Friday, April 24, 2015

Raccoon is back!


This is broad daylight! Momma raccoon thought we would be stupid enough to leave the grill off the shed attic. My guess is that when the freezing nighttime temps returned, she wasn't content to live in someone's tree, or in the rain gutter (or someone else ran her out of their shed). She's climbed the tree and the roof twice trying to get the grill off while still keeping her baby in her mouth. We hadn't seen her since my husband scared her out last weekend with a chainsaw, and then boarded up the damage she caused in the siding.

She went running out at the sound of the chainsaw, then returned that night for her babies. Husband deliberately took the grill off and left it off so she would go back and retrieve her babies. I saw her take two babies out but I don't know how many there were in total (usually 1 to 6, born in March or April).

We've seen raccoons around here for a few years but never living on our property. They are somewhat used to people and like all the trash cans they can easily raid. Raccoons are capable of opening doors and jars, if you can believe it. Getting rid of her won't be so easy, with so many sheds and trash cans around.

In California all one had to do was call animal control, but here in Ohio there's no public service for wild animal removal, and typically it costs a few hundred dollars to trap one, and a few thousand to get them out of an attic, and you're not allowed to hurt them or do any poisoning or the like (not that we'd want to do that).

The kids and I are wondering if she's being so persistent because she may have already transferred one baby into the back door of the shed, before Peter noticed that it was opened and closed the door.


Have you ever had a raccoon in your yard? What worked for you?

4 comments:

Lisa said...

We have seen so many raccoons around here, Christine. They pull down our sweet corn and damage our garden many other ways. They get into the henhouse to steal the eggs. So we bought a have-a-heart trap, which we bait with table scraps, although their favorite treat is a Twinkie. :) Raccoons are easy to catch, and we usually get the culprit the first night after setting out the trap. Then hubby takes the critter and re-locates him..several miles away.
Hope this helps!
Much love to you and yours.

Christine said...

Thank you, Lisa. Trapping them is illegal here without a license. Not even a friend who works for a pest control company can trap them because his license doesn't include that. Seems pretty ridiculous. I am glad you are able to save your eggs and your garden that way! If we can't get rid of her, I'm sure she'll be eating our vegetables too. :(

Lisa said...

Too bad you have to have a license. You're right, though...if you don't get rid of her soon, she will devour your veggies!

As He Leads is Joy said...

We had one in Washington that would wander through our yard at night. I think he lived in the woods nearby. No raccoons here, just a few cats.