Raccoons and so on

Anybody has any suggestions how to fight raccoons and all other critters when they invade our gardens?

If you have a fenced yard, perhaps a dog would help to discourage the creatures from entering their territory? Leave no bird or outdoor pet food to entice them. Live traps and a relocation program?

I'm afraid i can offer no advise about raccoons, having never had to deal with that particular issue. However, i did have a HUGE mole problem this past summer. Some may cringe to read this, but my goal was not to trap and release, but rather to eliminate. I tried poison pellets, which didn't work for me. I ended up using these sort of "bomb" sticks that you light up and stuff in the holes. After about three or perhaps four weeks of daily treatments, the activity ceased in the area i was treating.

I will add that i tend to allow them to burrow around the tree line and in the rear field. It's when they start creeping up to the main lawn and garden that i feel the need to get rid of them.

I'm not sure if it's necessary to treat this time of year. I'm sure i'll be back at it in the Spring.

Hope this helps some ...

Cheers!

Looks like this is illegal to relocate raccons in WA. Live cages then become too "expensive" when you need to get rid of animal, companies that can come, take raccoon in cage and kill, charge $90-190 for one raccoon.

My DH does not like big dogs but small dogs are in a danger from raccons themself.

Any poisoning ideas?

No, a small dog would not be a good idea in your case. Did you see this via King Co Human Society?
"“If you are experiencing problems with skunks, raccoons, possums, squirrels, or other small wildlife, there are steps you can take to discourage them. Make sure you are not leaving pet food or water outside, or food scraps in your compost, and make sure the lids on your garbage cans are secure at all times. You can generously douse problem areas with white vinegar or cayenne pepper as a sensory deterrent. Trim tree branches to eliminate easy access to roofs and other trees. Bright light and loud music may also encourage the animal to leave. (neighbors might not go for that too well) If, after taking these precautions you still have a problem, you may need to trap the animal and remove it. Some local rental companies rent live animal traps at reasonable rates; they can be found in the yellow pages of your local telephone directory. The Department of Fish and Wildlife also works with a select group of individuals who are authorized to trap certain nuisance animals for a fee. Call the nearest regional office for a list of those in your area.”

Raccoon - Dark Meat
'Possum - White Meat

From a transplanted Southerner :-)

Oh, "Was there, read this". I actually spent already several hundred as a fee to those "select group of ...". They have a fee to come and set cages (for month), then fee to come and get raccoon (if it was caught), to resque cat (if stupid some appeared in cage), for squerel, rat and so on. So, if there are a lot of raccoons, neigbour's cats and so on, then i can just continue to work only for this fee.

Looking for some other ideas, tried pepper, but my garden is big and pepper helps a little bit till next rain.
Will try vinegar. Thanks

Hey, johnsonjrbm, do you need them for food? I can catch and supply (you pick up). Lol

Actually, last one did not look for any food in compost but was digging edges of lawn, strawberry beds and so on.

Bummer briergarden- Several hundred already spent... I should change careers and become a racoon transportation specialist.

"Dark meat, white meat" LOL johnsonjrbm! I don't know why, we're on the fringe of wilderness here, and yet in 16 years have only seen ONE racoon. Maybe the other larger wildlife eats them?

Estreya, I can commiserate on your mole problem. They are rapidly taking over here in many areas of the yard and woods. The mole poison shaped like worms -Talpirid- is supposed to be effective but is very expensive; too expensive for me to justify its use, so I just *itch about the little burrowing fiends. : (

If racoons ate moles, I'd be over at briergarden's with a few cages pronto!

ROFL!!!

:)

Thanks for the raccoon offer, but if you really want to eat a 'coon or a 'possum, it's best to catch it live and feed it for several days to clean out its system. The only upside to raccoons is that they do eat slugs. If someone could breed a variety that ate slugs exclusively, I might even overcome a little of my dislike of GMO's.

If you don't want to go to the bother of catching raccoons, Golden Harvest Organics has a webpage with deterrent suggestions. I haven't used any of them yet, but they look interesting...

ghorganics.com

As for the moles - I'm trying to figure out what to do with them, too. In the deep south we never had a problem with moles because we had plenty of snakes, poisonous and otherwise. Anything that digs a tunnel down there has built a serpent's expressway to the diner.

This message was edited Dec 8, 2006 5:08 PM

Estreya, tell me more about the "bombs" used for moles...the moles have been going crazy in our yard for the past 3 months and we're at wit's end. Can't use poisons since the dogs are in the yard.

One imagines that moles would make interesting kabobs. :)

Tiffanya -

Well, it's all rather gruesome and testicular and disturbingly satisfying. These are essentially little dynamite sticks that you light up and stuff into the mole holes. I never realized i was capable of such blood-lust until i was awakening to upwards of a dozen new mole mounds every morning. Now, not only am i guilt-free as i light the fuse, but i also derive great satisfaction from yelling, "Die, Suckers, die!" just before i gas them.

One great advantage of these sticks is that the mounds can be covered up straight away, so you're not only treating the problem, but also managing the cosmetic issues at the same time. I will say that it took a few weeks of daily treatments before all of my mole activity ceased (in the areas i was treating, that is). Unfortunately, they're still alive and well and burrowing in the back woods and the general area around the tree line. I'm sure they'll have organized another assault come Spring, and i'll have to become "Killer Me" once again.

I'm not certain why the Home Depot web site doesn't show this product, since i've purchased them there, as well as at my local nursery. Although you can probably find them anywhere, information about the product can be found here: http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com
/giantdestroyer.htm
(Eliminate the paragraph space to get the link to work. For some reason, it won't work when i try to post the whole link at once.)

Hope this helps!

This message was edited Dec 9, 2006 6:43 PM

This message was edited Dec 9, 2006 6:44 PM

This message was edited Dec 9, 2006 6:46 PM

Mole kabobs?
Please enlighten, Chef Herpst, as to marinade, saucing, etc.
The moles have been more active this year than any previous years. Several people have noticed this - was it the official Reproduction year, or what?

Katye - If you use chocolate, you can make genuine Mexican mole sauce.

One small dog = no squirells, rats, mice, moles, rabbits, racoons, deer, bear, mountain lion, or any other undesirable. JACK RUSSELL. I woke up one night camping on a small Island in Puget sound with a ruckus. Only to see a 40# Racoon shreding my food I left out on the camp site area. Sophie proceeded from the bottom of my sleeping bag and over my head to attack and drive the creature up a tree where it stayed until we left the island the next day. Both were bloody but there was no doubt who was ruler that night. By the way my Sophie at that time only weighed about 18#. No fear and makes a deadly point. You do though have to train them not to chase cats. I can tell you stories of her attacking sand shark, sea lions, and a bear. She made me proud before she left at 11 yrs of age.

hmmmm - mole' on mole. Tasty!

Oh, dog - not dog. I see that tiffanya says that they have dogs in backyard and still suffer from moles.
Maybe Sophie is the only hunting type of dog?

Well, my dogs have all been enthusiastic in their mole and other small critter pursuit, but their big old paws make more garden damage then the wild critters ever could. Big dogs only discourage big pests.

My big dog digs for and occasionally catches some types of rodents. However, he leaves big holes, trenches more like, that a person could twist an ankle or break a leg in. He is great at discouraging the deer. A large buck leaped our 7 foot fence in one stride to get away from him. I guess that's also how it got in. I have been adding 2 more feet to the top of the fence, but it will be a long term project. Raccoons come and go at will, though the dog does tree them, he can't get at them when they are up there. They do not like the inconvenience of being stuck up a tree, and have been less likely to spend much time in our yard since we've had the dog.

The gray squirrels here just laugh at my three pound poodle chasing them up the trees. I wish my cats hadn't grow so old that they no longer hunt them. We had no squirrel problems for the first five years we were in this house but now the cats sleep under the tree and the squirrels fight two feet above them. lol

(cats are 16 and 18 years old now and the older one still chases rocks and acorns but not squirrels and the younger one still hunts mice and gophers in the fields)

Lani

When raccoons started rototilling my sod each fall it was to eat stone-fly(?) larvae. When the lawn was treated in the spring to kill the things the problem improved.

Poisoning?!

We had a raccoon wander onto our porch last year to dip into the dog's bowl. We were so tickled to watch this little guy through the window. I can't imagine someone wanting to harm him. Jeez it just breaks my heart.

We need to share the earth. We are not the only creatures inhabiting it. Fence and protect your garden accordingly, but no need to be killing. {sigh}

Racoons and moles must be doing some heavy damage to wring such strong responses from folks.

Call me insane, but I don't mind sharing my yard with moles. I actually appreciate the work the do in my soil, and they eat insects and earthworms. I have plenty of both to share. They don't hurt the plants directly, just occasionally uproot one that isn't strongly rooted yet. I only wish I could get our mole to tunnel through our compacted clay soil we try to use as substrate for a sort-of lawn. It is hilarious to me to see how the mole tunnels through gardens, stops at the "lawn", and then turns the corner as it hits compacted clay. If only I could entice him to keep going!

Here's a link to another take on having moles:
http://www.paghat.com/mole.html

I feel the same about the racoons. Our dogs do keep most of the racoon activity to a minimum, preferring to keep them 'treed'. In the spring my pond was visited on several occasions by what I assume was racoons. My pond was designed with racoons in mind, so I knew they could not get my fish. After cleaning up after them a couple of times, I finally got smart and replaced all of the clay soil in the lily baskets with growing medium specifically designed not to produce cloudy water. Then I made access to the deep water very, very easy for them. They could get in and get out easily without knocking anything over. Being the smart creatures that they are, they learned quickly that the fish they were after would not be their dinner unless they wanted to get in deep water. I didn't have any trouble after that. We'll see if they remember the lesson come next spring!

estreya, thanks!! I'll need to pickup some of that and give it to the DH for application.

brier, yep...got the dogs but still the problem. I think the mole activity has increased because the dogs have been inside so much lately. In the summer, there was maybe one mole that stayed pretty close to the fence. Now that the dogs have been inside most of the fall/winter (due to our work schedule changes), the moles have gone crazy in the back. Those mole mountains are pretty big and encroaching more and more on the yard.

Well, raccoons can be beatufull and intelligent creatures, I actually liked them when saw only on pictures, but they are pests.
State of WA does not allow to relocate them, critter removal companies are killing them, so what to do if you can't protect your yard because there are several trees growing outside your backyard that provide a way for them to your yard? My neighbor's cat was killed in her backyard by raccon. My friend once found raccon dead in pile of its pop at the bottom of kids' slide. Another one told that his small dog was attacked and bitten by raccon.

I prefer not to have raccons living in my attic, digging my garden (i can't put chicken wire on my whole backyard), tearing screen door, knocking small scultures, leaving feces all over.
Do you know that raccons' feces contains raccoon roundworm eggs (the interstinal parasite that can cause neurological and phycological damages in people who might come in contact with feces. It estimated that 90% of raccoons carry this parasite. I prefer not to be scared that my grandchild or guest kid touched somewhere in backyard something and got contamanated. Story about kid who ate some dirt with eggs in daycare and became mentally disabled for life was in news this summer. What about rabies that they can carry?

In some places there is a law not to feed deers, there should be a law not to feed raaccons as well. Possible we have so much of them because some people want to feed them, let their garbage unlocked, leave pet's food outside.

I would never kill any animal (including slugs) if i knew a reliable way to prevent them from entering my garden or not cousing damage when they enter. Believe me we tried everything that i was reading about but it still does not help.

Pixydish: I truly do applaud your harmonious relationship with the moles in your yard. And that link was interesting, although i objected to the statement, "People who want their lawns to look like golf courses won't be able to adapt to living with any wildlife, & especially not with a hill-making mole. But then people like that will eventually replace even their lawn with gravel or concrete spray-painted green, so greatly do they hate the living world. "

I'm not a "golf course" kind of girl, and i certainly have no antipathy for the living world. But this mole problem was/is very serious for me (and i know i'm not alone). Not only are the mounds massive and esthetically obtrusive (unlike the ones the writer in your link described), but they can also cause very serious problems. A woman at my local nursery was explaining that she has a very heavy fountain in her yard. The moles burrow all around and presumably beneath it, causing her fountain to shift and sink. Every Spring, she has to use heavy machinery to rebalance and reset that fountain. This story was alarming to me because the moles on my property were highly active around a massive retaining wall. If those rocks started to shift or sink, it would be a VERY serious and costly problem (i worry about that to this day, even though the activity around the wall has stopped.)

Raccoons i've never had any issue with. If i saw one, i'd probably think, as brierGardener once did, that it was very cute. I would probably run to get the camera and snap a photo. But i don't for one moment question brierGardener's resolve to do whatever must be done in order to eradicate his/her raccoons, because clearly the scope of his/her problem is unlike anything i've ever had to deal with.

I guess my point is this: People don't take such aggressive action unless they feel backed against a wall (no pun intended) to do so. I wish i could just say, "Hey, you moles, just burrow down there and in the woods, will ya? And leave my retaining wall alone?" But i can't do that (or i COULD, but unless they're NIMH moles, i doubt they'd listen). What i can, and indeed feel i MUST do, is kill whatever moles are active in areas i need them to steer clear of.

Yes, Estreya, I do think the writer on that website is a little bit far to the left! She has some strikingly strong opinions and sounds a bit angry. But she does have some interesting information on moles. I'm afraid I didn't read the ranting parts, just the mole parts. I certainly don't agree with her opinion about people who want nice lawns. I would like a nice lawn. I'm just too cheap to bring in the topsoil it would take. I keep hoping the mole will turn the dirt for me.
I take your point about people feeling backed against the wall. Probably if the mole was doing any real damage in my yard, I'd want it gone, too. They are such interesting creatures. It's too bad they can be such a nuisance. I wasn't intending to criticize people who need to get rid of them. Just pointing out another point of view.

So far I'm co-existing with "my" moles, but whatever the critters are that have gotten under my house and I think are running through the heating ducts are going to have to go. I suspect they're either rats or mice. They're driving the dog bonkers and spooking me. Jolly follows them around the house, his nose to the floor or barking at the walls. It's just too weird. Oddly, the cat is not in the least interested. Maybe she doesn't hear them. I know hearing is a boxer's most acute sense so he may be following their sounds as they run back and forth, usually in the evenings. He bounces up and down on the floors, front feet and sometimes all four feet. I can't think of anything to do except put D-con under the heater vents where my pets can't reach it but I worry that one of them could find a sick or dying one and get poisoned. I hate traps and poisons but what can I do???!!!

KatyMac, your dogs reminds me of my Hellhound, who has sytematically, eaten holes in the sheetrock walls in my bathroom, trying to corner the little ratty critters.
Amazing!!! And ofcourse, I use very little poison product because of the dogs and cats in the area. I had raccoons this summer, and yes I did relocate. (alive) to a nice little stream in a wooded area. I'm hoping they are very very happy, I know I am.

Vizz8,
I understand nobody wants to kill such cute animals, but your happiness does not mean their happiness.

But
"Trapping and relocating a raccoon several miles away seems an appealing method of resolving a conflict because it is perceived as giving the “problem animal” a second chance in a new home. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is quite different. Raccoons typically try to return to their original territories, often getting hit by a car or killed by a predator in the process. If they remain in the new area, they may get into fights (oftentimes to the death) with resident raccoons for limited food, shelter, or nesting sites. Raccoons may also transmit diseases to rural populations that they have picked up from urban pets. Finally, if a place “in the wild” or an urban green space is perfect for raccoons, raccoons are probably already there. It isn’t fair to the animals already living there to release another competitor into their home range.

Raccoons used to a particular food source, type of shelter, or human activity will seek out familiar situations and surroundings. People, organizations, or agencies that illegally move raccoons should be willing to assume liability for any damages or injuries caused by these animals. Precisely for these reasons, raccoons posing a threat to human and pet safety should not be relocated. "

and this:

"Legal Status
Because legal status, trapping restrictions, and other information about raccoons change, contact your WDFW Regional Office for updates.

The raccoon is classified as both a furbearer and a game animal (WAC 232-12-007). A hunting or trapping license is required to hunt or trap raccoons during an open season. A property owner or the owner’s immediate family, employee, or tenant may kill or trap a raccoon on that property if it is damaging crops or domestic animals (RCW 77.36.030). In such cases, no permit is necessary for the use of live (cage) traps. However, a special trapping permit is required for the use of all traps other than live traps (RCW 77.15.192, 77.15.194; WAC 232-12-142).

It is unlawful to release wildlife anywhere within the state, other than on the property where it was legally trapped, without a permit to do so (RCW 77.15.250; WAC 232-12-271). Except for bona fide public or private zoological parks, persons and entities are prohibited from importing raccoons into Washington State without a permit to do so (WAC 246-100-191)."

So, who knows what is better?

Well the DFWLsurely does not know anything about sustaining fish runs or struggling bird populations, because they have helped the demise of several fish and bird populations dwindle in the last 40 years and have done nothing about any of it untill it is to late. They are more concerned with riding in the state truck, going to coffee, and getting a check untill retirement checks are due.

My vote is move the critter, dead is dead whats the difference if by a car weeks later, or by a gun right now?

For Raccoons:

A territorial dog will delight in patrolling the whole yard. Establish a perimeter with "invisible fence." A dog will chase off all kinds of critters.

Electric fence around garden or pond. This is nice because you can turn it off when you are at home, turn it on when away. Perhaps surround the garden with a woven wire fence about 3-4 feet tall. Then a top wire of electric fence. Make sure there are no low trees they can use to hop the fence. Around a pond, one wire about 8" above the ground will do.

For the most part, I've abandoned the growing of anything of interest to wildlife. For all the work, I've noticed that the week my garden grown veggies are ripe, then the price in the store/farmer's market plummets too because of an abundant supply.

Moles are mostly a cosmetic problem, and an indicator of healthy soil. They aerate the soil, but on occasion they slice off roots in their tunneling.

My two cents worth,

FireVicar

Good advice, Firevicar, but ...
By law you can't put electrical wire on fence that is lower than don't remember 5 or 6', second it's good if you don't have trees growing in neighbour's yard next to your fence (what i actually have).

Hm, nothing can replace homegrown veggies for me.

Katymac I can just see your excited boxer pouncing around the house. You need the Ratzapper!
Since we constantly have grain/feed for goats, and sunflower seeds for birds, we consequently have rats as well. Not in the house, but the garage and area stumps are Hotel Rodentia here. I don't like poison for the same pet risk reason mentioned by Vizz. We tried traps and a) they're dangerous to human digits, b) they're really gross for the rodent who doesn't die instantly.

I think there's a thread on Garden Foes about the Ratzapper. 4 D size batteries operate it and it works like a charm and quite humanely, I guess. You can read about it at the link. http://www.ratzapper.com/ It's about the size of a thin shoebox. I can't tell from your post if you need to get it INSIDE your heating ductwork, or somewhere in the crawlspace. I believe it would fit inside the ductwork though.

Poochella, thanks for the suggestion of the Ratzapper. I'll go to the website. I found a loose wood panel under the back porch steps so I'm afraid something larger is wintering under the house. The opening is plenty large enough for a raccoon. Now, I'm afraid to replace it because I don't want to trap "whatever" under the house. I'm going to see if I can put some kind of one-way flap or door so the thing can exit but not re-enter. Make sense? Nothing would have babies under there this time of year (I hope).