Awhile back, I had one raccoon (I thought) that just wouldn't be intimidated in the usual way. I ended up throwing a boot at it. It left reluctantly.
About 15 minutes later, I realized there were three babies in my garage. The dumb things were so scared they wouldn't run out the garage door, they just wanted to hide.
It took half and hour or better to prod them outside.
Not long after, I accidentally shut a young raccoon in my garage overnight. Made a mess and was heck to try to get rid of.
Any advice for scaring them? We had one that came visiting every evening back in the spring/early summer. I had my husband bang his cane on the ground, had our dog going ballistic at the sliding glass door (the ‘coon was hanging to the underside of the deck, about 10 ft from the door), I kept a pile of pebbles near the door to toss at the bugger. He was fearless. I assume he was after my tomatoes (do they eat them?), but I don’t know. The last night he came visiting, hubby got him with the garden hose, right in the face. I felt bad for him, but really hoped that would make him leave and decide we weren’t neighborly...I guess it worked?
He seemed kinda small, maybe he was young, and found his way back into the wild...I don’t know.
I haven’t had that problem. I put out dog food and bread every night and they come and eat. They are pettable if I sit out with them. Very gentle. Sometimes I set up a kiddie pool for them and they are hilarious in there rooting around for dog food.
parsy, who loves his critters
Living out in the woods here in Kentucky, I’m constantly plagued with coons and possums. The coons ate all my wife’s
grapes and fuji apples this year and she was furious.
I have a squirrel feeder our back about 10 feet up in a tree and every now and again a coon will figure out how to navigate an electric fence to get over to the tree and munch the squirrels corn.
I’ve found you cannot run a possum or coon off and expect it to stay gone. They will be back! Guaranteed!!
A 20 guage with a light load will work every time. If the shot don’t kill them or you just manage to get a few pellets in one... he won’t be back. Pomise!
Shot placement!
I woke up to what sounded like an eathquake knocking over things in our garage. Racoon trapped in there had tipped over shelves, etc...right on to a brand spankin new car we had just bought.
It wasn't one of our happiest days..
sw