Raccoons... Boy oh boy!
I, personally, don't know anyone who has had as much trouble with raccoons as myself. I'm positive other people have had a much worse time with them...but I don't know them personally.
I would have a family of raccoons that would visit daily. I actually got to the point where I learned their personalities. I also learned "some" of their habits as well. I had mixed feelings about their visits. On one hand it was neat to watch their little minds work! I would see them try exactly what had worked previously (to get in the trash) and one faced with a new problem that I threw their way...they would problem solve their way around anything I could throw their way. I was out smarted by raccoons for years.
I've tried the live skunk traps (which we also had). But the main provider (the raccoon that would always provide the food to the others) was huge! He would be the only one to get the food and trow it to the other raccoons. The problem with the live skunk traps was that the large raccoon could squeeze into the trap, yet he was still big enough that when the door was tripped...it couldn't close because his large body was sill in the open doorway. He would clean the trap and back out every time!
I had heard that spreading hot red pepper flakes would deter them. Nope...not at all. I had also heard that ammonia would keep them away. Well, one time I heard the wrestling. So I looked out of my "observation window
" and saw the big boy inside the can. So I move to the garage door that was near the garbage cans and make some loud noise to scare him off. He runs under the deck. I then pour in almost a full gallon of ammonia, then observe. I watch him come back...jump in the can and he lets out a large shiver/quiver. I thought...A HA, I got you! But no luck. He quickly continues what he normally does...passing the food out to his buddies.
I could remember having a problem with rabbits one year as well. They'd always dig their nests in my nicely manicured super thick front lawn. One time I decided to get some fox urine. I sprayed a heavy amount of fox urine around the perimeter of my yard (whew did that smell!) I then doused the rabbits nest with a large amount as well. In less that five minutes I watched the rabbit not only cross my fox urine perimeter, but also sat right down in it's fox urine soaked hole. I brought the stuff back for a refund.
For me...the wolf urine worked just as good for the raccoons as the fox urine did for the rabbits. I sprayed the garbage cans and the big guy didn't skip a beat. We also used to have a female Siberian husky. We would often hear her downstairs whimpering and whining. Most times we would go down to see what she was doing...but find nothing. Once we caught her in what she was doing. She was face to face with a raccoon with only a window between them. They would go nose to nose following each other. Once one of them would move to another spot....the other would follow to be nose to nose (thru the glass) again. After the wife and I had watched this for a while (and took some pictures) I decided...enough was enough. I banged on the window to scare the raccoon off. It started to waddle off the deck and down the stairs toward the woods. I then figured I would yell out the door to really scare it off, for at least that night. The second I opened the door to scare it away...I had never seen a raccoon move so quickly directly toward the door I had opened. I closed it barely in time to keep the sprinting raccoon out of the house. I then watched the raccoon open my completely close screen door only to be stopped by the glass French door. Our sun room, which is also attached to the deck has a sliding door on it as well. The door was open with only the screen door closed(not locked). The raccoon had started to make his way over to the screen door and you've probably never seen me maneuver through the house so quickly to close the sliding door.
I've got sooo many other raccoon stories...but I won't bore you any further. My question to the poster is this...
What's attracting the raccoons? What are they after?
I couldn't outsmart my racoons...but I solved my problem when I did what I said I would never do. I brought my garbage cans in the garage.
good luck!
dan
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