Burrow Proofing for Skunks, Groundhogs, Fox, Opossum (and others)
Fox entry to den under shed
Maybe you’re familiar with seeing holes such as this going under a your deck, shed, porch, etc. Sometimes we hear about customers putting some rocks and stones in front of the hole, and then tomorrow the hole has opened up right next to all that. Maybe your deck is actually about 4 inches above the ground and you don’t even need to see the digging underneath, and you’re just smelling a skunk all the time. Its more common than you would think. Set up a camera looking at the space under your structure and see what kinds of videos or pictures it captures overnight. You’ll be surprised.
One of the most common things we deal with are animals living under a structure. Usually it is a deck, porch, house add on, shed, or garage. Anything without a deep foundation can be used by burrowing species. And the most common animals we deal with living underneath them are skunks and groundhogs, but that could also be fox, opossum, or sometimes raccoon (although raccoons are typically more transient with these locations, meaning they just pass through but aren’t living there). Having a skunk spray repeatedly or smelling a dead animal and becoming infested with flies in the area are common calls we get when we look to install burrow fencing as a permanent solution. Often times we will also get word of a pesky groundhog that is totally destroying a garden because they see it as a big buffet and will eat everything there. When they have a location such as a shed or a deck they can set up home base at that is close to their food source, they will look to stay there as long as possible. Eliminating the access to the location they are living underneath greatly reduces this kind of repeated activity in a garden is extremely helpful in keeping new ones from moving in.
Installation in progress for burrow proof fencing for skunks living under deck
How do we do it?
To successfully keep animals from digging underneath a structure, the right materials and methods are crucial. We see chicken wire underneath these areas pretty commonly when we show up that’s been pushed and ripped through because a determined animal realized it could get through it. We use heavy guage PVC coated wire (stainless steel could also be an option, there are pro’s and cons to both). 1/2” x 1/2” welded wire is our preferred opening size, as that eliminates anything from the size of a chipmunk and larger to get through. If doing this to try and stop mice, you would need to use 1/4” opening sizes.
There are 2 steps to the process. We have to
1. Get the animals out
2. Install the burrow fence.
Both of these kind of happen at the same time. There are two ways to get the animals out: we can either trap them or evict them with a 1-way door. Trapping to remove can be done before, during, or after the process (assuming we leave a spot open where they can enter and exit so our traps can be found). We typically use the one way door method though. It allows the animals to evict themselves and go find a new home. It is CRUCIAL to make sure we are not doing this during the birthing months. Forcefully evicting an adult who has given birth underneath will not allow the young to leave if done before they are of a certain age, and will die and stink. That is not only inhumane, but nasty. You would have to open up the burrow fencing, granted there is room to crawl underneath, or open it up from the top which can mean removing deck boards, floor boards if under a porch, removing floor boards from a shed, etc.
When using the one way door method, we install all of the burrow fencing at one time, and leave a one way door mounted to the spot(s) that was currently being used. The animal then doesn’t have to go and find the exit point, it will automatically go there because that is the spot it knows already. Animals are creatures of habit and that’s typically how they operate. That one way door needs to be left on for proper amount of time to allow whatever is underneath to leave (we vary this time between 4 days and 2 weeks based on time of year, species, and weather). The worst thing you could do is remove it too quickly and close up when the animal hasn’t actually left yet. Sometimes well use video monitoring to ensure the animals have left, but it isn’t necessary because most of the animals were dealing with under these areas aren’t storing food so they have to go out and eat. If the animal hibernates, such as groundhogs, we cannot expect them to leave during the winter as they will be dormant from about November - March).
Animals WILL attempt to test the burrow fence. Think about if you locked yourself out of your house, what would you do? Most likely you would try and get back in another way. That’s what the animals will do, and what brings me to my last point.
You have to “L” bend back the material you install or else a determined groundhog, skunk, or fox will find the bottom of the fencing. This is why so many cheap fixes on this type of situation fail. When an animal who is digging down feels the movement of the material, it sees it as a weakness and will continue digging. I’ve seen groundhogs go straight down over 2 feet just to get around a material. If you “L” the material backwards when installing it, it will hit a bottom and physically cannot continue to dig down. An animal isn’t going to start then digging away from the structure to get under the structure, it just doesn’t make sense. Although it is possible for a groundhog or fox to start a tunnel somewhere past the material and build a tunnel under it, I’ve never seen it happen because they can’t make they connection that starting the hole in one location will bypass our product and get back underneath.
What we typically see is once an eviction is complete, there may be a night or two of digging (or day if you’re a groundhog, who is active diurnally). Once they realize they cannot get back in, they’ll give up trying and you’ll stop seeing the attempts.
Installed burrow proof fencing under part of home with no foundation for groundhogs underneath house
Installed burrow proof fencing during skunk eviction under deck. When dealing with grass along areas we have to dig, removing the top layer of grass and roots before digging is important and we would place the grass back on the top layer so it can continue growing where it was.