Dang Raccoons

[CathyA]

Drove 35 miles one way to my favorite greenhouse north of here. Bought $50 of garden plants. Put them on the covered front porch to harden them off. Last night something (no doubt a coon) pretty much destroyed the entire tray of them. I'm bummed. And the few that might survive don't have their labels anymore. What a waste of gas, time, and money.

And I saw a coon go under our shed, and now I'm hearing babies crying. I don't shoot things.........so I'll have to come up with some other plan.

[IshbelRobertson]

How annoying.

With us, it's the badgers that cause most damage in the garden, the foxes normally just rootle through the compost bins. Occasionally a squirrel will get into the attic roof space, but they do no damage since all the electrical wiring is now enclosed!

[catherine]

Oh, man, what a bummer!!! I know how you feel.. with my pest problem of rabbits and deer. The deer not only ate ALL my tomatoes last year, but they also ate the flowers off my tulips, hydrangea and balloon flowers.

But what just arrived from Amazon is a Scarecrow, which Simplemind recommended in another post. I'm going to try it out in the front and if it works, I'll buy another one for the back.

We don't have raccoons around here, but I remember them from my younger days--they're tough to outsmart.

[iris lilies]

Racoons are very destructive, and quite clever.

The thing about pests from the animal kingdom is that thy have all the time in the world to get into your stuff. We could defeat them if we were willing to put the time into it,sit with a weapon watching them. But we have to live our lives and we do not have time to devote to watching over our garden 24/7.

[Yppej]

I found a burrow with 6 baby rabbits on my property this week but I didn't have the heart to do them in. I will just buy more of my produce.

[CathyA]

I don't kill things.........just try to outsmart them or build barriers. I usually put my tray of veggie starts up on something higher on the porch for nighttime, but I forgot. But in years past, when I would forget, nothing would happen to them.

They are in I.C.U. now. I've added potting soil to them and will baby them. Hopefully they'll be resilient. But several of the labels were thrown about, so I'm not sure which tomato is which. Oh well, I guess we'll have integration this year.

I do need to go back and buy a few more though. Fortunately, there's still plenty of time left for planting.

Yes, coons are extremely smart........and obnoxious. I try to live in peace with animals. I'll have to think for awhile about strategy.

We had a 3' chicken wire fence around the garden for a long time......but it was fairly useless, since deer and rabbits........and anything could just step over it. A couple years ago, we put in a taller, stronger fence and there's been no more bunnies. The deer won't jump it probably because I have so many raised stock tanks and trellises. But coons can do whatever they set their mind to.

Whenever I plant anything outside........trees, bushes, flowers, etc., I have to protect it for a couple weeks at least because I believe it's either coons, oppossums, or cats who always dig newly planted stuff up. I wonder if it's the potting medium that's attractive?

I had a nest of baby bunnies under my green beans a number of years ago, but I just let them be. There were plenty of beans for all of us.

I don't grow sweet corn anymore. Too much work.....weeding, propping up after a storm.....trying to get to the corn when it's ripe before the coons do. A person gets tired of the struggle. I'm glad we wouldn't starve if the garden didn't do well!

[Tybee]

The raccoons killed my bluebirds and my chickens. I am not fond of raccoons.

[early morning]

I'm sorry, CathyA - I hope your plants make it! We trap and release raccoons. Sadly, I know - this just makes them someone else's problem. But dang, it's really hard for me to kill something I'm not going to eat and who is not harming me greatly, just being their raccoon selves. And I love to watch them when they're trying to figure things out - they really are smart, and curious. They want to know what's there, just because it's there. That's a very human-like response, I can relate! So, we rarely kill them. Once in a great while we get one who acts aggressive, and that we cannot tolerate. Those don't get relocated. Cathy, I've been told they can smell fresh or disturbed soil of any kind. Makes them hungry for grubs and encourages them to go digging. Putting things "up" won't help. They can climb almost anything. I don't garden anymore, other than the occasional tomato plant or square of lettuce, but if I did I'd invest in a solar fence charger and some small step-in stakes. They don't like being shocked and they really can't keep their hands and feet to their selves -they have to touch everything...

[CathyA]

Yeah, when I had chickens I thought I had the Ft. Knox of coop and run......but a coon made it through that one small breech and killed Pepper Anne and Hawk. It ripped the back skin off Brownie. It's a good thing it got away, because I was so mad, I think I would have attacked it with my hands........which wouldn't have been very smart. I did bring Brownie inside for several weeks and her back healed very well. (Unfortunately, not too long after that, she must have fallen off the roost and broke her neck).
But I think the danged coons dug up the 2 chickens' grave and stole their bodies the night we buried them. Now, when we bury any pets, we put lots of fencing over it, along with several cement blocks. Lots of work to keep plants/trees/flowers/pets safe around here!

If I have any trouble this summer in the garden, I'll put an electric wire on the top of the fencing.....probably a solar one. Gosh, I hope the baby coons don't hang around forever.

early morning.......that's interesting about them smelling fresh/disturbed soil. That's probably true because they don't eat the plant.......just leave it to die. Fortunately, many of my plants last night were wet all night because of the storms, so I put them back in pots and added potting soil......so hopefully I saved a lot of them. Sh*t builds character, right? So maybe they'll grow up to be really strong peppers and tomatoes!
I don't know though.........it hasn't worked very well for me. haha

[Float On]

The coons pretty much did me in when I had chickens. I'm not opposed to putting a few into deep sleep if it gets the word out that they are not welcome.
Sorry about your plants, how disappointing.