I don't feel like getting out all the electric fence paraphernalia for a very small corn plot that I have. Do you think the raccoons would leave my corn alone if I were to put hot sauce on the outside leaves of the ears?
hot sauce and raccoons
Doubt it would affect a coon, just make a spicier food. Doubt feeding them well on better food would distract a coon either, but a live trap and a can of say spam, might make them visit the trap first...
Powdered chile (hot! cayenne!) might be easier to manage than hot sauce. Buy in bulk at the health food store or an indian market. How effective it will be sorta depends on what the coons other food options are - can they move on to something not unpleasant, or do they need to eat whatever they can?
Just remember the pepper is there when you go to harvest.
Good luck. As my corn was just ripening, I sprayed each and every ear with a product called Liquid Fence, made with rotten eggs, and then liberally dusted the ears with lots of cayenne powder. The liquid fence has been successful in keeping deer off my sunflowers but even with both products, applied more than once on the corn, the raccoons came every night unti they completely cleaned me out. They got about 75% of my corn.
Then last week, they and the deer and squirrels emptied a peach tree that had been ripening all summer.
Like I said, good luck!
Oh Rose how awful. As for me I think the coons have moved on to some one else's corn patch. However, the crows have moved in because I think part of the corn was exposed by the coons and they started eating the ears and loved it. I now have ears on the stalks that have had every kernel picked off. I put some reflective tape with eyes around and through the corn patch, but I think it won't work that well now that they've had a taste. I've been running out and picking close to ripe or under ripe corn just so that I can have a little. Next year I'm pulling my fencer out. However, I just hope that the two crows that have learned how to eat my corn die over the winter or go somewhere else. How do I keep crows out when they've learned a new skill?!?
It's so hard to be a farmer isn't it? For me, the grasshoppers are cleaning out any green stalk or stick they see pop out of the ground. DH says why don't we just buy from the store like normal people do. Silly man.
BTW Helen, I grew up in Brandon and have family in Springfield. Give Vermont a hug for me.
Mary, Brandon is only about 40 minutes from me. They have the most wonderful French restaurant there. Expensive though. I live in Charlotte. I know what your DH is saying, but I'd be lost without having a garden and working in it. Doesn't whatever food you get taste so much better than store bought?
Quoting:
Doesn't whatever food you get taste so much better than store bought?
When you get it. Birds, grasshoppers, moles,......maybe a bigger garden with a section sacrified to The Elements. But there's always zucchini or some other squash that is a star in the garden.
No French restaurants in the '50's/'60's when I grew up there, just The Brandon Inn, most exquisite we had. :~)
Nice chatting.
I used to think raccoons were cute. Arghhhhhh! Not anymore! They ate all the peaches off my tree that I was watching to ripen just in time for my granddaughters' visit. And now they've moved on to our fish pond. Came home from our vacation and found at least 20 large catfish skeletons all along the shore. They must have had a PARTY while we were gone. My neighbor says to 'shoot them'...she's so disgusted...they got one of her prized watermelons. The gloves are off in our neighborhood.
Good luck and have at it. Killing one raccoon today is like killing a dozen next year. They multiply!!!!