They have been getting up the the hummer feeder and tipping it so that the sugar water runs out then they lick it up off the ground. I had a suet cake in a cage and they ripped it down and got most of the cake. Then to celebrate, they dug up the new Pink Guara that I had planted. They come in the middle of the night when we are asleep, and I see the damage when it gets daylight.
I would be at least setting up some snap traps to give them a major pain to try and get rid of them. Simple spring loaded twigs that snap them hard. Or maybe set up a red hot pepper powder exploding bomb. A trip trap that drops the powder on them from a tray set on a trip wire. Short of setting up some more serious and possibly lethal traps I don't know if other major deturants that would work.
It must make you so angry seeing the damage they do overnight CK. I hope you can find a solution to your racoon problem before anything else is destroyed by them.
The hummingbird feeder was safe last night. I took it down and put it in the wood shed where they can't get to it. I put it back out this morning. They did dig up the pink Guara again. Replanted that and put a plastic milk crate upside down over it. Then I staked it down with som tent stakes that I had. Then for good measure I sprinkled Critter Ridder around it too!
I hope your Guara survives being dug up - twice. It sounds as though you've found a good way of keeping the racoons away from it - let's hope it stays that way. Taking in the Hummingbird feeder at night sounds like the ideal solution. Now the birds can enjoy a meal and the racoons will have to look elsewhere. :-D
There must have been a Raccoon or some kind of critter into my feeder last night too. All the seed was gone and the dog was pacing all night!
It has gotten so bad that I couldn't have a fish pond without the little electric fencer surrounding the pond. Between the possums and racoons hardly a night goes by when they don't trapse through the yard, and the dogs don't go crazy. It is a wonder that the neighbors haven't complained since the critters will sit on the other side of the fence and taunt the dogs at night. Drives the one dog crazy...it would be funny if it wasn't all such a hassle for me to catch and drag the dog back into the house.
Well everything was safe last night. Couldn't see where they tried messing with the Guara and I had put the feeder in the woodshed again.
I'm so sorry for the damage done to your gardens, and for the traumatized dogs. There are no raccoons in Norway. You might consider relocating yourselves. We do have deer and such, but they can actually be fenced out.
