Raccoons!

BooHoo,

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?

TIA,

Julie

Reply to
julie.nils
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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.

D
Reply to
David Hare-Scott

Get the largest Hav-a-hart trap and bait with peanut butter. You can catch and release or kill raccoons or groundhogs.

Reply to
Frank

, 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?

(Thinking: Wish I still had my son's old .22)

HB

Reply to
Higgs Boson

Now Higgs, what sort of good patriotic old boy are you that you don't even have a .22 in your house?

I could lend you one but you're a bit too far away and it'd probably result in me losing my Gun Licence if I did such a thing anyway.......

Reply to
Fran Farmer

Wouldn't rap attract coons?

Reply to
Brooklyn1

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.

Reply to
Frank

Good point. Barbra Streisand music would be better.

Reply to
Frank

(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.

Ah, science -- isn't it wonderful!

HB

Reply to
Higgs Boson

Throw in global warming and get a government grant.

Reply to
Frank

OK then.

*plonk*
Reply to
Pat Kiewicz

I thought it was funny and thinking about it, don't want my Senator Coons running around my back yard.

Reply to
Frank

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.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

Politically correct, I am not, but believe a couple of years ago it was Pat who gave me some very good help identifying a pesky weed.

Reply to
Frank

I doubt anyone gives a rap... Pat is the weed.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

"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.

Reply to
Pat Kiewicz

I think we can all get along. Nobody's perfect.

Reply to
Frank

Hmmm, my rough take on the difference is that a possum is much much smarter. What kind of wire deters a possum?

I have opossums and raccoons here, though being piedmont urban, Atlanta, not in large numbers.

I also have peaches disappear in one night. I wonder which is the most likely perpetrator?

Looking for fence wire on the cheap. 1/2" hardware cloth is pricey in quantity. What about regular welded wire?

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Or a mix?

Reply to
pentapus

If you're in the US you are refering to Opossums.

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Pointy headed rednecks refer to Opossums as possums because due to their lack of education they are monosyllabic.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

When I had peach trees I saw groundhogs run off with them. They would also burrow under chicken wire fencing around my garden.

Reply to
Frank

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