My corn patch is surrounded by a wire fence but it hasn't kept the raccoons out. I don't see any holes under the fence so I don't know how they are getting in. Can raccoons climb wire fences?
I caught one last night in my trap and moved him to some conservation land about 5 miles away. I've reset the trap and I fully expect to catch several more, but from past experience it's pretty much impossible to make a dent in the raccoon population. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Is it an electric fence? That's what I use, to shock critters so they bugger off. Unfortunately raccoons are very good climbers, agile, and pretty clever when it comes to overcoming obstacles. Where I live, if you trap one it is illegal to move it, it must be killed (though I have moved them, because I don't have the heart to kill).
But to answer, yes, it probably grabbed the fence with it's little hands and climbed right over.
How did you electrify your fence? Did you run a wire at the top of the fence? The fence itself is attached to metal poles that are in the ground, so it can't be electrified directly.
I'm sure that moving them is illegal in my area also but I don't have the heart to shoot them, and I don't own a gun anyway.
They are excellent climbers!
5 miles away is not far enough. 20 is about the minimum.You'd do better just shooting them. Sorry. :-(
I had to deal with them and poultry. They are very, very prolific critters.
Wildlife rescue taught me to stop them from climbing by using a high fence, and attaching a 12" wide strip of flashing on the fence about 18" to 24" up.
The professional pest removal guys around here drown them. I once hired a guy to remove raccoons who got into my heating vents - I had to get rid of them before they died or went to the bathroom in there, which would make my house germy and stinky, and be difficult to correct. That's when I learned what they do, and it made me sick. The guy told me to just get my own trap and when I catch a coon, throw the trapped animal in my pond. That made me sick, I don't even like to kill most insects.
My electric fence is a wire strung across a number of plastic posts, and powered by a solar box that cost about $100. The fence is only about 4' high, but that is at nose-level for the deer, and since I installed it my garden seems to be off the menu! It was super easy to set up, too.
I've drowned trapped rats a couple of times.
I won't do it any more. :-(
A plastic bag hooked up to an exhaust pipe with the animal inside of it will kill more mercifully with CO gas, or some Ether from the auto parts store.
I prefer to put a bullet between their eyes. Quicker and more merciful. If you can't do it, find a neighbor that can?
I hope I don't trap anymore. The problem area for us had been our barn, because they'd burrow under the walls every year (the floor was gravel), and then set up house in the rafters and have babies. They were really dirty, crapping all over in there and making the place toxic.
At that point we did borrow a trap and decided we had the guts to shoot them, but not me, so I sent my husband out there to do it. I never heard a shot, and eventually he came back in and said "it's looking right at me, I don't want to shoot it". That's the one we illegally moved.
Finally we got a clue, and had a cement floor put in this year to keep them out once and for all. Since then we've been cleaning out everything and tossing or disinfecting (and we set up a little shooting range in it, too!).
My only remaining worry is that we have a cat door, which is where the ones in our heating vent came in thru. It happened only that once, though, and that was about 10 years ago, and the heating vent thing was just odd timing because we had the covers off at the time to change them. And we've kept them out of the garden so far with the afore mentioned electric fence.
Where did you get the electric fence? I just tried Home Depot and Lowes and all they have are the electric pet collars, I don't think putting a collar on a rabid raccoon is an option.
YES! And so can possums and squirrels. So far I haven't seen skunks or rabbits climb.
Run a "hot" string of electric fence wire a few inches above the top of your fence. A double row about 5" apart will work even better. That will keep them all out. It did for me.
Our fence was similar. We used insulators to insulate the hot wires at the top from the fence poles.
local: Tractor Supply, Southern States, etc.
Online: Kencove, Premier
Same here. I use a 30 mile rated one for small pasture and pigs, and then just bought another smaller 6 mile one to move around for intensive grazing.
Brand I have is Statesman, which is just a Southern States branded version made by Parmac.
I get the wire, clips, and posts from Tractor Supply, just because they're closest.
Some electrified chicken netting might be better suited for the OP's problem, and then I would look online to Premier and Kencove. This type has the posts incorporated in the mesh, so you just buy the mesh, and then charge it.
I got mine at Tractor Supply as well, near Cleveland OH. The brand I got is Zareba:
"General Schvantzkopf" wrote
Here are 2 places where I bought the pieces parts for my electric fence. I have a Parmak Super Energizer 4 charger I bought from the second link. I use the insulated underground gate wire from the charger mounted inside a building. Personally, with the winters we have here, I wouldn't use batteries to power the system.
Steve Young
Braain cramp... "Parmak"
This is what I'm talking about:
I just picked up a 3 Mile Zereba at Agway. I'll finish setting it up this weekend. I was only able to get the ground bar down three feet, I had to use a post hole digger to get that much, I hope that's enough.
I've electrified the garden, if this doesn't work I'm going to hire some unemployed East German border guards.
Try Tractor Supply. That is where we got ours. I strung a low wire for awhile to teach our Border Collie to stay off the fence.
In housing electrical code regarding a grounding rod, its permissible to drive the rod at an angle to get full depth in the soil. I may be wrong, but I believe the grounding rod in this case is simply a reference for the digital pulsed system to what ground is. Not part of a personnel protection system used in grounding system. Nevertheless, I still used the proper copper wire gauge needed in such a system for connection to the grounding rod, and appropriate copper clamp and copper securing bolt.
I used such a solar-powered system to deter my dogs from digging under the fence. Its about 6" above the soil surface inside the fenceline. Can be troublesome when used this way as it doesn't take much foliage, dead or alive, to ground out the hot wire.
Illegal aliens from south of the border work cheaper.
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