One for the Vets

Why did a raccoon go into my garden shed, extract a closed, plastic tub or Preen, take it outside, chew several holes in it, and spew it all over a section of my yard? I'm assuming it was a raccoon. Something with teeth anyway.

Scott

It must have smelled interesting, and it probably was raccoons. The darn things get into our garbage cans often enough that we constantly keep bungie cords on them to keep the lids tight so the coons won't spread garbage all over the yard. Apparently they also like the smell of bad milk because when they do get into the garbage they chew up the old milk cartons and/or jugs.

No DVM after my name ao I won't answer your question but... "Why do birds fly and babies cry"? ;)

I can't offer a better explanation than did hmstyl.
You're up, Kevin.

Speaking of raccoons and garbage cans, I have a rather funny story to relay. Last week as I was just about to leave for work (5AM--still dark), I heard a lot of fumbling going on outside. I looked out and could see the garbage can--still with the lid on it--shaking. As it just so happened, my son's bb gun was propped up near the door, so I grabbed it, went out on the porch, and shot the garbage can. The shaking stopped. I shot the can again, and the lid popped up on the top of a raccoon head. We looked at each other a moment until I shot the can a third time, at which point the raccoon had seen enough, scurried out of the can with great effort and went running off. I thought I would die laughing. It was like out of a cartoon.

Scott

It would have been fun to have been eye to eye with a raccoon looking like Oscar from Sesame Street complete with a lid on his head. We had a youngun get into one of our garbage cans right after garbage day when it was empty. The cans they provide us with are huge and cavernous. He must have crawled up onto the rain barrel and took a dive and couldn't get out. I went to go toss garbage in there and there it was down at the bottom all angry at me. I hadn't any clue there was anything down there so I was somewhat startled because I had just tossed a bag of garbage on top of it which fortunately was nothing that would have knocked it out. I flipped the lid open and tipped the can over so it could walk out. It took off and that was the last I saw of it. Cute little thing but so destructive.

As a veterinarian I shall represent the Raccoon. First of all they are very intellegent creatures that I am convinced have thoughts of logic, emotion, and most importantly curiosity. They like us get caught often in that curosity and are quite embarassed. I also feel the movie "the great outdoors" captures their thinking quite astutely. Raccoons enjoy a break-in as much as I enjoy a good movie that makes me laugh, cry, or relate personally to the story. They understand what a thing is by throwing, dropping or breaking it. Sound is a key part of their identification system. Unlike dogs who chew raccoons break to ID. Definatly smell is most encouraging because they don't destroy squirrel stashes, or other wild herbivores houses. They definately focus on human items because it is the video game for them to enjoy, the destruction to log all of those facinating moments in the coon psyche. If Freud were a raccoon he would have had little to understand through family issues, but rather the moments of shame from a too big of leap as a young one into that can of immesurable odor. Or better the moment of a stolen treasure from a Stellars Jay, Raven, or other equally intellegent thief.

I would guess the vehicle used to deliver the slow release of preen is an aromatic delight to the masked beast. Some horse people around here use Golden Malrin(sp.?), an insecticide you put out for flies to eat, as raccoon poison. They eat it up. Same for Temec(sp.? again), which is another product used in the nursery business. They eat it up and die instantly.

Some years ago, some genius in my town, decided that it would be good to bury the garbage cans in the ground. You simply put your garbage in a plastic bag, then carried it out and put it in a lidded garbage can with a pedal operated lid at ground level.
Unfortunately, in our high mountain town, there are a lot of skunks. Getting a skunk out of a sunken garbage can is a very difficult problem and one the local police began to have to face regularly.
We know have wheelable above ground garbage cans like everyone else.

So, then, the raccoon likely played with it as a toy, and probably didn't confuse it as food? That makes the most sense. For the most part, I don't use chemicals in my garden. I had bought the Preen four or five years ago and then never mustered the enthusiasm to use it. So, there it sat in the shed gathering whatever odors for all those years, but I couldn't imagine any odor it might have gathered that would make it smell like food. I hope the little rascal didn't eat any of it, but he didn't die instantly if he did. No bodies.

I was also wondering if the masked devil wasn't sending me a message that that section of the garden needed a little weeding!

Scott

Only if he ate it Scott and then fertilized the area 2 days later. LOL

I thought racoon's greatest sense was touch?

I honestly don't know which sense is dominate, but they use every sense to evaluate and identify with their level of intellegence.