Raccoons in my trash!

[SKR8PN]

The neighbor directly across the road from us, found out the hard way about storing dog food in a plastic tub, inside a shed that was attached to the dog run. Between the rats and the raccoons, he (and WE) ended up with one heck of a mess to deal with. It took me all summer just to get rid of the rats. NOW..........the farmer across the road and catty-cornered from us, has chickens/goats etc. , and the rat problem started again this past winter. I trapped 4 1/2 rats, and the problem seems to have subsided again.......for now anyway.

 

[TanksHill]

4 1/2 rats???? What happened to the other half? Oh, never mind please don't tell me.

 

[LauraJean]

Living in the country is a trade off.........

As distasteful as it may seem, your going to have to decide which you want the most: fresh eggs from your hens or nightly visits from your raccoon friends. You can't have both. I have had to dispatch 4 raccoons, 2 ferrel cats, and 3 bunnies so far this summer.

I still have my hens and my garden.....so far.

I'm not sure what you mean that "I can't have both". I already have the chickens, and I can't make the raccoons move away, so I don't think it's up to me.

I just need to figure out what measures to take to secure both chickens and trash the best way possible. There's lots of people who live in the country successfully manage to keep chickens, so I just need to figure out what measures those people have taken that work.

My coop seems pretty secure, but my plan is to completely enclose it inside a run using hardware cloth on all sides, including the bottom using those deep staples.

I'm going to look at sheds today. I still can't figure out how a raccoon could get into a completely closed brand new shed with locking doors and no windows. I can understand them squeezing in through a gap, or pushing an old floor board or whatever, but a brand new shed should be pretty tight.

It's discouraging to hear people saying that there's 'nothing I can do' against raccoons. All the other people around here have chickens, geese, bunnies, farms, etc., and I'm sure they have trash too. Surely there are measures that can be taken. I just thought it would be easier for me to find out here online than by canvassing my neighborhood (being disabled makes it hard to get to some of these woodsy house locations).

okay, well.... I'll keep researching. I need a shed regardless of the trash issue, so I still might as well go check some out. Maybe that will cheer me up.

 

[SKR8PN]

LauraJean.........a raccoon(and rats for that matter) WILL eat and claw their way into a wooden structure, even if it is inside an enclosed area.
My one friend has a steel sided pole barn with his shop in it. His DOG lives in there at night, but NO FOOD. The raccoons have dug and clawed their way under and thru a wall, climbed up the INSIDE of the wall(steel siding on the outside, drywall on the inside with insulation in between) to make a nest in the attic. This is in a building with NO FOOD and NO TRASH kept inside. If you give them enough reason, they WILL get into your shed. Just having chickens is enough to attract them.

 

[fl_deb]

Not to add to the naysayers, but more of warning, the staples do not work! You need to use screws, similair to those used for attaching lathe. they have a washer as part of the screw head, because raccoons will spend hours and hours pulling and pushing on hardware cloth trying to find weak point entries. And they are very strong animals!

Use 1/4 inch cloth to keep mice and rats out and build tightly(using tight or close tolerences) because if opening is greater than 1/4 inch mice can get in, greater than 1/2 inch opening and rats can get in.

For garbage, maybe hanging it like you were camping? Cheap anyway.

Good luck!

Take care of you and yours,

Deb

 

[tortoise]

Get a good proven coon dog - or a terrier, and put in an invisible fence. Let the dog out at night. Problem soved - shed or no shed.

When I lived at my other house, I had contant issues with coons, fox, and feral cats.

Now we have invisible fence with the dogs. I leave the rabbit shed open at night even. In winter, you can see wildlife tracks in all the other yards, but they don't come into ours!

 

[Jaxom]

I too don't want to add to the naysayer's. But of all the wild life indigenous to the america's, racoons are one of the smartest if not the smartest.

Coon story #1

While camping with some friends, I was the only fisherman of the group. After spending the day fishing I wasn't feeling so well, so I decided to lay down, when the rest of my buddies decided to go on a midnight hike/star gazing. It was rather warm out, so I left the flaps of my tent open but had the screen closed so bugs wouldn't get in my tent.

One of my friends brought along his 14yr old younger brother who insisted on having chocolate milk with ever meal. He'd left the bottle of hershy's up on the picnic table in the middle of the camp. I swear to this day, I watched as a coon jumped up on the table. Popped off the plastic cap, then opened that pull top then took the bottle by the neck and began guzzzling the chocolate syrup! He looked like some frat guy guzzling a beer bong or something doing this. Something must have spooked him, because he stopped suddenly, then gripping the bottle in the middle with it's teeth and then disappeared into the woods with it. Looked for it the next day, but never did find it.

Coon story #2

While camping by myself. I know they're smart critters. I have a giant rubbermaid cooler. So after closing and locking it, I wrapped two bunges around it. Then shoved it under a picnic table. During the night, the coons got to it. I'd never seen this before, but they knawed through the bunges so they could then unlock it and open it up. Fortnunilly by having stuck it under the picnic table they couldn't open it that far, only mangage to get at a loaf of bread. But still, made one heck of a mess!


LauraJean,

I don't think anyone here is trying to give you the wrong advice. I'm quite sure that if you ask the nieghbors around you that many of them would say the same things we are. While rats and mice are hard enough to deal with, racoons are in a class all by thier own when it comes to creative ways to get into things. Example, someone mentioned using some rope and raising the garbage up off the ground. I've done this myself while camping in bear country. One of my friends did this too while camping. Middle of the night he heard a bunch of noise outside. A racoon had climbed up the tree he'd hung the trash in and then down the rope it was suspened from and knawed into the bag. The noise he had heard was all the garbage hitting the ground. He'd also hung his food supplies in another tree, luckily the racoon hadn't climbed that one, or he would have had to end his trip early!

I know this isn't something you're going to want to hear. But should you manage to work something out with the garbage, those racoons will turn their attention to the chicken coop. I don't have one, yet, but I've been doing alot of reading on them and such. Fl_deb mentions using 1/4" cloth. If you will noticed on websites like Backyardchickens.com, if you look at the many examples of coops you'll see that 1/4 cloth wrapped around the bottom few feet of the runs. I've read where folks even dug a trench down a foot or two and burrying the cloth underground to prevent critters like coons from digging under the fence. I personally would go even further by adding paver stones along the fence line after buring the cloth. I cannot stress enough on how smart these animals are. They're excellent climbers and will look for any way possible to get into places.

As distasteful as this may sound your only solution may come down to getting a dog and quite possible a rifle. Not that I don't recommend trying everything else before doing so. You just have to be prepared mentally that this might end up being the only solution.

Best of luck,

Jax

 

[patandchickens]

should you manage to work something out with the garbage, those racoons will turn their attention to the chicken coop. I don't have one, yet, but I've been doing alot of reading on them <snip>As distasteful as this may sound your only solution may come down to getting a dog and quite possible a rifle.

Killing them doesn't usually help much, certainly not in places with serious raccoon problems -- more just move in. There is a nearly infinite supply of raccoons, in a lot of N America.

A dog can dissuade them somewhat in some circumstances. Up to a point.

But you know what, pretty much all of Eastern North America has very high raccoon populations (and some of the plains and west, too), and OODLES AND OODLES of people manage to keep chickens, and store garbage, QUITE SUCCESSFULLY.

You just have to secure things well (not kinda-well, not gee-a-cute-fuzzy-animal-could-never-rip-that-apart, not raccoons-are-big-this-gap-is-small, but REALLY well) and arrange things to avoid tempting them excessively. Like, don't put food-type garbage outside (put in secured compost pile, or freeze it til garbage day) and place chicken feeders inside coop not outside.

But this is business as usual for a whole big huge lotta people. Raccoons are not a big deal as long as you account for them in your plans.

Pat

 

[dragonlaurel]

If they could give raccoons IQ tests and compare the scores with humans, the results might be embarrassing. For us anyway. :/
Coons are strong, good climbers, dig well and have very agile hands- so they frustrate us endlessly with trash can raids. Our metal cans kept the smaller ones out but a big Daddy raccoon bent the cans rim till the lids popped off. We were watching and decided that we did NOT want to mess with that guy.

Building a strong cage that locks for your cans to go in should work.
Or get the shed on concrete and anchor it well.

The hardware wire keeps them out, but protect the top and bottom of the run. BYC has lots of threads about it. Look under predators.

 

[big brown horse]

I'll second getting a dog. I do keep my chickens and ducks inside a fort knox style coop at night, but that is b/c of bald eagle issues, and my dog sleeps inside at night. (The bald eagles hunt my property early, early in the morning before we are up. :/) During the day the chickens etc. are free to run about in the back yard as long as she is out with them.

Nothing comes into my yard via on foot b/c of my dog. I have fruit trees galore to tempt critters of all sizes and I keep animal food in simple rubbermaid bins in an open ended shed. Even at night when she is inside, her smell(?) keeps predators at bay.

I might get an occasional mouse or two, but no deadly (or trash ripping) predators thanks to my dog. (She came from a shelter.)

As a matter of fact, earlier today she was playing with a dead mouse or small rat that she caught.

I hope you can figure out what works best for you and your family.