Last year was the first year for my peach tree to bear fruit and it did, many, many peaches. This year there would have been even more, but in one night (it seems) they were all gone.
My neighbor claims it is raccoons, but I can't be sure. We have a plum tree on the other side of the house that has always been left alone.
What can we do? We had raccoons under the deck one year and played rap music (!), and put rags soaked in ammonia under there and they left, but that won't work with this tree. Or would it?
I don't have raccoons but I do have possums (not opossums). A possum is smart, strong, agile climber, dedicated to the task of getting your fruit and with good teeth. Is that like a raccoon? If so only wire mesh that they cannot chew through or electric tape that they cannot get past will keep them off ripe fruit.
, many, many peaches. This year there would have been even more, but in one night (it seems) they were all gone.
tree on the other side of the house that has always been left alone.
music (!), and put rags soaked in ammonia under there and they left, but th at won't work with this tree. Or would it?
We just got done -- I hope! -- with another raccoon episode. He/she/it use dt to come in the cat door, scarfed cat's food; messed his water dish. Th at's when I was told that raccoons don't have salivary glands (???) and hav e to wash their food? It took dim me a while to grok (dated) what was happ ening.
Our local shelter used to let us check out cages to catch critters; I once caught a whole possum family over a week's time. Now they don't even RENT cages; "We don't pick up live animals" some wording like that. La-di-dah!
Can't afford a commercial cage, so had to do the obvious AGAIN. Block up t he cat door and let cat enter/exit via bedroom window. Last time I was too stupid to provide steps, so cat ruined wallpaper scratching his way up.
Good luck on your raccoon problem! Does your community have an animal shel ter that might help?
Higgs posts to ask how to flush his toilet ;) But, that is besides the point. Maybe where he lives rabies is not endemic but it is here. Cat door, to me is a dumb idea. He's not the first to come down in the morning to find a raccoon eating cat food in his house. Hav-a-hart type trap is not hard or expensive to make yourself. I made one with a chicken wire frame and a sliding door tripped by bait wire in the back of the trap. Got a real Hav-a-hart when I caught a skunk in my home made trap and had trouble getting rid of it.
(Reacts excitedly): Now here's a situation ripe for scientific investigation. All it takes is 'n' quantity of "virgin" raccoons -- no, no, not what you think -- 'coons not heretofore exposed to any school of music. Equal number of cages, properly fitted out (food, drink, elimination, rest)
Musical device hooked up to individual speaker in each case -- stereo good but not crucial -- with controls accessible to experimenters.
Monitors attached to each 'coon -- heart, lungs, brain; others to be determined by experimental protocol, as a function of desired outcomes.
Trained experimenters to monitor the monitors.
And finally, and must crucially, a selection of music from rap to Streisand to grand opera (German AND Italian; SO different!), Australian aboriginal performed by didgeridoo artist, and on and on.
Objective: Establish which is most effective in keeping raccoons away -- while not causing the neighbors to call the police -- not forgetting to factor in latitude (temperature; day vs night; precipitation; other environmental variables.
In every group there's at least one thin skinned humorless miscreant... typically those who get their hackles up over harmless racial wit are the closet racists, and those holier than thou pretenders are the most dangerous.
"Brooklyn1" had already been flagged for general crankiness and occasional asshattery but I finally sent him from 'mark as read' to 'delete from group.'
Ever taken an implicit assumption test for racism? I have, according to that test I don't show implicit racial bias. I guess I should thank my 5th grade teacher, Mr. T, who was *my* 'Sir' and a very fine man indeed. So can the projection and rationalization "Brooklyn1." Maybe I am cranky, but I don't like casual racism and I see far too much of it.
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