How to remove a coyote from under a shed or porch

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Animals living underneath your shed or porch are an absolute nightmare. Firstly, they have a nasty habit of getting stuck in there, and when they get stuck in there, they die in there. Some of them even crawl in there to die.



When they're not dying in there, they're making a noise/smell/fuss, and it's not only annoying you and keeping you from watching your favourite TV programs in the evening. The smell is often unbearable too, and that's before you think about what happens when the animal does die in there. The smell of a dead animal can be the thing that often tips homeowners over the edge, urging them to hire the professionals in, instead of solving the problem with a DIY job, closely following direct instructions that you read on the internet.

In hot weather, coyotes are urged under your shed or porch because they can't find anywhere else to seek shelter from the scorching rays of the sun. The temperature will be much cooler down there, and there's a good chance the space will be damp too.

In the winter, coyotes will seek refuge in any spot that they can. Coyotes will live in a den, and when they can't find a den in spots such as rock bluffs, banks, and canyons, the holes left behind by other animal species will do, and your porch isn't actually that different from what another wild critter would create. It's slightly well structured, admittedly, but you can see the similarities, and also why the coyote would want to make a home under there in the first place.

Another, final reason why coyotes would want to make a home underneath your porch or shed is because they are raising a small family. They will seek refuge, again, in any spot that they can find that looks relatively sheltered and protected. This actually leads us to our first method of coyote removal …

Wait It Out
You could just wait it out. More often than not, a coyote will only spend a small period of time in the den with her youngsters, the entire family moving on to ensure their safety and survival before long. You probably won't need to wait long before the coyote family moves on of it's own accord, saving you a truck load of time, hassle, and effort.

When the family have gone, you will then need to seal and secure the space the creature once inhabited. If you don't, you run the risk of the same coyote coming back, or even other coyotes. you can also expect other wild critters to join the party before long. These creatures leave urine, strong scents, and pheromones behind (especially rats), and these often encourage and attract other animals that you would want in your home even less.

There are disease threats to worry about with the common coyote, and that's just one reason why you wouldn't want to “wait it out”. On top of this, although coyotes are very shy of humans, usually preferring to run and hide, rather than stay and fight, they are getting braver and braver. This is not by choice, of course, but out of necessity. Humans are cutting down and building over the natural spaces these creatures would once have made their home in. In order to survive, they are having to pick out of what is left, which isn't a lot. If it meant the survival of your family, wouldn't you do whatever it took?

Trap and Release
You could always look at humane live cage traps to deal with the coyote that is living under you shed or porch, but this comes with its fair share of things to think about. You will need to educate yourself on the law in your local area. The laws differ greatly from state to state, and they are rather strict with certain wild animal species.

Trapping a coyote isn't easy, and that's even more so the case when you have a family of coyotes to deal with. In the time frame it takes you to trap just one creature, the entire family of coyotes could have moved on of their own accord, meaning that your time and your money (buying the traps) will have been for nothing.

If you do manage to successfully trap a coyote, you then have the worry of what to do with it next. Again, just as there are laws with trapping these wild animals, there are also laws surrounding the release of them too. These laws and regulations aside, it is actually not that humane to just trap an animal and then release it somewhere else. It won't have any idea where it is, or how to find food/water/shelter. It could easily come up against a predator it won't be used to, especially if the animal (any animal) has spent quite a lot of its life in areas inhabited with many humans. A trapped-and-released coyote is vulnerable, and also likely to be incredibly stress. Stress has the ability to render a human being absolutely useless when it hits hard, so just imagine the effect it could have on a smaller animal. I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate it if someone caught you in a cage and then released you in a place you hadn't ever been before.

Hiring a Pro
In many cases, hiring a professional to get rid of a coyote or family of coyotes is the best method. These animals can be dangerous, not just in terms of teeth and sharp claws, but in also when looking into the diseases that the animal can both carry and transmit. You certainly wouldn't want to get too close to them, and definitely not when parents are going to do everything in their power to protect the youngsters they have in the den.

That aside, those laws and regulations must not be forgotten about, and you must think about safety at all times. This means your own safety, as well as the safety of other animals, your pets, kids, other people, etc. That's not all; you'll also need to look at how you can prevent the problem of the cunning coyote from coming back, and this is something you'll need more than just a little internet knowledge of. By the time you've spent all the money on repellents, traps, poisons, and electronic noise or light machines, you'll probably find it would have been cheaper to just hire the professional in the first place. Oh, and before you mention repellents, they very rarely work. If they did, homeowners wouldn't *still* have wild animal problems … They do. A lot.

For more information, you may want to read How to get rid of coyotes or click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How To Guide: Who should I hire? - What questions to ask, to look for, who NOT to hire.
How To Guide: do it yourself! - Advice on saving money by doing wildlife removal yourself.
Guide: How much does wildlife removal cost? - Analysis of wildlife control prices.
Animals in the attic - read about the common species.
Noises in the attic - how to identify critters by their sounds.