Racoons!

n8

Shohin
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We live by a big park teeming with wildlife, so we're used to having visitors in the backyard, rooting around for fallen fruit. They've never gotten into my plants before, though. The last week, I've been awakened at about 3am by a mother and two child racoons climbing up a fence, shambling past my bedroom window and into my backyard. We have a junky apple tree dropping lots of fruit, plus some peaches at the tail-end of harvest and some nectarines that are getting good, so I just assumed they were eating and moving on. No big deal.

Last night, they climbed up on two of my benches, dug through some soil and knocked a half dozen plants to the ground. Mostly early projects, but they whacked my cascade shimpaku, thankfully caught by a small work bench I happened to leave next to it yesterday. I may have lost a couple neagari JBP projects in their third year, but hopefully the root tube kept them alive.

I have a bunch of XXX Hot red chile powder from my New Mexico days that I rarely use, so I was going to try sprinkling that along the access fence they've been using. Any other suggestions? I assume they were sniffing the fertilizer.
 

WavyGaby

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Sorry to hear. I've tried habernero sauce on the rim of my training pots before and it seemed to deter the squirrels for a week or two before it wore off. Apply the sauce often and good luck
 

Pitoon

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My supervisor is from GA, and he has told me multiple times when the coon comes out the oven there's fights because there's not enough to share.
 

Firstflush

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Try a product called Uncle Ian’. It is red pepper and blood meal. Sprinkle it on the perimeter of your plant areas and access points the raccoons are using, Prey species do not like the smell of blood and when they do contact it, they get a nose full of pepper. I have found it works on possums and raccoons here in CA.
You must reapply if it gets wet. The blood meal is a good source of nitrogen when it breaks down.
 
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Wires_Guy_wires

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Some good ole fashioned used engine oil or tar on the fence might scare them enough to never return.
It gets on their hands, and thus on their food, hard to remove without soap and it isn't easy on the stomach.

That, or flamethrower turrets.
 

rockm

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Raccoons will get used to hot chili, water spays, coyote urine, etc. Best solution is 12-gauge therapy. By the way, I am biased. This one gave birth to kits in the soffit of my house, resulting in $3,000 worth of damage to my roof and ceilings (nothing like hearing a raccoon pee on the ceiling above you bed at 1 am to make you hate the little bastards). I had to hire a trapper --which is another long frustrating story. I didn't have the option of shooting the damn things since shotgun blasts in Fairfax typically bring a police response. Neighbors will also call the police if you use a bow to take them out--my neighbors are the reason the dirt bags got in there in the first place. They leave food out for the damn things...
 

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Carol 83

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We had one stuck in our attic. Awful scurrying around all night. We tried trapping it, husband attempted to shoot it. Eventually it chewed it's way through the soffit and got out. I thought they were cute before, not so much now.
 

rockm

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We had one stuck in our attic. Awful scurrying around all night. We tried trapping it, husband attempted to shoot it. Eventually it chewed it's way through the soffit and got out. I thought they were cute before, not so much now.
They're cute in the woods where they belong. They suck when they invade your home and property. FWIW, the "live" trapper we hired was a good ol' boy redneck from south of here (just like me) and told me that yeah, he catches them alive and releases them 65 miles away--where they are promptly mauled and killed by the established resident raccoon population down that way. So "live"is a relative term...
 

Mike Corazzi

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Crock Pot Raccoon​



:)
 

n8

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We'll see what happens tonight. They usually wake me up when they go climbing to the backyard because they pass by my window, so I'll have a hose and flashlight ready.

Dumped a bunch of chili pepper on the fence, too, and now realizing that some may just blow into our windows. My family loves bonsai so much!!!
 

Forsoothe!

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Inorganic ferts ought to be looking pretty good by now. It isn't easy being green...
 

Bonsaidoorguy

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The only way I've ever been able to detur raccoons from my things, what ever those things might be, is with a small electric fence for gardens. Make sure it's highly visible and put it around where they get through. The shock doesn't hurt them, but they have a good memory and will avoid the colored wire. They even teach their young to avoid it. After a while you don't even need it on to be effective, just up and visible. Good luck.
 
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