How to get rid of Skunks from under your home or deck. This is a common question I get from Home owners. They know they want the skunks removed but don't know how to Remove the skunks. Homeowners should first locate how the Skunks are getting into the crawlspace under the home or deck and proceed from there. If they are entering from a damaged or missing foundation vent of a homes crawlspace a possible option is to install a one way door on the opening so the skunks can leave and then not get back under the home. The Skunks will have to find new shelter in the area at that point. Another option homeowners have is to Call a professional trapper and have the Skunk removed from the crawlspace and property, never to return. 

I got a call from a customer in Rhonert Park who believed he had a skunk in his crawl space. He had found a hole that lead under his foundation in the front of his house. He explained to me that he has had Skunk Problems before and that his foundation is not very deep. I scheduled a time with him for me to come out that afternoon. I arrived and set up a ring stickup camera that I connected to his WiFi. I reached in the hole and placed the camera under the foundation in the hole. This will let me know exactly what is under his house. I then set two traps in front of the hole and blocked them in with plywood and cement blocks. I do this so I am only catching the animals that are under his house and not something just passing by who might be attracted to the bait. I set another Ring Stick Up camera looking at the 2 traps so I will be able to see exactly what is in the traps in the morning. That night around midnight the camera under the house picked up movement by a skunk. It left through the hole and went right into one of the waiting traps. I saw the video of the skunk in the trap immediately when I woke up at 5:30am and I was on the road to remove the skunk by 6am. I set up the traps in such a way that allowed me to walk up behind them without being seen by the skunk in the trap. I was extra careful not to make any noise as I covered the trap and removed the skunk. I was successful this time in removing the skunk without it spraying. I always shoot for that but sometimes they spray without warning.

I had a call the other week from a Winery in The Napa Valley That needed a Bat removed from the entrance to their wine cave. The Call came in while I was heading to another job that luck fully didn't have a set time for the appointment. I quickly turned my truck around and headed back into the Napa Valley to get to this winery before any scheduled guests were going to be entering the cave. I managed to arrive just 45 minuted from the time the call was placed. I found the bat immediately, removed it and cleared the cave.

A bat flew into my building tonight was the call I got late Sunday night. It was from a manager of a 2nd hand store in Vacaville and he wanted the bat removed as soon as possible. I told him I'd be there first thing in the morning and I'd do everything I could to locate the bat and remove it. I arrived the following morning and searched the store for the bat. the employee's told me the bat was locked inside over night and they hadn't seen it yet that morning. I gave the building a once over hoping to find the Bat in an easy to see and reach location. The first place around the ceiling and rafters of the store didn't offer any such luck. I moved to looking behind pictures on the wall, boxes and furniture and was still coming up empty handed. I looked behind light fixtures and lamps with no luck. I azxked the employee's if any other doors were open when they arrived to see if there were any other possible rooms the bat could be in. They informed me that the receiving room door was open and that it could possibly be in there. I searched that room and found it roosting at the corner of a twenty foot ceiling. I grabbed my extension ladder climbed to the bat and gently removed it. I took it outside and released it. The Bat flew away, most likely back to its original roost.

I had a customer call me on a Saturday afternoon and asked me to help get Skunks out from under his house in Sonoma. I arrive at his house the following morning and did a quick inspection of his foundation and found the only way in was under his deck at a crawl space access. The access door had been damaged and left in disrepair for sometime. The Fact that the access was under the deck and there wasn't enough space to put traps under the deck I was going to have to set the traps at the side of the deck. I inspected the entire deck looking for what was the most used route to and from the crawlspace access. I chose two spots that showed signs of animal activity and set my traps there. I got access to the customers WiFi and set up 3 Ring Stickup cameras. 2 looking at the traps I set and 1 pointed at the crawlspace access so I can monitor what is coming and going. It took a week put I was able to catch 3 skunks that had taken up residence under the house. I left traps and cameras out for 2 extra days to make sure there weren't any other animals in the crawl space before I sealed it up. I poured concrete at the base of the access because I noticed that the foundation wasn't poured under the access opening. This will prevent anything from digging under the door I put over the access.

There are skunks under my deck is the latest call I have been on. The customer was calling for a quote to remove skunks from under his deck, He agreed to the price and I told him I'd be out to this address the following morning. I arrived the next day to find a deck that had been sealed up except one spot where it appeared animals had been coming and going. I peaked into the space wherever I could and saw a lot of droppings. The deck itself had a sign of animal activity on it as well, the are just above the opening I described earlier was dirty from lots of animals walking on it. there was also signs of animals brushing up on the house leaving areas of it dirty with dirt and oil from there fur. I set two traps for the customer and connected two Ring stickup Cameras to his WiFi. The following morning I checked the ring camera as I was waking up at 5 and watched a lot of Skunk activity coming and going from the deck opening. The second camera showed a Skunk in one of the traps and at least 2 others outside of it. I use the cameras to help determine how many animals might be under a structure or visiting a yard. When I arrived at the house that morning I could see that there was a 2nd skunk in the second trap, so I knew there was at least 1 more skunk under the deck possibly more. The following night I saw multiple skunks on camera coming and going from the opening. I repositioned the traps so they could both be seen by one camera on top of the deck. I caught 1 skunk and saw another come from out of the opening after the one was already in the trap. Now I knew there were at least 4. The next night I saw 3 different skunks come from under the deck. The first two came out and made their way into the traps then I saw a third skunk come from the opening and go up on the deck near the traps.  At this point I knew there were at least 6 skunks total. ​
https://ring.com/share/d6f3bb05-baa0-4ebe-a388-a6a477d074b0

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I received a call from a client who was having Squirrel issues. A Fox Squirrel had moved into a small section of gutter on the 2nd story of their home just above their bedroom. This particular squirrel would begin its daily activies at 5am every morning and was waking up my clients before they wanted to get up. This squirrel, like most squirrels was very smart and had managed to take the bait from multiple types of squirrel traps without getting caught. I modifies a small rodent trap with 2 pieces of plywood so he wasn't able jump over the trigger or dig under the trap to get the nuts. The video shows the end result and the story ends with my clients being able to get their much needed rest.

One of my calls this week was from a nice woman who said, "There is a strong Skunk Smell in my house, and I'm not sure if it is coming from the outside or from under my home."  I told her it was possible that it was coming from a skunk that sprayed in her lawn but ussually a skunk has found its way under a home when that happens. She had told me she inspected the outside of her house and thought there was one possible place for a skunk to get in but she didn't think the opening was big enough. I arrived at the house and inspected the outside, the spot she was refering to was a small opening in her foundation that was mostly covered up by her ceder shake sidiing and in a very tight spot to inspect behind her AC unit. I layed down on the ground and was able to reach my arm back to it and fit  mmy hand up under the siding to feel the opening. I set 2 traps there aroung the AC unit and a camera looking directly at the opening. it took 2 days for the Skunk to come out from under the house. We caught it and left traps and a camera for an additional week to make sure nothing else was under the home before I sealed up the opening with concrete.