Animal under the house

💬 Lounge
1

I've been hearing some animal rummaging around under the house. My guess is that it's a opossum, armadillo, or groundhog since I've spotted all 3 in the yard at one time or another over the past 6 months. I can't find it's entryway so it may have burrowed to get up under there. So what to do? I went and bought one of these traps:

Since I've bought a [ahem] "few" spare sensors lately, why not connect the trap to the smart house to where I don't have to go check the trap? So I used velcro and a twist-tie (as backup since the door is quick) to secure the magnet to the door and a couple more twist-ties to temporarily mount an Iris v1 contact to the top of the cage. I put chunks of apple up in the trap and slide it just inside the access door to under the house. A quick RM rule to let me know if it's sprung:

AnimalTrap
AnimalTrap.png942×224 5.95 KB

Hopefully in the next day or so Alexa will let me know to retrieve the trap and haul the beastie a long way from here.

2

You forgot to put a camera next to it!

3

I didn't forget. I have a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a PiCam in it and a small battery pack sitting right here on my desk... currently unused. I just didn't want to let them drag it off or provide a perfectly good USB cable for them to chew up. I'm not crawling up under the house to retrieve it!

4

image
image.jpg611×540 64.4 KB

5

Put it in a cardboard box... :smile:

6

Correction that needs to be made:

Which in of itself is a miracle. I've actually forgotten my son's name before. The sad part? He's named after me.

8 Likes
7

I have a sealed crawlspace plenum, solid masonry foundation, and continuous 24"x12" footers and a roof rat DID burrow under it. It took me a couple of days to finally get rid of it. Research said you have to put in a concrete or metal skirt penetrating 36" underground to stop burrowing rodents.

1 Like
8

I did have the Alexa go off last night saying that the "Animal trap was triggered at... ". I was already in bed asleep and thought I'd check it as soon as I got up. But the weather here is nasty right now with steady 20 MPH winds and gusts up to 60 driving the rain horizontal. It can wait!

9

Check it soon! Your poor neighbor is going to be worried because their kid didn’t come home last night. :cry:

1 Like
10

Unless their kid looks like an opossum (very possible around here), it's not going to be missed.

1 Like
11

I am very curious to find out what's down there. Next project for you : animal/human identifier. Don't keep the suspense from us!

I used the same trap for squirrels before. Caught 6 in one week with just peanut butter.

12

It's an opossum. He gets to stay under the house (in the trap) until the rain subsides.

13

Well, at least you don't have to worry about what's for dinner now.

14

Opossum is not on my list of things to eat while on my "diet" (a very bad 4-letter word). The opussum has ate better than I in the last 16 hours. At least he got a honey crisp apple. I've made do with just protein shakes and dinner will be "rabbit food" (salad). The opossum would be tastier!