Monday when we bought the truck load of mulch, we bought about $25 worth of annuals to go in pots for on the top of the wall. I left them under the one tree to get accimated in their new pots, before putting them on the wall. I wasn't even thinking about the racoons. Tue morning they were all dug up. I replanted them before the sun got to them. Tues. night they spent the night in the garage. Wed. I put them on the wall and they did great in the sun. I spryaed them last night with some all natural pest spray. It worked good in keeping the ground hogs away from the back porch where they were trying to dig under. This morning they had completely dug out two pots and partly a 3rd and the 4th had places where they had tried to dig. Got them replanted. Tonight they go back into the garage and the traps come out. Then tomorrow they will get hauled off, to their grave site! I am tired of messing with them. We are overrun with the little buggers. Going into town yesterday, there were 5 dead coons along the road in a 5 mile stretch.
So it is open season on the racoons! That's funny, but not funny. They are very destructive critters. :-x
There are a lot of raccoons here, too. You see them along the roads going to town where they've been hit by vehicles. Julie has trouble with them coming on her porch, too. I haven't had them digging here yet. I don't think so anyway. Good luck, Capt. dooley
Sprinkling dried Blood Meal on the soil around plants, especially potted plants has worked to keep the squirrels from digging them up around my yard...wonder if it would work on Raccoons too. And it's a good plant food.
I won't have any problem catching them. A little dried cat food in a dish in the back of the trap will lure them right in.
I have found that now with all the "politically correct", "tree huggers", and "PETA" organizations that it is better to just do what needs to be done and not publicize it on the computer. It just gives them fuel for their fire. Good luck with your critters.
Good luck with coon-deterring, Capt. Since I'm in Norway and without raccoons I think they're cute, but I can very well understand that you're getting tired of their rampaging.
Also the Mulberry trees are in full fruit, so now there are large piles of coon poop all over the place. One spot down by the tree it looks like a cow dumped there! Only about 10 billion seeds in it. A few year ago, my wife stepped out on the front deck barefooted and stepped into a pile of mulberry seed infested coon poop right on the welcome mat. She cussed for 15 minutes! Although I thought it was kind of funny, I didn't dare laugh out loud!
Racoons are a problem here too, and I live three blocks from down town. We've had one troop that caught/killed and ate small dogs and cats. :'( It had several large males that seemed more the size of a small bear, when they passed through our neighborhood. The city had to hire a professional to help get rid of some of them. We used to have a lot of possums too, but with the raccoons so plentiful I guess playing dead made them raccoon food. I finally had to use an electric fence to keep the resident coons out of my favorite fish pond and sacrifice the rest of the ponds or put heavy wire over the top with wooden frames. Lately we have even had a neighborhood deer. Saw her two houses down yesterday. Wild life is getting plentiful in the city. :-o I uses blood meal as a soil amendment and the racoons and possums dug it up and ate it. Guess they like it. I can't use it for soil amendment unless I want them to rototill the yard with their paws/claws.
They are cute but are so bad on all crops .They shuck the corn and ride the stalks down to the ground.My dad use to wait in the garden at night and not with a net either if you get what I mean.
A garden tip for keeping out coons. Around you veggie garden, spread out a 3 ft wide black plastic strip on all sides. Then sprinkle lime on it to where most of it is covered. When the coons try to cross it, their feet will be wet from the dew. They pick the lime up on their feet and it will start to burn, so they start to lick it off. One experience with that and they soon learn to leave the garden alone. My brother used to do that with his sweet corn and it kept them out.
Capt I did that with a garden once except I didn't put lime on it and I left the plasic as it came from WalMart.It was real wide and I did this because of deer eating my peas.They will not walk on the plastic nor will they junp over it with it that wide.It worked perfect.If you put black plastic all around a fence they wont jump where they can't see on the other side.It works too.
