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Wildlife likely to seek shelter in homes during rain storm

Posted at 10:52 PM, Jun 07, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-07 23:27:10-04

It could be opossums, raccoons, rats and more that could become uninvited guests.

Local wildlife trappers are preparing to work 18-hour days in the days ahead, all because of this rain.

"What happens when it floods, the rocks are moved, it reveals a crawlspace underneath the building. An animal goes underneath there. Because of water, the animal can no longer get back out, now the animal dies underneath the home," says Sergio Morales Walker, a trapper with Buzz Away Wildlife.

They also seek shelter during storms.

We tagged along with him to a Boca business where they've been complaining about a dead animal smell.

"What we're going to do today, we're going underneath the crawlspace, determine if there's a dead animal and how the animal got in the crawlspace," he says.

Before he dives in, a check for entry points. Up high, where they sealed a couple months ago comes back secure.

"The screening that's inside soffit is really flywire. Anything can poke a hole through that. Chew through that. That's why we used what's called galvanized steel wire," he says.

And down low, a way in, as raccoons and opoussms prepare to breed.

"This reveals the perfect spot to go underneath for a crawlspace," he says, showing us a hole into the underbelly of the building.

So down we go.

"Something was definitely down here," he says. "I have a couple rat traps that have been set off. "There's about 5 of them. We had set Slim Jims right here(that are no gone)."

We find opossum tracks, "It's coming directly from that hole we noticed from the outside," he says.

Flood waters likely to blame.

"What more than likely happened was it pushed the rocks out of the way revealing a spot for the animal to get underneath here," he says. 

We didn't find any animals, but some definite signs.

Once the rain stops, the animals are likely to become more active in search of food.