Oh No! Raccoons

One of our neighbours had a family of raccoons living on top of his garage in an area sheltered next to the chimney and the overhang of the house roof (that roof is a a few feet higher than the garage roof). Today they moved under the front porch of our house. I suppose our goldfish pond will be an attraction for them as well. Hopefully they will not get into the SFG boxes. To be honest I hate having these creatures on my property. The Ottawa Humane Society website essentially advises to leave them alone and the problem will take care of itself after the birthing season. After they move out to a more natural habitat then the problem area can be fixed so that do not use it in the future.

I'll have to dig up the photos we took of a family of raccoons that tried to move in under our porch as they are not nice when there are little ones involved.

We took one of our sons advice when he had a problem and that was to take a few tennis balls(we used six that were in cans in the basement), threw them into a bowl of full strength ammonia over night and then the next morning I tossed two under the porch and put the others in a grocery bag and zip tied it. Needless to say, I didn't stand around waiting for the results.

Two days later, using a flashlight I noticed they were still there so out came the other four balls and under the porch they went. I checked the next evening and all were gone. Your mileage may vary but it's a cheap way to give a try at removing them. Old t-shirts or socks might work also, anything that will hold the smell for a while.

Good luck

Brad

Brad, thanks for that information. Interestingly we just used the tennis balls soaked in ammonia approach before I received your reply to my initial post. I'll have to wait and see if it works. One thing for sure and that is that the smell sure cleared me off the front porch in a hurry!

I have dealt with raccoon problems every year in the last 20+ years.  I am too much an animal softie (even tried to befriend a wild snake to try to keep it in the yard).

So, sometime around the late 1980's, we had a nice crop of silver queen corn, grown the original SFG way since it was Mel's original PBS show that turned me into a garden addict.

We had the most beautiful corn, higher than the roof of our house.  At dusk one night, we saw the first raccoon.  Of course, it was a big novelty, and we wanted to befriend it and convince it not to eat the corn.  I went in the house and got some of our dry dog food we had at the time.  I put it on a paper plate and then put out a bowl of water.

The raccoon enjoyed the meal and at dusk the following night, he appeared at our back door, scratching on the door until we heard and saw.  We put out more dogfood, and then I also had some leftovers from supper.  I went to the table to retrieve the leftovers, and the raccoon followed me into the house.  When he went to our couch and jumped up, we realized he had done this before elsewhere.  That's why he was so big and fat and friendly. 

I was brave enough to pet him, and he turned over to show me he wanted his belly rubbed.  He became Rocky I, and he spent a lot of time inside with us at night.  Eventually, he just came and went as he pleased through our dog door (our dog had died a few months earlier).  After learning that raccoons thrived on high-protein dry dog food, we bought 50 pounds and began feeding Rocky every night like he was ours.  He did not bother the corn, and we were quite happy.  Rocky even became a good watchdog, better than any dog we ever had.

Then, one night, Rocky brought a date to dinner--Blackie, a beautiful, pregnant female raccoon.  One night Rocky came into the house all torn to shreds.  He was bleeding with cuts all over.  We rushed him to the wildlife rescue center (Walden's Puddle), and the next day we found out that Rocky had died from his wounds.

Blackie soon became the new pet, but she would not come inside the house like Rocky.  She had three babies, and when she got tired of them, she dumped them off in the bottom of our barbecue grill.  The babies were fed well, including emergency milk from the pet store.

Two of the babies soon disappeared, while one stayed.  It was the lone female.  She soon became pregnant and decided the safest place to live was in our attic.  We didn't realize this until we heard babies squeaking in the ceiling.

After the babies were old enough to leave the attic at night, I did what I did not want to do, I caught them and put them inside a crate and the crate inside a Have-A-Heart trap to catch the mother.  When I caught her, I relocated them 30 miles away in a state park.

The next year, three new adult raccoons took up residence in the attic.  After catching all three and relocating them, we paid almost $8,000 to fix the attic and seal it off.  This worked for 10 or 12 years, but the process repeated itself again in the early 2000's.  It cost less this time to fix the problem due to out of work contractors, but it was not cheap.  Once again, the holes were sealed up.

The third time this happened was two years ago.  Once again, it was a pregnant mother with 3 babies.  The babies ended up in our dining room wall and had to be cut out by a drywall contractor.  He told us that most homeowner's insurance covered raccoons, and we contacted our insurance provider.  Sure enough, we were covered.  They sent an animal removal professional out to fix the problems.  It took 14 contractors size trash bags to remove all the free insulation the raccoons had provided.  All of our insulation had to be removed and reblown, and they added an enzyme to discourage the return.  This time, the holes were shut with a cement product.  Had we had to pay for it, it would have cost more than $15,000.

Additionally, one or more of the raccoons was a thief.  Up in the attic, the contractor found all kinds of shiny things including a water hose sprayer, two Christmas ornaments (unbroken), and somebody's keyring with keys.

It is now 2 years later, and we recently heard footsteps upstairs again.

The moral of this story: Never be nice to a raccoon.  If you have raccoons, and you don't get rid of them, then be prepared for thousands of dollars of trouble.  Hire an animal professional to come out and remove the raccoons.  The company that removed our was a no-kill animal company.  They only kill venomous snakes, because it is the law, and we have rattlesnake issues here.

One final note:  when the three babies were cut out of the wall and pulled out by the drywall man, he took the raccoons home and made pets out of them.  He lives on a large farm outside of the city, where it is legal to have raccoons as pets.

I mentioned elsewhere that I did battle with raccoons twenty years ago. They ate up all my sweet corn before helping themselves to the hundreds of acres of cow corn in a field behind me.

When I told the story at work the next day, a co-workers eyes lit up. He trained Blue Tick Coon Hounds, and usually had a couple around to get the dogs used to the scent. He offered me a free trap to catch as many I as I cold. "You're not going to do anything nasty to them are you?" I asked. He promised that he wouldn't. The next day he put a Have-a-heart trap in the back of my truck.  He also gave me a can of cheap tuna in oil. "Just punch  few holes in the can and set it inside." he instructed. "Oh, you may get a skunk. Just throw a blanket over the trap and he'll go to sleep." he warned. "Does he know that?" I asked. "Put it in your truck and bring it to me, I'll defuse the situation, so to speak".

Off I went home. I set the trap and went to bed.

I checked the next morning before anyone else was awake. Success! I could see the fur from 200 feet. As I approached it occurred to me that my quarry had finer fur than most raccoons, and seemed unconcerned about the trap.

Then it meowed. I had trapped my own long haired cat. I released her, and put the trap in the shed and went to work.

My friend said that I should try again, but put the trap in a different place, maybe by where the corn used to be. I tried again, and caught my cat again.

Lessons:

1. Raccoons are smarter than cats.

2. Beagles are not Coon Hounds (my beagle did not deter the thieves).
3. That old trick of growing squash between the corn so it looks like snakes doesn't work. The raccoons know there re no dangerous green snakes with yellowy-orange bulbous heads in Ontario

3. Sweet corn is still about two bucks a dozen some places in August.

trolleydriver wrote:Brad, thanks for that information. Interestingly we just used the tennis balls soaked in ammonia approach before I received your reply to my initial post. I'll have to wait and see if it works. One thing for sure and that is that the smell sure cleared me off the front porch in a hurry!

Yeah, ammonia's not exactly the air we or critters were created to breathe!

Good Luck.

Fred & RB, you're stories are great.  Got me laughing out loud here at work about the cat.    

I had a racoon digging for grubs in my yard up to a couple weeks ago.  She & the kits were living in a neighbors attic and were finally were removed Monday.  Before then I'd read about the ammonia deterrent, tried it in dishes everywhere and she would dig 6 inches from them.  I think it may have been too old.  So then I used diluted urine sprinkled around every night.  It worked!  But the interesting thing is, she only dug one hole in my SFG where it hadn't been planted.  Afterward, nada.  I guess MM just isn't racoon friendly.
 
Anyway, good luck, trollydriver.
CC

us Cajuns have the perfect answer to a coon problem.  Turn it into a delicacy folks stand in line for.

http://cappyandpegody.blogspot.com/2013/02/smoked-coon-gumbo.html

CapeCoddess wrote:Fred & RB, you're stories are great.  Got me laughing out loud here at work home about the cat.    CC

Ditto!

Agree ... great stories being presented on this thread. Very entertaining.

I can't tell if mother raccoon and her kits are still making their home beneath our porch. Yesterday our neighbour saw them going in and we could see one of them looking out. No sign of them since then but I expect they are still there.

I forgot to mention earlier that when I had racoons living in my chimney, I put a radio in the fireplace, found a rock station and blasted it, and then left for work. By that night they were gone.  Maybe you could do that under your porch?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:I forgot to mention earlier that when I had racoons living in my chimney, I put a radio in the fireplace, found a rock station and blasted it, and then left for work. By that night they were gone.  Maybe you could do that under your porch?

CC

CapeCoddess ... we tried the radio yesterday but not for very long. The radio approach worked for a neighbour when raccoons invaded his chimney. The problem is that I cannot get the radio into their den and if I leave it on the outside it may disturb our neighbours. The porch is made of concrete and they found a small opening that allowed them to get underneath. What I need is one of those really small transistor radios from yesteryear and that allow me to get it under the porch.

We will do another round of ammonia soaked tennis balls or rags today.

CapeCoddess wrote:I forgot to mention earlier that when I had racoons living in my chimney, I put a radio in the fireplace, found a rock station and blasted it, and then left for work. By that night they were gone.  Maybe you could do that under your porch?

CC

I tried the radio in the attic bit.  Our raccoons evidently were into music, but I guess raccoons living in Music City would be expected to like music. 

I tried Rush Limbaugh at high volume, and the raccoons didn't seem to care; they stayed put. 

I did notice that when I put a Vanderbilt football game on the radio one night, they left for several hours.  While the average person would say that the critters just left to find food and maybe a mate, I tend to believe that even raccoons cannot bring themselves to listen to a Vanderbilt football game.

Sounds like they are Conservative, music-loving racoons who aren't into sports.

So that's the reason why the raccoons moved onto my property. During the last provincial election I had a Conservative political sign on my front lawn.

sanderson wrote:   Sounds like they are Conservative, music-loving racoons who aren't into sports.

You must understand that Vanderbilt football is like a third-party candidate at a debate.  The game is over after the coin toss.

The darn critters are up there right now, scratching on the insulation.  I thought they had abandoned the attic once it got up to 110 degrees up there, but we had a cold snap last night and this morning, and I guess it has cooled off enough up there.  With temperatures expected to approach record lows tonight (mid-40's), they will probably extend their stay up there.  I cannot tell if there are babies this year, because I have not heard any squeaking.

There is a lovely state park 30-35 miles away with many square miles of forest waiting for them once we know that no babies will starve to death up there. 

My only solace is that we do not have bears in our area--yet.  Supposedly, they are creeping closer and closer each year.

One other thing I forgot to mention.  I once saw what looked like a raccoon and a coyote joining efforts in a hunt.  What I mean by "what looked like" refers to their actions.  They were definitely a raccoon and a juvenile coyote.  It appeared as though they were trying to surround a rabbit and close in on it.

Hi TD:
 
I had similar critter problem. Came with the house.

These busy little guys are bad news. They can wreak all sorts of havoc on insulation, wiring, and the masked bandits also carry a couple of viruses very dangerous to humans. If you have a cat or dog that tangles with them and gets saliva on their coat --- that can be transmitted to a human when they pet the friendly.

I purchased a live trap and a big bag of peanuts in the shell. Everything that walks on my property eats the peanuts, except the army of cats a neighbor seems to love to encourage.

I put some peanuts around and in the cage -- no time at all one raccoon - 1 squirrel - repeat about 20 times and 20 trips outside the area to wooded areas and they are gone for good. Still happy and sassy, but not in my yard. They enjoyed car rides well away and to all 4 points on the compass.

I was also surprised to pick up two skunks - my adventure in big game hunting.  These little guys, with their two liquid cannon that can be rotated in any direction and reach out 15 feet and I ---- was their big game.

I managed to figure out how to approach them with an old bed sheet on a long pole, which I dropped over the cage. Then I moved in my trusty 4 wheel furniture dolly with a small platform on it, and did my very best Frank Buck impersonation and got the trap on the dolly. The skunk did not seem to mind as long as he was in his "DEN."

Then I walked it through the village, out the other side and up the highway. No way I was putting that loaded cannon in my car. Caused a small sensation passing the bank and warning folks back inside.

One truck driver roared up  at 30 MPH hooting his noisemaker as I was gingerly crossing the highway. When I warned him he had better not do that, and why, he reversed away at 40 MPH.

At the release point - gingerly lifted cloth and release trap door lock - note direction and pushed off trap so that it landed upside down and door would fall open. I pushed, it fell, and by the time it hit the ground I had gone the other way in fastest time I had ever done a 1/4 mile in my then 70 years on the planet.

Skunk one - Mighty hunter happy to earn zero. Pushed my rig home and repeated the process a second time a couple of weeks later. Skunks 2 - Hunter zero -- a winner.

Today the cat lady is still turning out product. Unfortunately, all the cats, plus rabbits have attracted a new problem. This is a very sick looking cross between a coyote and probably a wolf - or very big dog. Actually, the lady is feeding this critter live and easy game.

I have met this nasty thing face to face a couple of times and we had a staring contest. She conceded Alpha dog position and moved off. However, since that I carry a machete with me if I have any duties to perform outside after dark.

Have to wait for this one to decide to move on -- she won't fit in my trap and discharging any sort of weapon, if I owned one, is an unlawful act in a built up area.

The thing creeps me out - but it is only trying to survive and I can't fault it for that.

Excellent account of you adventures msensi.

BTW I can't use peanuts around my property. My 7 year old grandson, who visits frequently, has a peanut allergy and I would not want to be responsible for any reaction he might have.

Msensi - don't you have animal control there?  Any reason they can't take care of that problem?  That's a huge concern for people's pets, small children, etc...

It appears that our family of raccoons has found another location. There has been no sign of them for a few days. 

Now I have another invader ... hornets. They are building a nest under one of our eaves. I can't let them continue so I've purchased a Raid spray to get rid of them. A number of years ago I got stung by a hornet and it was very painful. Hopefully they will not attack me.

Really funny stories about the coons. Reminds me of the Sears Optical TV commercial, here kitty-kitty & she lets the coon in the house.
 Growing up my pal had a coon for a pet. Every once in a while the coon would disappear. WE would walk about the neighborhood with raw bacon. Never took too long to get it home. Down the street we went with his coon's nose straight in the air following the bacon. Darn thing loved shiny stuff, house keys, watches & such were always disappearing.

My mom had a coon she raised as a school science experiment.  She had him for about 3 or 4 years.  He finally escaped and went off into the wilds of NH.  The townspeople would see him occasionally and let her know he was alive & well.

He was quite distinctive - he was 40 lbs and absolutely huge!

TCgardening wrote:Really funny stories about the coons. Reminds me of the Sears Optical TV commercial, here kitty-kitty & she lets the coon in the house.

I love that commercial.

One of our presidents had a coon for a pet IN THE WHITEHOUSE. Can't remember who, but the one with all the dogs.

CC