Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What to Know About Raccoons in Your Yard
Family Handyman ^ | 4/10/24 | Toni DeBella

Posted on 06/04/2024 10:30:10 AM PDT by DallasBiff

On Twitter the other day, I ran across a story about a Philadelphia woman who caught a raccoon lounging in her hammock. I once had a similar encounter with a mischievous band of raccoons at my California home.

Late one night, I awoke to creaking and squeaking sounds in the backyard. I turned on the porch light to discover a family of raccoons (aka a nursery or gaze) having a grand old time on my son’s playground set.

On top of seemingly enjoying swinging, we know that raccoons can also be curious, often rummaging through trash bins looking for dinner.

Did you also know raccoons are highly intelligent and dexterous? They can break into unlocked homes by turning doorknobs or flipping a latch on a dog door. And once in the kitchen, raccoons have been known to unscrew the lid from a peanut butter jar and other food containers!

(Excerpt) Read more at familyhandyman.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: animal; raccoon
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-49 next last
To: DallasBiff

At my daughters home in Clearwater, she had ordered dog food which had been left at her front door. When she came home, all three bags had been dragged across the street and emptied. My daughter learned not to order any kind of food items, for dog consumption or otherwise. My daughter now has four bid dogs (including 3 German shepherds) and the racoon problem has disappeared, although they are still in the neighborhood. But, the deadliest of the dogs is a 50 lb. yellow dog with blue eyes; nothing gets into the backyard that survives her view.


21 posted on 06/04/2024 11:12:36 AM PDT by adorno (CCH)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

Little triangular holes? Skunk.
Trash-panda (coon) aren’t much into digging.

When I lived on the farm, I dispatched every coon I could.


22 posted on 06/04/2024 11:13:24 AM PDT by waterhill (I Believe! Eph. 5:11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: joshua c
they also seem to have a pretty good dental plan

LOL,I guess when they go dumpster diving they avoid the sweets

23 posted on 06/04/2024 11:13:47 AM PDT by DallasBiff (Apology not accepted.la is not the sharpest knife in the drawer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

Using a .22 rifle, from boy scout days, helped remind coons that my back yard was mine.

My buddy had them eating his Koi out of his pond, so he started shooting them this way. The cops came, he showed them the rifle and the round he was using, they told him there was no problem.

Use a shotshell. There is no danger of downrange scatter. Coons get close enough to hit with a stick. I just took his means, and took them out of my 1/2 back yard.

If you allow one to drink water or eat dog or cat food, they will keep coming. Like Bidens border, it will never end.


24 posted on 06/04/2024 11:15:02 AM PDT by Glad2bnuts (“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: We should have set up ambushes...paraphrased)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

They’re allergic to pb.


25 posted on 06/04/2024 11:19:10 AM PDT by sasquatch (Do NOT forget Ashli Babbit! c/o piytar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Does so

[... I love in black bear zone...]

As long as the Misses is OK with it. To each their own.


26 posted on 06/04/2024 11:19:34 AM PDT by Farmerbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: All

Here in the vast tundra of NE Georgia, we have coons, skunks, and armadillos. I put out grub control and other products, but they keep coming back.


27 posted on 06/04/2024 11:20:51 AM PDT by Dacula (Trust your heart and follow the Lord Jesus Christ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

Skunks dig for grubs, so that’s a possibility.


28 posted on 06/04/2024 11:39:34 AM PDT by Disambiguator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

I had a family of raccoons coming through my bedroom window screen.

They are very destructive pests.


29 posted on 06/04/2024 11:45:59 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

“its a coon”

I don’t think you are supposed to say that anymore.


30 posted on 06/04/2024 11:54:04 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: woodbutcher1963

[I don’t think you are supposed to say that anymore.]


Not that kinda coon. The kind it’s still legal to hunt.


31 posted on 06/04/2024 12:08:14 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

Put out a nice flat pan a mixture of Coke or Pepsi with a dash of sugar and a picker-upper of warfarin.


32 posted on 06/04/2024 12:37:03 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

I have a large front porch where we have coffee in the morning and rattle on with family or friends in the evening. Last week I put together a bag of garden goodies for my neighbor but when he went home he forgot to take the bag with him. I didn’t know that until the next morning when the porch looked like there was a massacre from tomato parts and juice everywhere. They ate all the blackberries, but didn’t touch the cucumbers.


33 posted on 06/04/2024 12:39:08 PM PDT by Bearshouse (Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. *Thomas Jefferson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

I had one raiding my birdcake feeders (2) every night. I spent $39 for an outdoor cam (Amazon) and caught the raccoon “red-handed” (because I had put Cayenne pepper on the birdcake). I put spikes on the poles, and tried the cayenne pepper, but nothing worked. The local pest control folks wanted a mere $1000 to trap and take it away (with no guarantee!). I spent another $49 on Amazon and got a “coon-sized” Hav-A-Heart like trap. Caught the raccoon the second night (using birdcake since he seemed to like it so well). He and I took a very nice ride out into the countryside. I bet he likes his new home better than MY old one! Now the birds are enjoying the birdcake.


34 posted on 06/04/2024 1:01:35 PM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag (Accepting a false premise initiates conversational defeat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

I had this old beater I used to commute in it was a Honda Civic DX, handled like a go-kart anyway... I did some head work on it and finished up and there’s a 20 mile Loop that I’ll take to test out cars after I get done wrenching... so I get down the back stretch of this Loop and this raccoon was standing up on his hind legs in the middle of the road and appeared kind of drunk and sweaty looking, needless to say I took it out with a slight swerve to left before it reached the yard that it was heading towards.


35 posted on 06/04/2024 2:35:24 PM PDT by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

Rodents.


36 posted on 06/04/2024 2:37:51 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (Get out of the matrix and get a real life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DIRTYSECRET

“No reason why raccoons can’t be domesticated. Who wants to?”

My mother raised one from a pup. Me and Dad couldn’t get near it but it sure loved Mom.


37 posted on 06/04/2024 2:46:43 PM PDT by dljordan (What would Michael Collins do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco
There is either a coon or a skunk tearing up my front lawn at night. From what I’ve read, I suspect its a coon.

In South Texas, the prime suspect for lawn damage is the Armadillo. They can smell/hear/Spidey Sense the grubs in your lawn

38 posted on 06/04/2024 3:15:31 PM PDT by Pilsner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Dave911
Might want to put down some grub control.

Good advice, thanks

39 posted on 06/04/2024 3:38:19 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

San Rafael, Ca. or thereabouts there is a Raccoon Ct. for a good reason.

One guy would trap them and then shoot them with a .22. Put them in the garbage. Probably illegal on both counts. He killed 39 of them.


40 posted on 06/04/2024 6:07:25 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-49 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson