Raccoons being pests!!!

lol we have this issue to. when they are babies they make great pets but when they get older they are so great for a pet. lol. we have alot of them around here and some are as big as a med size dog. we have some fat ones lol. they get in the trash all the time and love to drag off tools, and stuff too. i was hang drying clothes last summer and the kids left some stuff on the line and well i watched 2 of them take off with my bath mat set that was on the clothes line lol. they are so pretty too. i lvoe to watch them play in the yard as well. they are smart as whips as well. they get int he garden alot too. if you go to a tracotr supply store they have some stuff tehre to help with this though. i forget what they call it. we throw scraps out so they stay out fo the feeders now and go for the scraps since they know they are for them. lol they figured it out after awhile i think.

I love Raccoons. They are clever and smart. When we lived in the woods for a few years they became our friends. They started to eat the birdseed we had out for the birds. They were so cute. So we started to leave out a bowl of cat food and some water for them on the deck. If we forgot to put the food out for them, they would walk up on the deck and stare through the sliding glass door. We also bought Rocky our favorite and most polite raccoon mar-o-bone dog treats. He would stand on the other side of the glass and take them out of our hands. When we had to move out of the country we left the new tenants feeding instructions. The raccoons weren't starving and stayed out of the garbage. So I just feed the intruders and they stay out of the garbage and other's seed. Of course I am an animal and bird nut and prefer their company to humans!

Melanie I can relate to this so well. For the last couple of years I have been at war with some raccoons around my house! I too feed my cats on the front porch, but the raccoons come and eat it too, whatever is left, if there is nothing, they dirty up the water dish and poop all over the porch! Some present for me, huh? I had beautiful potted plants on the porch too, they destroyed every one of them. I tried putting moth balls in them and everything, they got them everytime, now I can't put them out there. I tried catching them in an eco/friendly cage, my hubby took them off over 5 miles from here and guess what, they came back. I tried to catch them about 6 months ago, I caught a baby skunk. Now that was an ordeal, NO ONE would help me set the thing free. They offered to drown him in my pond, but I said no. I prayed and with God's help, I got the critter out and set him free, haven't seen him since though. But the raccoons they are still around. And now something is digging up the plants in the yard. So much for beautiful country living,huh? Good luck!

I dont have the answer,but I have the same problem,we had just moved to this house,its in the country so little critters are everywhere,we love to feed the birds,but the dang racoons keep eating all the feed at night. i read in a magazine to spray ammonia all around the feeder place racoons dont like the oder and wont bother , dont know if this works or not. WE also took our feeders in for now.