Turtle living in my enclosed yard
So we got hit hard by Hurricane Ida like 2 1/2 years ago. While the house was under construction/repair one of the contractors noticed a turtle in the yard.
Over the next year or two we'd see this turtle from time to time. I didn't think much of it and just left the turtle to do their own turtle thing.
When we moved home we were still seeing the turtle from time to time, usually in the mornings. Then we were having some bug issues so I wanted to spray for bugs around the house and noticed the label mentioned danger to reptiles. So I waited for clear weather, checked to make sure nothing was on the horizon, and sprayed the bricks but didn't put any on the ground level in case the turtle would walk through it at some point.
Weather was wrong, about an hour or two after spraying, it rained, then I see the turtle on my dog cam walking through the area. A few days later there was a bad smell and I thought I'd killed the turtle. I felt so bad, I'd never asked for the turtle, but I certainly didn't want to hurt the turtle either. If it's out when my dogs go out it just ignores them and they ignored it, so I didn't see any reason to bother it.
Well just the other day, almost 6-7 months since we saw the turtle and after a brutally hot summer, all of a sudden there it is. Sure looks like the same turtle, I'd imagine the odds of another turtle getting into the yard is pretty low, especially this big. Probably a good foot long.
So now that the turtle seems to be alive, and now that we know the turtle is there and ok, is there anything we should do for this little fella? The yard is completely enclosed, I'm fairly certain it must have made it into the yard when the fences were all blown down before they got repaired.
This picture is from today, we've had a metric ton of rain the last 48 hours and I saw him out there under a tree in a puddle. He? (don't know the sex) appears to be living under my shed. There's a few fruit trees so occasionally a fallen fruit out there, but other than that I'm not sure what it's living off of all this time.
I guess ultimately I just want it to live and do it's thing but want to be able to do things like treat for bugs and pests in the yard without hurting it or anything. So figured I'd look to see if there was a turtle sub and there was so thought someone here might have some input.
Definitely seems to be moving a lot slower than the last time we saw it. It used to move pretty quick for what I would think a turtle is capable of. Now that we're seeing it again we can walk right up to it with it barely trying to move. So I guess if there's anything I can do to help it I'd like to try, or if I should let it be I guess I'll do that.
Just feel bad for it, didn't ask for it but somehow it's here. Can't leave gates open or my dogs would get out, so not really sure what to do.
Here's the pic
