I just bought a manufactured home in Florida. Now I have stray cats under my house. I have a small dog, it drives her nuts! You can hear the bricks move; it sounds like someone is breaking in. I closed some spaces where it had holes under my home. It worked for awhile, but they are back again two nights in a row. What can I do? Can they make their way into my house? This is my concern.
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if you have an issue with stray cats going under your home you may need to get some sort of a trap in order to catch them and remove them from the area. I would try contacting one of the animal rescue units in your area. There are a lot of people now who will rescue animals and find them a good home. Here are some places to call to assist you in rescuing these animals and finding them a new home.
www.orangecountyanimalservicesfl.../
They should be able to direct you to a person in your area. Once the cats have been removed you will need to find a person to come and help you close off the areas around the home that will allow the animals to get back in.
You can try to do this yourself but it sounds like it did not work the first time. I think that adding some wire mesh to the open areas around your home will stop the animals from getting back in. You can also talk with the people if they come out to rescue the cats about what they would suggest that you do. They are always very helpful. You will need to seal off the areas that the animals get in so that you don't have issue again.
Most likely there is no way for the cats or other animals to get inside your house but these are 'wild' cats so do not go anywhere near them.
You say you hear 'bricks' moving at night so there may be some other type of critter making their home under your home also.
Someone should have checked the underside of your mobile home before you purchased it and you should try to find out, although belated, if there is anything you can do to have someone do these repairs for you as it should have been mentioned in your contract.
There may be rats also but just cats can be infected with fleas and other problems.
If you do not have someone that is knowledgeable in taking care of this type of problem you will need to hire someone to take care of these repairs and remove the cats/varmints at the same time.
After that work is done you will have to have full skirting installed around your entire house.
All of this will be expensive but this problem will not go away until this work is done.
You should be able to find a qualified person to do this work by either going to a mobile home supply store and asking them for references of people who do this or Google - mobile home repairs with your zip code.
First off, sorry you have this problem. Are you sure they are cats and not maybe raccoons or some other critters? You say you hear bricks moved...is it real bricks or cement blocks? Are they cemented together or stacked dry? Are they laid solid or are there spaced gaps? There are many questions about the foundation under your home, that you need to let us know the answers to before we can offer usable solutions.
Hi, I have the bricks dry stacked, there are gaps that i closed as best as i could.I'm unsure if it is cat or something else, they are making there way in from the spots that are open.Spoke with management its not thier first complaint,animal control does nothing or traps, they caught other things and not cats.Its been going on now for three nights.It starts at 8P and continues to 12A I keeping kicking my walls eventually whatever it is goes away.It drives my dog nuts! My worry is it will make its way in the house? Someone told me about putting granules around my house they smell it then go away.
Thank-you for responding
You say the bricks are dry stacked, so are the noises of bricks being moved, holes or gaps being opened up by whatever the critters are? Are sections of the brick walls being pushed over? The only way to really keep out animals from under your home, is to evict the animals and put the bricks COMPLETELY around the perimeter with NO gaps, using either cement OR construction adhesive that comes in big tubes like caulk and you need to use a caulking gun the same size as the tubes you get. If you need to leave an access to the underside, you can frame up a smallish wooden door that's hinged on one side and a bolted latch on the other. That should keep out critters, but allow someone to get under the home for repairs. Are you able to easily crawl around under the home? If not, you will have to get someone to do it for you -either a friend or hire someone. What ever the case may be, completely shutting it up tight under the home is the only way to keep from having a problem with any animal being able to get underneath. Closed in dark spots are just too enticing for an animal looking for a protected hide-away. Good luck and report back with the cure.
Sorry for your troubles, you could try and call animal control in your city. They can come out and advise you on how to proceed on the visitors under your home. If animal control is not available, you should contact a professional . It sounds like it may be more that cats involved. This needs to be handled as soon as you are able. Animals can cause damage, carry diseases
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