How to discourage raccoons ?

OK -- one of my TWO watermelons that I've been able to grow and have been nurturing had bite marks on it one morning this past week. I put some ziplock bags over them. I cut a little hole to let moisture escape. One of them had a few more bite marks on it...apparently the bag got 'UNziplocked".

This morning some of my LARGEST and still green tomatoes were picked off -- chewed on and then set neatly in an empty pot that I have out by the garden. I'm suspecting raccoons.

I live on 10 acres and there are houses / neighbors nearby but we're NOT like a regular neighborhood ...everybody has anywhere from 5-15acres....so we're kinda' spread out...with lots of trees between us. What do you do to keep out the wildlife -- aside from putting a caged all around the garden --??--

I thought of putting up some wire with some cow bells on it so if they encounter the wire the noise might scare them off --??--- I have NO IDEA if this would even work ???

SUGGESTIONS are appreciated.

Many thanks,
Jann

I see the squirrels in my neighborhood carrying green tomatoes up our trees. We have raccoons, possums, armadillos, and squirrels. The raccoons prefer our water lillies, and the neighbors' cat food. We have a lake house with big pecan trees. The squirrels like to chew the end off the green pecans and then throw them on the ground...uneaten.

You can run an electric fence around your garden. Run one wire about 3 inchs off the ground and another about a food off for best results. Fende charger costs about $50 to $75. Don't know what wire costs these days. For posts you can use PVC pipe and all you have to do is take electrical tape and tape the wire to it. Used to run miles of fence like this when I was grazing cattle. I use predator lights on my cantalope bed. Little light with a solar panel to charge it. Attachs to a post about 2 feet off the ground. Blinks a little red beam. Makes the small fries think there is a bigger varmint lurking in the wings. Friend uses them to protect large brown rabbits in an open pen from coyotes and coons. Got some on poles about ten feet tall to keep the owls away. Said they haven't lost a rabbit in two years. So far haven't bothered by cantalopes.

Thanks Jim.... some interesting ideas to consider.

Jann

Jann,
We don't have racoons but we have 'possums and rabbits. We got some Ro-Pel from Walmart. It is a granular rodent repellent that you sprinkle around whatever you want to protect, making a perimeter that the rodents don't want to cross. It has worked for us--the rabbits are staying out of the vegetable garden, the skunks are staying away from the chicken coop, and the 'possum moved out from under the workshop! I think it would work for coons, too, but read the label before you invest.

Don't know what all it will work on but Skunks can't stand moth balls. My wife use to put a couple in her pot plants when we had cats. Keeps them scattered under the carport to keep snakes away. A friend put them behind bushy shrubs to keep wasps from building. Wonder if they would work around the perimeter of the garden.

I read somewhere to put out a radio on an all talk station and that will scare away racoons. I don't know if it works but I plan on trying it this year... They knocked down all my corn last year and maybe took one bite out of an ear till they moved onto the next one... boy was I MADDDD!!!!

I did the radio thing last year and the coons didn't get my corn.