A pest/rodent has chewed into the fascia board near the roof of my house. I have never seen it, so I am not sure if it is a squirrel, chipmunk, or rat.
My property seems to house more than it’s share of squirrels and something burrows quite a bit in my lawn. I have seen chipmunks on the property also. How do I know what to use that will kill and/or get rid of the pest so that I can repair the board? I’m afraid to use poison because I don’t want it to smell. The attic is barely a crawl space so it will be difficult to set traps. Any suggestions?
First, if you read our squirrel and rat control articles, you’ll learn we generally don’t recommend using any kind of poison because there is a good chance the animal will die somwhere inaccessible and cause your home to stink. This should be avoided at all costs.
Squirrel Article: https://bugspray.com/article/squirrels
Rat Article: https://bugspray.com/rodent-control-video-training-home-yard
Second, in both these articles you’ll learn that what we do find to be very effective for any small rodent is a live trap. Such traps work great for chipmunks (which I suspect are doing all the digging and creating burrows in your lawn) as well.
Now don’t worry; live trapping is both easy and effective. And as you’ll learn in our squirrel article, rarely needed to be done inside the home. In other words, setting the trap just above the fascia on your roof or just below on the ground would be fine for capturing anything that might be foraging up to your fascia boards.
Now you didn’t mention if you have pets (dogs or cats) or bird seed in the yard, but I’m betting you have one or the other. You see, both squirrels and rats love pet food. And they love bird seed. So what we have found is that most any home with either food will dramatically increase their chance of getting either rats, squirrels or chipmunks so I’m guessing that either you or one of your neighbors has one of these food sources just outside the home and in close proximity to where you’re seeing all this activity.
And if there is some bird seed in the yard or pet food available on a deck nearby, it would no doubt explain all the rodent activity. But either will also make a great bait to live trap with so if you have some readily available, use it as your bait in any of our live traps listed in our articles.
Now based on the amount of activity you’re describing, I’d say to get one of the “better” traps we sell and that would be one of these:
Live Trap: https://bugspray.com/traps/cage/live-trap-5-x-5-x-18
Or if you’re on a budget, our Green Model is a great deal:
Also get some Pecan Paste to help attract target animals but be sure to fill the trap with either pet food or bird seed as this is important. The paste is just a way to insure they don’t miss the set.
Pecan Paste: https://bugspray.com/traps/lure/pecan-paste
Lastly, start trapping outside and don’t quit till you can go at least 2 weeks without capturing any rats, squirrels or chipmunks. My guess is once you can go 2 weeks without capturing anything, your local population of unwanted animals will be removed and at that time you will be able to close up the hole in your fascia board without having to worry about locking something inside. Good luck!
Ruthell Faria says
I have had a critter in my house for over 3 mos, have tried all means to catch it,
put out food that critters eat and nothing touched. I think it must have been a
pet that got away cause it is staying close to me, on my bed several times at nite,
ive seen it twice, tan color, now its eating the white paint off of faciaboard in my
hallway, what can this critter be, ive put out fresh vegt chpd sml, seed,etc, cat
food, you name it, wont touch water either, i have had proff pest guys out and on
phone and they tell me they need pet droppings which i dont see any available to
scoop up or need to know food it eats so they can catch it, it doesnt eat any food!!!!
Tech Support says
Ruthell,
There are too many animal options it could be for us to list them all in this thread but the real focus should be on what it wants to eat, not what it is. If you can find anything it will eat, then you can trap it as detailed in this thread:
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Step Trapping: https://bugspray.com/catch-rat-not-going-into-trap.html
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So for now, I’d be focused on offering nuts and seeds since most any small rodent from Squirrels down to the smallest of them will accept nuts or seeds. Once anything is accepted, you can proceed to live trap it. Kill traps definitely won’t work for any “skittish” animal.
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Technical Support
bugspray.com