Critters under the shed

We live in a rural area and the few houses on our street are surrounded by a dairy farm. We moved in earlier this year.
There is a shed at the back of the property and a barbed wire fence right behind it with a huge cow pasture. I assumed the damage was caused by groundhogs, but the other day a cow gave birth along the fence and it somehow got under the fence. The momma was making a ton of noise about it and I got the farmer over to help the calf back under the fence.
I told him I thought the damage was from groundhogs and he said it might be his dog chasing rabbits under there and trying to dig them out. So we placed a camera back there and sure enough it was his dogs digging.
We would like to put up a fence along the sides of the yard since his 2 dogs run through all the time and hunt squirrels in our yard but we just can't afford it.
I know some of you guys farm and ranch or are in pest control. Does anyone have a cheap and easy (I'm disabled) suggestion to keep critters from getting under there?

Here are a few pics:

I'd start with seeing if the neighbor would help since he knows his dog is part of the problem.

Ask him if he'd be willing to put shock collars on his dogs. Some folks around here do, and after a while the dog gets the message and won't stray beyond range if the batteries run out.

I thought of talking with the farmer about that, but he owns all the land around us and has operations on both ends of the street. When they drive down the street in a truck or quad the dog goes flying down the street or through our yard. Darn thing is as fast as a deer.
They have had this farm since the 90's and I doubt he would contain the dogs.
He did tell me they are afraid of loud noises and to blast a horn or bang pans together and it would scare them off, but the shed is on top of a hill and we can't even see the bottom half of it from the house.

How about a box of mothballs tossed under the shed then wrap the base of the shed with some 50-ft x 2-ft Gray Steel Chicken Wire Rolled Fencing with Mesh Size 2-in which costs $16 at Lowes. Some galvenized nails to secure the fence to the wood wall and some bent wire spikes to secure the base of the fence. The mothballs should keep almost any critter awy from the shed and the dogs then have no reason to try to dig under it.

You could buy some more of the chicken wire (couple hundred feet) to secure to the existing property line fence at the bottom to keep the rabbits out of your property???

Thanks for the idea, I'll pick up some mothballs next time I'm in town. The chicken wire sounds like a possibility but could the rabbits dig under it? Some areas are dug out pretty deep and so the ground level is uneven.

Taterman said:

Thanks for the idea, I pick up some mothballs next time I'm in town. The chicken wire sounds like a possibility but could the rabbits dig under it? Some areas are dug out pretty deep and so the ground level is uneven.

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Possibly place some crushed rock (gravel) around the base of the wire mesh at least around the shed. May be too big a project along the property fence line.

Growing up we had a little plot of land with your typical animals: horses, cows, ducks, chickens, rabbits, & pigs. The neighbor had what could only be described as a pack of chihuahuas that would occasionally escape and harass our livestock. Since the neighbor didn't seem to care that much we found a solution. 20 gauge loaded with rock salt... from my upstairs window it was a good 50-75 yards the center of the pasture, at that distance I had about 6-8 feet of spread. Just big enough to hit every single one of those little ankle biters!! They never came back

Install chicken wire and bury the edge outwards a foot, at least.

"I thought of talking with the farmer about that, but he owns all the land around us and has operations on both ends of the street. When they drive down the street in a truck or quad the dog goes flying down the street or through our yard.

They have had this farm since the 90's and I doubt he would contain the dogs."

None of that should make any difference. Either he's a good neighbor who's responsible for his dogs, or he's not.

I have a large tract that adjoins a few neighboring 5 acre residential properties, and if my animals were habitually trespassing on and damaging my neighbor's property, I'd want to know and I'd do whatever I could to stop it. Especially if my neighbor was disabled.

I think a call is in order to your County Sheriff's department, to ask a Deputy what the local laws are with regard to your situation. I'm not suggesting you sic the law on your neighbor, just that you get informed about local laws and customs. My county is a "fence in" county. I'm required by law to maintain my perimeter fence sufficiently to contain my animals on my property. Some counties are "fence out". Those counties require a property owner to maintain fences sufficient to keep the neighbor's animals out.

I won't go into the usual result of a loose dog running game on other people's property in this part of the world, except to say that it generally goes very badly for the dog.

epags said:

Possibly place some crushed rock (gravel) around the base of the wire mesh at least around the shed. May be too big a project along the prperty fence line.

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I was thinking the same thing. Either some gravel or some cement blocks or bricks. Just along the base of the shed on that side.

I deal with this all the time. (I'm a state certified Animal Damage Control Agent.)

MOTH BALLS DO NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My suggestion was going to be to do exactly what BearBiologist has shown.

Attach wire to the shed. Fold it outward & away from the shed. Cover with mulch, gravel, or whatever. Stake it down with landscape anchors/spikes. If appearances are a big concern,, dig a shallow trench to bury the wire in. Two-three inches deep, and as wide as the wire,, lay the wire, stake down, and cover.

This type of wire protection can be used along the normal fence line as well.

I think you misunderstood my suggestion. It was more see if he would help with some version of remediation of the issue at your shed.

I doubt he would, or could, do anything about the dogs but he may be willing to help protect from them digging.

Looks to me the dogs are not the root cause....they want under that shed bad, and that typically isn't where a squirrel is running to, unless you have ground squirrels.....ground hogs or chipmunks is my bet. Have you seen any of them around that area? My guess you may have burrows under that shed....I've killed countless Ghogs that have burrowed underneath my sheds/garages and along foundations.......have one now that has just burrowed into my septic sand mound....since I have to work until Friday....it lives until Saturday morning......coffee on upper deck along with a Ruger 22 pistol.

My Pit, Buster Roo, passed last year....since then.....critters have been brazen and taunt me......

I would string up some electric fence by where they are digging.

Phew, for a minute there, I thought it was going to be something like this!

Thanks for the replies guys, and I'm was hoping Contender would jump in. I will definitely add the chicken wire along the bottom and outwards. My neighbor across the street has leftover gravel from having her driveway re-done and she said I can take some. I'll add on top around the shed, hopefully that is harder to dig through than dirt. That is, if I can figure a way to get it up the hill there.

And Xusnordie, it's rabbits under there that they are trying to get at.

Rabbit is good eating you know....

the one problem is you are going to trap the Rabbit(s) under there.....

Solar powered electric fence. one wire about two inches from the ground, 12 inches from the building, one wire six inches up, six inches out from the building. They will find a better place to dig.

XUSNORDIE said:

Looks to me the dogs are not the root cause....they want under that shed bad, and that typically isn't where a squirrel is running to, unless you have ground squirrels.....ground hogs or chipmunks is my bet. Have you seen any of them around that area? My guess you may have burrows under that shed....I've killed countless Ghogs that have burrowed underneath my sheds/garages and along foundations.......have one now that has just burrowed into my septic sand mound....since I have to work until Friday....it lives until Saturday morning......coffee on upper deck along with a Ruger 22 pistol.

My Pit, Buster Roo, passed last year....since then.....critters have been brazen and taunt me......

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How could you live without you dog. My advice go to an animal shelter and find another pitty!