The crawl space beneath your house offers the perfect amount of protection, allowing animals such as squirrels, mice, rats, and raccoons to nest. However, this is a serious problem because they can gain access to other parts of your house, creating significant damage as they travel through the air ducts, pipes, and on top of electrical wiring. If your home has a crawl space, it’s important to have it inspected by the wildlife experts at Critter Control® of Tampa to make sure it’s not left vulnerable to potential animal infestations.
What is a Crawl Space?
A crawl space is a hollow area between the ground and the floor of the home that is built typically 1-3 feet high, providing protection from damage in areas susceptible to lots of rain. Crawl Spaces keep the house lifted off of the ground, allowing air to circulate through the home and offers easy access to the ductwork, plumbing, air conditioning, heater, electrical wiring, etc., needing installation or repairs.
How to Prevent Animal Activity
Animals can gain access into crawl spaces through gaps, cracks, and other small areas. The best way to keep pests from getting into your crawl space is by sealing off any openings. You can do this by using a filler or plastic or concrete liners. While applying a filler is more labor intensive, it allows the small holes to be closed, helping to reduce excess moisture, lowering the chances of your crawl space developing mold or mildew, and preventing pests, including wood-eating organisms from being attracted to your home.
Some of the things you can do to lessen the amount of moisture that collects under your crawl space include:
- Applying a vapor barrier directly to the floor to keep groundwater from accumulating on wood
- Using encapsulation to seal the ground, supporting the bottom of the house with a high-density liner
- Installing ventilators to assist with the opening and closing of vents based on the temperature
- Cutting any grass, hedges, or weeds near the crawl space that can obtain moisture and attract wildlife
How We Can Help
While the best animal control method is preventative maintenance, unfortunately, animal infestations occur before homeowners can stop them from happening in the first place. If you have nuisance pests living in your crawl space, contact the professionals at Critter Control® of Tampa. We will safely and humanely trap and remove the animals, seal off all entry points, and repair any damages created by the critters. Call today to get a free estimate.
