Any plants raccoons will ignore?

DianeZone7OK 9/11/2022, 4:39 pm

I have had a critter of some sort raiding the melons out of my raised beds for a few weeks now. I assume it's a coon, because it carries the fruit away. I've tried hanging plastic bags around the garden that will blow in the wind but they haven't stopped it. I haven't been consistent about remembering to leave the porch light on. I read that they hate peppermint oil for it's smell, but last night he left claw marks on a fruit that was hiding behind a bunch of peppermint.

Today I got 3 ladders that were nearby and rigged them as obstacles to get into my garden area. Maybe if they crash down on him it will deter him, even for a day or two until that last melon ripens... I have not been able to think of anything to put around the melons themselves to prevent access, like you might put bags around your apples to keep bugs away.

This is my first raiding critter in many years of gardening. My fall stuff is coming in now - nice cabbage and broccoli plants, potatoes getting started, carrot and spinach and lettuce and pea seeds just sprouting. From your collective experience, I'm wondering if any of these non-fruit items are likely to interest the coon, or if maybe it will just go away now that melon season is over. thinking

**sanderson** 9/21/2022, 3:14 pm

Diane, I see no one offered a solution. Shocked

Have you looked through the 29 threads on critter control? Chicken wire cages? I remember one person grew a small garden for wildlife at the back of the property to keep them away from the people garden. Not everyone has that much room. Can you use a Havahart trap and legally relocate?

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/search?search_keywords=critter&typerecherche=interne&show_results=topics

DianeZone7OK 9/21/2022, 5:59 pm

Well I have been putting a porch light on that points at the garden, and I booby trapped the access point to the area, and it seems to have slowed him/her down for now. I got 2 of the last 3 melons anyway. So far no interest in the other things I've planted. I do know someone with a trap if I need to go that route.

**sanderson** 9/21/2022, 6:37 pm

When I searched for racoons in gardens, one of the first thing I read was that they like melons. Wink

OhioGardener 9/21/2022, 7:51 pm

To give you an idea how determined raccoons are, this year they ate my entire Gooseberry crop. I put a 4' welded wire fence around each bush to keep them from eating the fruit. And, the bushes are totally covered with very sharp little thorns that makes picking the berries very difficult. But, the raccoons climbed over the 4' wire fence, down the other side, picked and ate every single one of the berries, and climbed back out of the fence. And, they cleaned out all 4 plants completely. The berries were almost ripe enough for me to pick for a Gooseberry Pie, but they never made it there.

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Any plants raccoons will ignore?

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