<p>To get rid of raccoons, you likely need a licensed person - because killing them is a crime. The standard procedure is to find the entry point and then they wire it up so they can get out but can’t get in. Depending on where the entry point is, they’ll sometimes put up a live trap. They are required to move the animal. Note: you’ll often catch skunks. My advice is to open the trap when the skunk is sleeping but most of all to keep any dogs away from the cage. I’ve found that skunks are pretty chill about being let out but you don’t want to get sprayed. </p>
<p>If there are kits, you need to make sure they can get out or you’ll have dead animals inside.</p>
<p>I lived in my present apartment for 6 years without ever seeing evidence of mice. Since I adopted my cat Ziggy 4 years ago, I’ve seen 3 of them, all dead (presumably Ziggy’s doing), and all probably field mice that came in from the cold during the winter. One was under the living room sofa mixed in with some of his toy mice, and I almost picked it up along with the toys until I realized that it had little hands and feet. The second one he killed and then shoved under the bathroom door as a present for me while I was in there. The third one I found, kind of squashed, on the floor under the litter box, right in the center. Maybe it ran under there to escape him, and then got crushed when he used the box.</p>
<p>My ex has two pet white mice who like to play with my ex’s 14-year old cat Purrl (so named by our son when she was a kitten, when he was 6; pun deliberate), and actually take rides on Purrl’s back, with no fear on their part and no aggression on Purrl’s. It’s true; I’ve seen photographic evidence!</p>
<p>Same goes for squirrels. We’ve had a recurrent problem with squirrels in our attic. It’s an extremely costly endeavor and we have yet to permanently solve the problem. I used to think they were cute. No more.</p>
<p>When I was pregnant, I swore there were critters in the townhouse attic. Could hear them scratching and clawing and pitter-pattering. DH and the rental complex thought I was a hysterical pregnant woman…until I insisted they put in a humane trap and they caught the little critter (and subsequent friends).</p>
<p>Reminds me of a (probably apocryphal) P.T. Barnum story: For a while, he did a sideshow display of a lion lying down with a lamb, the two of them completely friendly and peaceful. When asked whether it had been difficult to train them to do that, he said, “Not at all, no trouble whatsoever. And it only costs me one lamb a day.”</p>
<p>Mouse don’t smell when they die? I beg to differ.</p>
<p>Twice we have had critters die in our basement crawl space (I suspect they look for warmth/food and end up stuck somewhere.) Woowheee! No dinner guests for a week, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>And a dead groundhog? That will stink up your under-deck area for a whole summer. Don’t ask me how I know this.</p>
<p>I have used the live traps baited with peanut butter. Works every time.</p>
<p>And yes, I remove the corpses myself. Just throw out the whole trap, anyway. I am the mom. Dirty work doesn’t faze me.</p>
<p>I have two traps that I have been leaving in the dining room at night. Silly dog will not leave them alone when he’s around because, next to cheese, peanut butter is his world. No meeses caught yet. </p>
<p>However, tonight, as I was looking out the front door glass, something was looking back at me. The mouse - sitting there as if I was supposed to open the door for him. He scurried back and forth and then ran to the sliding glass doors checking them out. He either found his way out and wants back in OR there is a family of baby mice working their way into the house. My mom is visiting and offered to go out and stomp on it but I intervened. She’s 86 and I had visions of an emergency room visit as the result of chasing down the mouse in the dark. </p>
<p>I put a trap in the garage just in case there is a nest in there. </p>
<p>I really wish it weren’t so darned cute. It is definitely a baby field mouse. It looks like a toy.</p>
<p>Edited to add - and here come the roaches again.</p>
<p>You need a possum. Try leaving a garbage out and maybe one will crawl in to sleep. Then you’ll have the complete urban set.</p>
<p>(I once picked up a garbage bag, felt it was oddly heavy, turned it around and found myself eye to eye with a possum that had made a nest inside. Carried the bag out, put it down and she walked away.)</p>
<p>Back when we had the groundhog living under the deck (as opposed to dead under the deck) I tried using a HavaHeart live trap. Two mornings running I had to release live and very annoyed raccoons from the trap. </p>
<p>I could tell by the look in their eyes…they were saying, “Lady, that was a DUMB place to leave a piece of fruit.” :D</p>
<p>About a year after moving into our house, I kept hearing the sound of a cricket in our basement. I used up almost a whole can of bug spray on areas where I thought the critter was hiding. Eventually I discovered that the cricket was in fact a smoke detector in need of new batteries…</p>
<p>Peanut butter licked clean from the trap this morning in the garage - no mouse. I think it is too small to trigger the guillotine. No more sightings in the house, so the garage may be the source of the problem. I have lots of D’s horse stuff stored in the garage so there are plenty of cozy places to build a nest. I think I know how D will be spending part of her spring break.</p>
<p>The mouse just made another appearance - through the dining room and into the kitchen. It must have known I was talking about it. Trap in the kitchen now. I had not seen it in days. Definitely going out for different type of trap tomorrow.</p>
<p>Re the “cricket”–my father had the same problem a couple of years ago. When we were visiting him he pointed out the incessant cricket chirping…at what we realized were 15 second intervals…LOL.</p>
<p>Mommusic, I’m relieved to hear I’m not the only person to fall for the elusive 15-second cricket. Perhaps the smoke alarm companies and the exterminators are in cahoots. I wonder if exterminators always carry a few batteries in their trucks with which to quickly dispatch wily crickets.</p>
<p>Donna, I don’t have much experience with rodents, but I have watched my share of cartoons on TV. If there are two mice, you can easily tell them apart because one will be wearing a vest and the other will be wearing a bow tie.</p>
<p>Oh my…someone had to bring up the possums…a few yrs back , my husband carelessly left our golden retriever outside at night. He was up late painting a room with our then live-in foreign sponsored college student…they took a break and went upstairs to watch a movie.It was about 1am when I heard a single bark…it woke me up and I realized that our golden retriever was outside ( not a barker, really so I ws startled ) I went to the backdoor, and saw her, happy as could be , wagging her tail because between the door and her was a possum. I was sure she had killed it and brought it home …I screamed for my husband to come and get the thing so that our girls wouldn’t step on it’s carcass when heading out to the school bus early in the morning…he stepped over it to fetch a shovel in the garage…then when he tried to scoop it up and get rid of it, the damn thing suddenly stopped playing dead and jumped up and ran away !</p>
<p>It was one funny night, and the last time he " forgot " to bring Maddie back inside :D</p>