I am a very unhappy gardener this morning. I looked out the window at the snowfall. Not much is accumulating. But when I looked out my office window to my gooseberries in the front yard, I saw this.
That is a raccoon print. I've yet to ever have a raccoon in my garden before. Groundhogs yes. Raccoons no. I think he has taken up residence under my neighbor's dilapidated garage in his back yard. This year the plan is to grow a lot of sweet corn. 88 plants to be exact. Raccoons so love sweet corn. And keeping them out of the garden is impossible. I can only pray. I do have plans for squash under the sweet corn. Supposedly raccoons don't like the prickles of the squash plants. Somehow I don't think that will be enough to keep them from the banquet.
Oh no, good luck. I hope that booger was just passing through. I know all to well the headache (heartache) of dealing with critters in the garden...
ReplyDeleteTime to call an animal control officer or independent pest control/problem animal trapper. Coons are nothing but trouble. Up in Maine we are dealing with a rabies cluster, and it isn't pretty.
ReplyDeleteI'm sending good prickly vibes your way to keep the raccoon out of your corn. I have some form of varmint digging in my newly enriched soil (hoping it gets tired before I plant), so I feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteOh No! I just read somewhere that their droppings are dangerous to dogs, in addition to the rabies risk. I hope he is just passing through.
ReplyDeleteCoolest snow tracks ever, though.
Please don't take this wrong as I'm in Alaska and maybe we do it differently, but can you shoot it? (We don't have raccoons so I'm not sure where they rank in the chain of life). Or can you get a live trap from Fish and Game to relocate him or are raccoons free to live in city-like settings? Good luck...I know the damage animals can do....I had apple trees that a moose wiped out in one night.
ReplyDeleteI was raised in the Colorado mountains and that is how my folks would deal with it. But even if I had a gun, discharging a firearm in the city is probably forbidden. The two cops that live right next door would frown on it. Personally I don't know the rules about racoons in this area. I don't think the town will deal with it unless the animal looks sick.
DeleteMaybe you should tell the city that it looks like a sick raccoon in your opinion and they might come out.
DeleteNot good at all! I know in the city here if you have a problem they will lend you a live trap and they will come and get it for you. You can call the city on your neighbor...or Otherwise..I saw a program that said corn and antifreeze works too.
ReplyDeleteNoooo! We used a live trap to remove a groundhog that was terrorizing our garden last year. It took forever to catch him, but eventually it worked. Thankfully we had a friend who loaned the trap to us. They're very expensive.
ReplyDeleteOh Nooooooooo......maybe you can trap it?
ReplyDeleteLast year, some unknown critter was gnawing my romaine and leaf lettuce to the ground AND a crazy cat poopin' in my garden so I got a big bag of dog hair clippings from the groomer and sprinkled it around the outer foundation of the raised beds... Problem solved!
ReplyDeleteDo you have an SPCA ? they usually have traps to relocate the lil vermin that they may loan out to you :) BEST of luck! p.s don't kill the poor lil thing :( we had a family of 4 eating our catfood for some weeks until I caught them at it and shooed them away (from the safety of my house ofcourse)they never came back.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had to deal with raccoons yet (knock on wood), but I drive by a garden that, year after year, has a couple of strands of portable electric fence up around the corn. Since that gardener keeps putting up the fence, I've got to assume it does the job. For what it's worth, that will be my first line of defense if coons become a problem here. (I'm considering running a wire to keep the deer away anyway.)
ReplyDeleteOh dear. Its going to be an interesting growing season....
ReplyDeleteCan you set up a water repelant? it's motion-sensitive and sprays strong water spray in the direction of moving target. Helps keep away deer and groundhog in my back yard.
ReplyDeleteWe had the racoon trapped in our neighborhood with a have a heart trap.
ReplyDeleteTrap it and kill it. Works every time.
ReplyDeleteTrap it and kill it. Works every time.
ReplyDeleteDaphne,
ReplyDeletePerhaps by the time you have corn growing, the coons will have found another place to live. We have never had any problems with raccoons and we live out in the country. Hope spring melts the snow there soon.
We have at least 2 or 3 here in Newton that cross through the yard every night. They don't touch anything in the garden, but the one year I grew corn they knocked a stalk or 2 down every night. We put up 6 ft tall rabbit fencing around the bed (just stapled it to the bed) and they never got in again. Might be worth it for you to try?
ReplyDeleteGo to home depot and buy one of those hav a hart traps for racoon's. They are only about 40 to 50 bucks and are good at catching all kinds of garden pests. I catch squirrels with mine all the time.
ReplyDeleteThat's a raccoon print???? How interesting. Strange how they overlap. Hopefully they don't like your corn as much as they liked mine last summer.
ReplyDelete