground that vibrate (ones with batteries alone, or ones that spin in the wind like windmills, but smaller, and cause vibrations). The vibrations drive the critters into the next area away from the vibrations so you need to get enough of them to keep your yard free. Ask your neighbors what they use and then use what they have--they probably drove the critters into your yard because that's the biggest problem--you drive the critters from area to area to area and each person is doing the same thing, so they keep moving from yard to yard to yard. Better to kill them than to move them because they do not go away. A cat or dog will help as they catch them and eat them like mice because rodents are rodents. If you have pets, don't use poison or let them eat animals dead in the yard as they could have been poisoned.

The key to using poison bait is to find the hole carefully by probing with the gizmo to put the bait into the hole. You have to be careful not to knock any dirt into the hole with the bait. It does take some time to get all the holes, but it works best when you see a hole and immediately put the bait in each and every time. They breed like mice and rats do so you're not just killing the older ones, but the young ones as well and it does take a while.

In Walla Walla, we have moles, voles, gophers and ground squirrels, raccoons, oppsums, feral cats, and other critters. They are hard to get rid of when you have a larger property than a city house is on. We use mainly traps that you carefully dig the dirt out of the place where their holes are, then they get caught in the trap and die...like large mouse traps--sort of. I hate kiling anything, but they can be a real pain in the behind and cause a lot of damage to the yard, field and garden. They can kill fruit trees and other trees and shrubs as well.

Good luck and I wish you the best. Let me know if you find out what the critters under the house are.

[eagleheart]

Kid Blue,
I sure hope putting the metal on the roof works. I am in Birch Bay and have never seen an Acorn Woodpecker. We have Downy's, Hairy's and Pileated. I have great pictures of them (I am a photographer). The Downy's and Hairy's are pests as they keep going after my homemade black oil sunflower feeder. They are amazingly calm - letting me walk within a foot of them before flying away.

A pest that is getting worse here are starlings. They roost in my neighbor's tree and look like a huge black cloud when they fly around this area.

As our weather patterns are changing and ocean waters are warming, we are finding animals invading our country as never before. The environment is under attack from many insects that have found new homes with no natural enemies.

Too bad we don't have bigger snakes here in the northwest that would get into the mole holes and eat them. But, that would create an entire different set of problems.

I have tried the broken glass thing and it was not that effective.

I caught one and put it into a dirt-filled 50 gal. aquarium. It was under the dirt. I put a worm on the surface and I was amazed at how fast it came up to get it. Don't know if it smelled it, sensed the vibration of it moving but it got it fast. I got a little 15 sec movie of it. Very weird little animals.

There are mole mounds in nearly every yard here. They are very effective at uglifying a yard.

[Woof]

The big critter under the house is a raccoon, I don't think they even have opposums in the Seattle area .... but they do have some huge raccoons that used to bother me at times.

No need to try to block it up and starve it, that's cruel. You can buy a live trap and bait it with peanut butter. You might be able to borrow a live trap from the city animal control folks, or they'll set it.

Personally I would leave a blob of peanut butter outside the den around midnight and set back 10 yards away with a .22 ..... IF I were living out away from town .... but you can't legally discharge a firearm within city limits unless in self-defense.

[jabm67]

Originally Posted by Woof

The big critter under the house is a raccoon, I don't think they even have opposums in the Seattle area .... but they do have some huge raccoons that used to bother me at times.

Oh, we certainly have opossums in Seattle. I've seen enough dead ones on the streetside up in my part of town.

[Woof]

Oh, I didn't know that. Don't know much about them, except that some of the dead ones you saw were probably playing 'possum, unless they were actually squished flat.

I'm sure peanut butter would lure them as it's an almost universal bait, but maybe add a bit of over-ripe fruit to make sure.

[KidBlue]

'Possums love to eat fruit. Have a friend who lives next to the river here and 'possums ate all of the persimons in his trees.

[JustMeAgain2day]

Not environmentally approved, but and old hardware store guy told me to light up a couple of highway road flares, one per tunnel entrance. He said it worked, and it's cheap.