Last night there was a very insistant racoon on our deck. He'd come after either some birdfood, or catfood. We kept chasing him away while trying to watch LOST, and then we went to sleep. About an hour later I was awakened by a crash on the deck. This is what I found this morning... :mad:
He had knocked it over in his attempt to get to the birdfeeder. I was able to fix it up, but am very concerned about what I've read about racoons going after pond fish and knocking plants into the pond in their attempts!
They are nasty little buggers that will destroy everything. I've never had problems with them but we have a friend a mile away that is infested with the badits.
~~Tam~ You can bury all your troubles by digging in the dirt.
They are very smart and good fishers so you've got a problem on your hands. With all the food you have around (cat food, bird food, fish) he's not going to go away on his own. You could call animal control and see if they can help you in any way.
Make sure when putting your pond together that you make places for fish to hide: large rocks or cinder blocks with holes and such. Anchor your pots well. Raccoons kept eating all of my water hyacinth so I don't try to keep it any more.But my pond is deep enough and has many places for the fish to keep safe so they don't get many that way. I also get cheap fish, not those expensive koi.
~Tina
Drama Free Zone. What every gardener loves the most, Begins and ends in rich compost. (Tina)
Thanks all! Tina - I, too, will get inexpensive fish - I will be getting some koi, but the very tiny ones that are only a few dollars. And I already have some goldfish that have grown for a couple of years and are a nice size to put out there - they were only 25 cents each.
I think we will borrow our neighbor's Havaheart trap again and see what we can do. A couple of years ago, when trying to trap the woodchucks, a young racoon was trapped by mistake. This was before THEY were giving us any troubles. The mother racoon was totally beside herself - pounding on the trap and SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAMING bright and early that morning. Don had to chase her away just so he could release the trap and let the young one out. This time, he'll take them up to the nature preserve if he's lucky enough to trap any!
Yes, They can swim if they need to but don't very often. I usually get feeder fish about 10/$1.00. But not often. Haven't needed new ones for several years. They multiply and some do get 'caught' on occasion. Other things fish here, too. I've seen owls and hawks fishing. They are allowed. I am not attached to the fish.
~Tina
Drama Free Zone. What every gardener loves the most, Begins and ends in rich compost. (Tina)
We have a raccoon problem at our house too! They get into our bird feeders and ruin everything! They even poop in our big one! It makes me so mad! We can chase them away but they are back before long! That are nasty little buggers!!!
Well... they are at it again - or should I say he??? He's been making a lot of noise on our deck the past several weeks, and must be really desperate for food, because the past few nights he's been attacking my bee trap, and last night actually knocked the whole hook and trap down, breaking the glass on the lip into several pieces and pouring out all the dead bees inside. He left quite the mess for me to clean up!
Now I am really getting nervous about the pond being so much shallower than Don originally thought, because I've been reading that it needs to be 3-4 feet so the racoons can't reach the fish!
I've eaten it ONE time in the mountains of North Carolina. I was staying with one of the local families there. Nearly 100% of the meat they ate they hunted or caught in the streams. They would NOT eat possum, but ate a lot of other animals. I've eaten rabbit, squirrel, raccoon, deer and trout at their house. The Mom made the BEST deer stew you ever tasted. And their biscuits and cornbread were to DIE for. I still keep up with them to this day. They are like a second family to me.
Kingdoms RAGE and go to war...but the PEasants plant potatoes..
EARTH FIRST! (we'll strip-mine the OTHER planets later.)
lynne, sorry about your pests, the live trap and relocating it is a good idea. could you go ahead and put pond netting over your pond so they wont start a habit in there? if you use netting, somehow, stake it so frogs can get in and out, but not anything else! i have to buy some for the fall, i am not battling the leaves another year!
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