Way OT: Dealing with criminal trash pandas
We had a raccoon problem and had to hire a company to trap them (illegal in my town to do it yourself). They placed traps out and put those big s’mores marshmallows in them (apparently the white stands out to them). Worked super well—we got 6 of them + 1 opossum.
Raccoons have a huge range, so you have to take them like 30 miles to keep them from coming back.
Good luck. I hate those trash pandas.
Not exactly the same, but we had an issue with skunks tearing up our lawn looking for grubs. We installed a motion sensor light shining right on the affected areas. Being that skunks are nocturnal it was enough to scare them away for the most part. Could work for raccoons too.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:05 AM ^
We had a minor raccoon problem back in college when we lived on Dewey Street. We poured a little ammonia on our garbage after we put it out and that solved our problem. That’s worth a shot.
April 28th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
Ammonia works for skunks too. They have excellent smell (that’s how they find grubs) and hate the ammonia uber scent. The problem is you have to keep reapplying it because they’re persistent fuckers and the scent fades, especially in the rain of course.
Back in the early 90s a bunch of guys on the track team lived near there. They also had a raccoon problem. Its hide ended up hanging on the wall with a ~.22” hole in it. I’m not sure what happened to the rest of the raccoon. One of the guys who lived there was from southern OH. I am pretty sure raccoons are a staple of the diet down there, so stew is a distinct possibility.
April 28th, 2018 at 11:27 AM ^
Or just get rid of the bird feeder.
April 28th, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
Bird seed during the day, poison at night. Or just call Smith and Wesson.
you could just let them enjoy the bird feeders, birds are dumb anyway, raccoons are much cooler
problem solved.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:31 AM ^
Someone here is in IT.
"It's not a bug, it's a feature!"
getting rid of the racoons isn't going to work. Get used to them. Maybe try installing the feeder on top of a pole. Less racoons/birdshit on deck.
I'll go with this response. If its not racoons, the squirrels will eat anything - everything - you put out for birds. Have you actually seen the racoons? They don't usually go after bird feeders, anyway, they'd prefer the birds (and your trash cans). Squirrels, OTOH... If some bird nests get destroyed, look at racoon nation. If bird food is getting torn up, probably squirrels.
In either case, learn to live with it because nature lives in the woods. You can't just relocate the entirety of woodsland animal life, and something else will piss you off next week.
Wait for the deer to start eating your flowers...
Just saying.
We got a Norwich terrier puppy last summer. She has terrorized the chipmunk and mouse population. She’s brought me 2 dead chipmunks and a dead mouse. She’s outscored our 3 year old Scottie 3-1. I give her 50-50 odds she’s going to catch the squirrels that love to get into our bird feeders. That little dog is fast.
I was in a summer-long war with them last year. Brought me zero pleasure but it was lbpeley about 25 and chipmunks 0. They are quite destructive and there's really no way to deal with them other than lethally. I've only seen 2 or 3 this year so far. If it stays that way we won't have a problem.
while the moles will eat many of the flowering bulbs underground.
Take my advice and let nature win for you: live trap several wolverines and release them in your yard. NOTHING will mess with a yard full of Wolverines!
And they are cunning.
linguists?
And if they are flying squirrels there will truly be no stopping them
April 28th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
Grease the pole.
Get a trap, put some cat food or whatever in there. If you don’t want to shoot and dump it (.22 works well), just release it somewhere in the middle of nowhere
Watched a fascinating documentary about urbanized racoon populations in Toronto. Those guys are very mobile and cover a huge range, but are typically territorial. If you remove the raccoon from its territory, adjacent raccoons will soon realize it and move in. You'll be calling the trappers for one raccoon after another.
Plus, as mentioned above, wildlife is part and parcel of living near the woods. Enjoy them.
April 28th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
A big part of the problem is Toronto's recycling program, which gives everybody green bins to put food and other organic waste out for recycling. The idea is that this will get made into compost, which can be sold. The old green bins were thoughtfully easy to open, so of course it ended up being a racoon feeding program as well.
In the last couple of years the city has been introducing racoon-proof green bins. Shortly after they were introduced, though, the racoons had figured out how to open them. I imagine a racoon somewhere getting rich with a seminar on how to open them.
So, this is going to be a recurring problem, as you have a great food source - the birdfeeder. Even if you remove the current (1? 3? 10?) racoons after it, next year or the year after, some more will find it and you're back to square 1
The best way to solve the problem is to remove the food source. Buuuut since you probably really like watching the birds at the feeder, the next best solution would be to try to racoon proof it via hanging on a wire, shields, etc. Lots of ideas online on how to do this
If you're dead set on the sisyphean battle of leaving the feeder as is, and only dealing directly with the racoons, the hav-a-hart traps work well. Bait with peanut butter and marshmallows
Like CTS said, you have to take them a long ways to get rid of them, which presents several problems - you are transporting a critter that could have parasites/disease, which is not the best. Also you're transporting it out of its home range, which can result in low survival rates of translocated racoons. Third, you generally are not permitted to release them on public land in most states, which means you are stuck breaking the law, or need to get permission from someone 10+ miles away
April 28th, 2018 at 11:17 PM ^
And put them back out in the morning.
Raccoons are nocturnal, so this has worked for us.
You can drown them in some water, if you catch them with live traps. Not very humane but does not require firearms.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
For dealing with evil chipmunks. A 5gal bucket, ramp and bird seed works well.
Ces bâtards de rats! Quoi qu'il en soit, laisser tomber ceci ici.
Deux joueurs qui ont fait le voyage à Paris finiront par transférer. Le moment reste à déterminer.
Diese ratten Bastarde! Wie auch immer, ich have das hier fallen lassen.
Zwei Spieler, die die Reise nach Paris gemacht haben, werden schließlich transferiert. Der Zeitpunkt muss noch bestimmt werden.
Ja ja
+ eins
Bien sur
This is what worries me about these European excursions:
One trip to Paris and the whole team will come back sounding like Pepe Le Pew.
include the one you have teased would be 8/9 on the disappointed they're leaving scale?
As a homeowner "you or someone you designate, are allowed to hunt raccoons who do, or are about to do damage to your property any time of the year. No license is required ".
From the DNR hunting and regulations handbook.
edit: whoops. Didn't read your whole post. The only way to get rid of racoons is to eliminate the food source.
I do this for a living. Get yourself a live trap I recommend a hard plastic shell type versus a cage type. Put it right out under the bird feeder with something sweet as bait such as honey buns, Pop tarts, Smores, ect. Sometimes sardines or cat food work better this time of year as well. Once you catch them you need to take them at least 35 miles away as the croe flies or they will come back. You can also use a trash bag and some duct tape to connect it to your tailpipe if you get the plastic shell trap which is more humane than the bucket of water solution many use.
Again. What the fuck is wrong with you?
If you find yourself repeatedly asking people "what the fuck is wrong with you?" you should strongly consider the possibility that "what the fuck is wrong" is not, in fact, with them.
April 28th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
Ehh, gassing or drowning an animal when there are better options available is pretty fucked up. Just shoot the damn things.
Bullet to the head is always the most humane but the OP said no firearms
Clearly you don’t realize that by catch and release your just giving someone else the problem. A raccoon that gets into trash and buildings will always go back to doing that, they don’t learn their lesson. So, most of the time, putting it down as humanly as possible is not a callous solution. My father used to trap them, walk the cage to the end of the dock and drop them in with rope, come back an hour or two later... was not my favorite chore.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:54 AM ^
I've dealth with dozens and dozens of them in my life. If you don't have the ability to secure your trash, which isn't really that hard, then you need to learn to shoot. Aside from opossums, they are the easiest pest animal to shoot and kill. Drowning them or poisoning them is in no way humane.
In one of the counties I work in we are required by law to put raccoons down because there are too many for the area to support so depending on where the OP is located he may be doing the right thing by not releasing them
Get out of here with that crap.
April 28th, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
It's called reality. Have you ever been off the pavement or out of a Starbucks before?
Assuming the feeder are a few feet off the ground you can also attach steel flashing to the poles that hold up the bird feeders. Raccoons and squirrels both cannot grip flashing so they can't climb up it. Make sure the flashing you get is as wide as possible and probably attach at least enough to cover a 3 foot section of the poles. If you need 2 sections of flashing to do that make sure you attach the bottom section first and then the upper piece over top of that sobot doesn't create a hand hold for them halfway up the flashing.
They may still come for the seeds that fall from the birds but it'll help. Also make sure your chimneys are capped because once they make coming around a habit they may decide to stay and it is baby season.