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Posted by DL on June 13, 2005, 8:55 am
> Hi,
>
> Hope someone can help.
>
> I have a dead raccoon trapped under my deck. Problem is that it is in a
> location I can't reach unless I tear the deck apart. I have no problem
> letting it decompose naturally but the stench is bad and I am worried
> about
> disease.
>
> I can see it through the cracks in the deck and can pour liquid or powder
> (maybe) on the carcass.
>
> Any suggestions as to what I can do would be greatly appreciated as I am
> trying to avoid tearing
> apart the deck.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Alan
>
>
Couple of thougts come to mind.
1. I would assume rigimortis has set in so moving the body as a whole
shouldn't be a problem. Is there a way to get rope around the animal and
drag it out from underneath the deck. I would take a long pole and attach
rope to the end of it which would allow you to hook and drag the animal out.
2. If access is truly an issue from underneath, and it was my deck, (I have
a deck made of IPE using the ipe-clips hidden mounting system so gaining
access under the deck would be a similarly tough problem), I would cut out
one or two (depending on the size of the animal) joist width (16" wide)
section(s) of decking directly above the raccoon so that you can get it out
of there. I would find where the joists are and mark the lines along the
center of the joists. Cut out the section(s) of decking to gain access to
the raccoon. I would use my Fein Multimaster as it has a saw attachment
that allows straight forward cuts with a very thin kerf so that the decking
could easily be screwed back in place using the Trimstar screws. Depending
on how you cut the decking out, you might have to put in a replacement
section of decking. Also, depending on how your deck was built, you could
use nails or regular decking screws.
While it would break the clean look of the deck, I would much rather have
that than the smell, disease, and infestation of rodents and other animals
that will naturally come. This would also allow you to properly treat the
area where the raccoon has been as I am sure it has been there a while.
Remember to seal all access point to the underside of the deck so this
doesn't happen in the future.
Hope these ideas help.
David
P.S. I plan to redesign the way my deck is sealed off when I complete the
steps to make every effort to prevent something like this from happening in
the future... Thanks as it was not something I had put much thought into.
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