Our problem was resolved when the neighbor down the street starting feeding them. Others complained it's bringing them in........ they were already here! Now they go down the street. The last time I threw a shoe at one they took it with them. LOL
But I'll keep your solution in mind when she goes on trips. DH is on heart medication, do you think that would hinder or help? hahaha
Raccoons, how do I get rid of 'em?
FOF, made your famous formula just about 7p.m. will use it tomorrow night. Lee
Your pool is open? No screening? How would you keep toddlers from falling in? Raccoons would climb a fence. If they have access, I've seen raccoons back down steps to defecate in a swimming pool.
No laws against feeding nuisance wildlife there?
Raccoons carry rabies!
UPDATE: So far, so good!
Night Two of the Human Male Spray Repellent: No raccoon visit to the waterfall for second consecutive evening!
SCORE:
FoF: 2
Raccoons: 0
BTW, by law I must have a 6' fence with locked gate around the pool. No toddlers can get in, but raccoons, possums and rats have no problem scurrying up plants and trees adjacent to the fence.
UPDATE: STILL so far, so good!
Night Three of the Human Male Spray Repellent: No raccoon visit to the waterfall for third consecutive evening!
SCORE:
FoF: 3 (nights in a row, no evidence of raccoons)
Raccoons: 0
I didn't even spray, it must have been the leftover scent of the day before! WOOF!
FOF, con't to lol but gonna try it all around here. I've enough! Diuretics, you know? leeflea
At last a good side to water pills.
Thanks for the update, I wondered if you needed to spray every day.
Sally_OR, Yes it is a good use for water pills. Today I've decided on 'collecting". Would be mortified if anybody saw it but amy willing to do it to keep the raccoons away as they, here, are so aggressive. They will rear up on their hind legs and vocalize when I approach them to get in the cat's bowls. Even though we keep the cat's vaccinated, I'd hate for them to get into a fight. Down here, some people hunt raccoons for sport. I certainly do not agree with doing that and because of that reason, I'm so glad to have heard about the new deterrent. Leeflea51
I haven't told DH what his newest honey do is going to be. This should be a good one, he already thinks I tend to be a little strange sometimes when it comes to the things I do for my plants. Egg shells in the Orchids??
Please elaborate on egg shells in orchids. I'm now in the orchid room and was looking at a Zygopetalum that is looking puny. Leeflea51
The theory was that crushed egg shells were an inexpensive way to give calcium to the plants. Only thing is, in order for it to work you have to use warm water for watering, which most orchids don't like. So I went back to mixing oyster shells in the bark.
Don't have any Zygopetalum, but what I remember, is low light and not a lot of water.
Sally_OR, Didn't know about egg shells. I do know that cinnamon can be used to get rid of root gnats if it's sprinkled on the growing media. I did it and it worked for me. I got the idea from the AOS 'Orchids' magazine a while back. I posted my question on the aos site for feed back. If the zygo. makes it fine, if not I'm not going to fret. Too many other things that are of concern to me. I really don't like any of my plants to die but am learning to use it as a learning experience. Lee
UPDATE: =-(
Night Four of the Human Male Spray Repellent: DISASTER! The raccoons came back with a vengeance last night...
Around 3:30 I was awakened by the sound of something splashing gently in the pool. I flicked on the porch light and a mother and her baby were at the side of the pool, not sure if they were drinking, but I grabbed the hose and blasted both of them with a jet of water. I got the mother pretty good, and she ran for cover. Suddenly I noticed that the baby coon was walking along the back edge of the pool so I was able to soak that one as well...
So I go back to bed to try to go back to sleep after that, (yeah right!) and about 30 minutes later, I heard them again and went to the window and the mother was there with TWO babies. I flipped on the light and watched them as they finally took off for the night. Only when I awoke this morning did I see the damage they did... they uprooted quite a few of our impatiens that we have growing in a flowerbed, right under our bedroom window. I have no idea if they will regrow back, especially this time of year, but I will try replanting them this morning...
SCORE:
Raccoons: 10 (approximately the number of impatiens they uprooted.
FoF: 0
So much for the repellent spray, but the only good news is they did not poop in the rock waterfall. Hardly a consolation.
so what do you think, will the impatiens live after having their roots ripped up out of the ground?
These raccoon visits are starting to get old. I thought the spray was working but apparently not. >=-(
Impatien roots must be a delicacy for them...
FOF Either roots or grubs in the soil. Did you spray again? Could it have been diluted somehow? Rain, sprinklers? I was really hoping this would work, as bizarre as it sounds.
Lee.....Good to know about the root gnats, you can also use it on leaves for some fungal problems. Make a paste with water and rub it on.
Fof,Sally_OR, I was so disappointed about the results of the repellant. Had started collecting y'day. Now, have disposed of it. but not too worry . More is to come and in vast quantities. Re: cinnamon. as I said it wasn''t my idea but it did wormk very well . Will consider cinnamon paste you suggested. Lee
Lee....I got that tip from a local Orchid nursery, the owner is a member of our society.
a family of five showed up last night...
almost completely ate and tore up what was left of the bed... =-(
I scared them off, a mother and four pups but they kept coming back.
I'm sleeping with the back porch lights on tonight, dunno if that'll help.
I do need a large dog about now...
FoF, Raccoons! Now the raccoons have calmed down but the armadillos are on the prowl and digging in the yard as if they were backhoes. Woe is us. Leeflea
I have told this story here on DG before but some of you might not have heard it. Many years ago DH and I vacationed on a beach where there were many smooth, snow white stones. They were several inches in diameter. They were so pretty we brought a bunch of them home and I arranged them in a large blue bowl on our deck, right outside our bedroom window.
I live on a tidal river with many oyster beds and that is what the local raccoons eat when they are not marauding in my flower beds. To open the oysters they bang two oysters together until the shells crack.
One night we were awakened by a racket outside our bedroom window. It was a silly raccoon banging two of the stones together. He thought they were oysters and was determined to open those things. No matter how many times we chased him he was back to try again. We finally had to bring the stones inside.
Recently an abandoned baby raccoon captivated several families of tourists on Hilton Head Island. When it began to act sickly they took it it a vet and it turned out the raccoon had rabies (DUH, they all have it around here.) All the family members including very young children are undergoing rabies shots because they had snuggled this "cute" little animal.
ardesia, wonderful story about the raccoons and banging together rocks! That sounds like something I would do instead. Rabies!!!!!! The friend with whom I live, was bitten by a possum a few years ago and had to have 3 or 4 of the shots. Leeflea
sigh. tourists..... what will we do with them?? things that are so obvious to us are news to them, like getting stuck in marsh mud (pluth mud, pluff mud, plough mud, however its spelled or said), oysters being sharp, and how traffic circles work.
Speaking of raccoons, this is an amazing video posted to YouTube I discovered yesterday on CNN.com...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DfGf4M3QZo
I can't believe the fool fed the darn thing... after it dug holes in his kitchen wall!!!
For some reason we did not have any critter visits last night, as we are leaving our lights on all night (to the detriment of our Edison bill!)
Leaving the lights on may be an answer...
maybe motion sensing lights could work
I thought about motion-sensing lights...
kind of expensive to install but would prolly save money in the long run.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I had motion sensor lights in the back yard at my old house and they didn't bother the raccoons one little bit (nor did my dog barking ferociously at them and flinging himself at my patio door when they were standing 2 ft on the other side of it staring at him...and probably laughing!) I'm afraid it's probably a coincidence that they haven't been around the last night or two when you had the light on. Since they do tend to carry rabies, you might contact animal control and see if they would come and trap and remove the raccoons for you, or at least loan you a larger trap, I think that's the only way to really get rid of them.
Well they came back with a vengeance on Sunday night. I woke up to this after we had replaced all the impatiens with celoisa, hoping for a fall bloom. don't know whether to replant them or just put down some nice bark nuggets for the winter...
Almost seems like a "rage" killing. Not only did they pull up the celosia to eat the roots, they just pulled both marigolds and celosia just to destroy the flower bed. I don't really think that raccoons feel rage but it sure seems like it at this point. >=-(
Close up of the "killing."
Almost expect to see Jack Nicholson saying, "Heeeeere's Johnny!" Or cue the music from "Psycho."
I think you are correct in the rage thing. Years ago I left a bucket of rodent poison on the deck (after I had notified all the neighbors to keep their animals in between certain hours) the raccoons were so angry at me for trying to poison them that they threw or rolled all my flower pots off the deck. No kidding. Talk about flower carnage, it was a mess. I can truly sympathize.
This is what I got when we put out a Raccoon trap...We love her though! No raccoons, but we got Charlotte!
Awwww, Charlotee is gorgeous. She looks to be a twin to our Skitty Kitty; he was a feral that decided he liked us and moved in.
How did you get that great photo of her? I can't seem to capture our little guy's eyes; they always come out looking like headlights even without flash.
I came back and looked at the photos again and thought this one looked like the aftermath of the Normandy invasion. Now that I know that rage is possible with these guys puts them in a new light.
One link I looked up for critter control took me to an airgun sight. Hmmmmmm.
I'm starting to feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack...
I dunno, I'm going to go back to the essence thing tonight, maybe that'll keep them away. We were gonna try mothballs of all things next but forgot to go to wallymart to pick the darn things up.
At least someone has a nice cat for their efforts. Beautiful cat.
the darn cats have hijacked a thread again!
This is my tabby, 14 y/o Pookie, rescued from the animal shelter in 95.
He is such a good boy.
Here's my Pookie....our bad boy brought her in from the field behind our house, took me 2 months to get hold of her. She was so frightened. We lost our boy not long after that, I always think he brought her as his replacement.
Still waiting for a solution to raccoon problem. Is there any kind of plant they don't like?
We really have been successful with the larger trap and have relocated quite a few.
I used to have a huge problem with them ripping my trash can apart - Bungee cords were nothing to them. However, I started pouring bleach around the can when I would put the trash out and that stopped them.
Ok, you guys are cracking me up.........love the racoon delema. I too have had my bouts with them here in Cali. But my prob. with them was my Koi pond. Over a 2 yr season I spent near to $2000.00 in fish replacement. Was actually given one of those motion sensor scarecrows by my pond guy. The thing was a joke to the Racoons. I finally gave up on replacing the fish,(duh) and eventually let the pond just dry up. That was a yr ago, yea! no Racoons..........NOT ! Guess what has raised their ugly heads late summer ? R A C O O N S !!!!!!!!! I hear them running across the roof, sounds like a heard of them. I'll try to send in a pic of their paw prints......... OMG, the size of saucers. Good Luck To All .
Mark