Racoons were not indigenous here. They were brought in by hunters who had Coon Dogs to train those dogs. Some escaped and soon the population of racoons exploded. I don't have a pond so don't have any experience with that but know they are a terror on vegetable gardens, kill chickens, ducks, geese, and cats, and in general make a pest of themselves. They like to nest in attics, chimneys and other inconvenient places. They are nocturnal and I never see them except occasionally a dead one by the side of the road.,

For those who cover their ponds with netting or wire--float a large beach ball in it and racoons have a hard time keeping their balance or reaching fish and plants. Fish farm I get my fish food from keeps one in every pond and theirs are all covered with soft netting. They use above ground pools and drill screws around them to hook netting too. Seems to work well.

I am in the country but have never had trouble with racoons yet but if I do they are going permanently. I love my fish and intend to keep them safe. Had a great blue heron looking down into the old pond once and when I went out with my 22 he flew out back to our canal and havne't seen him up around ponds since. New larger pond is 2 feet deep and straight sided. I didn't dig any plant shelves into it but would like to have but after hearing everyone state that predators enjoyed them as steps I don't have them. All plants are out in the middle of the pond. Old pond has shelf along one side and potted plants are there. So far no problems in 5 years.

I am so sorry so many of you loose your plants and fish.
Bonnie

Bonnie -

good information. I too have straight sides and no plant shelves - only my pond is 3 1/2 feet deep on the shallow side and 4 ft deep on the deep side. Plants are planted into bogs that are on the sides of my pond and then the wall goes straight down. The bogs help to filter the water as well.

Well after 6 years a heron paid a visit to old shelved pond and ate 1/2 of the fish. He was so brave he stood not far from me when I went out to ponds one morning at 7AM. He flew up into pines across the road from our house. He is now in heron heaven and will never eat my koi again. Of course another one could inhabit our canal out back but that is at least 300 feet from front yard. I am certainly more vigilant now. Never had raccoons even tho we are in the country. Now watch them find there way here. Hopefully my lab would scare them away or at least alert us.
Koi are an expensive meal but dumb bird didn't know that.
If I had raccoons on a regular basis would probably cover ponds even though I'd hate to do that to the fish.

Bonnie -

sorry to hear that. Herons tend to be brazen don't they? I will never forget the time one tried to swoop down on my pond. The trouble was that Dave and I were standing right there on the deck watching the whole thing. When the heron finally saw us, you could see it go right across his face. "uh oh!" and he flew off. I had never known before that birds faces could be so expressive.

The one year I tried waterlilies, raccoons destroyed my small water garden, too. I've tabled the idea of growing expensive water plants now, but I still want the sound of moving water, feeder fish and a spot for small critters to drink where I can watch them. I wouldn't enjoy it if it were covered with wire or other man-made stuff, so instead I covered almost all of the open surface with large (and heavy) flat rock. Bricks inside the pond support the flat rock which sets on top of them. Having the flat rocks suspended over most of the surface combined with spaces between the supporting bricks offers fish many safe hiding places from predators, plus the fish are not as noticeable; mine, for instance, are only readily apparent at scheduled feeding times (which are never late in the evening).

I guess waterlilies wouldn't work in this because there's not enough surface area exposed, but maybe they could be in a fish-free pond? Then, maybe you could occasionally exchange water back and forth between them, pleasing all the inhabitants?

Here's a few ideas.


The year after the major raccoon attack I covered even more of the water surface with rock, but I'm not finding pictures of it right now.

Very pretty Chelle. I love your photos.

Straight sides on a pond will help to keep raccoons away as well as some of the other predators. This way they cannot get at the fish and when the fish are being attacked, they can go to the bottom of the pond. Waterlilies and other floating plants help to give good cover to the fish as well.

I think I saw a pic somewhere of someone who installed a wire grating over the top of their pond and put it a few inches below the surface. You couldn't see it hardly.

Perhaps I am a bit paranoid, however, I would be a bit afraid to do that. I would be concerned for the fish getting caught in it and I don't know whether metal in a pond is a problem or not. I was always told to stay away for metals in the pond.

I have seen where some have fish line crisscrossed over the top of their pond, which is harder to see and should help to detract predators.

Herons are a terrible menace to fish. But I did a little reading, and found out that herons are territorial birds, so if you install a fake heron, heron statue, or I have a little metal cut-out heron near the pond, another heron flying by will not come to your pond because it is already occupied.

My heron story is sad, and expensive! When we moved in here, our pond had six beautiful butterfly Orandas. They are the fat, short fish with the bubbly heads, very ungainly and slow swimming. The resident fish were all fairly big, 4in. to 6in. and had been 'trained' by the previous owner to eat floating fish food. So whenever anyone walked by the pond, they would come to the surface and ask for food.

I faithfully (in my ignorance) fed them once a day for about 8 months. Then one day I looked out the window and a beautiful white heron was out there strutting around the pond "lunching" on those stupid fish. I rushed out but they were all gone. The heron may have been there before, and I just didn't notice him until he had eaten everybody.

Anyway, I finally did my research, found out that herons are territorial, and re-stocked the pond with 29cent goldfish from Petsmart. (after I discovered that the big Orandas we'd had were $30 each!) I have never again fed any fish, they eat algae and insects in the pond very happily. Those goldfish are now 5in or so long, and very healthy. Also wary! Of the 10 fish I originally bought, there are still 8 in the pond, and they have occasionally bred some new babies, too.

Once in a while, I find a capsized plant pot in the pond which indicates that the local raccoons know it's there but have not been successful at fishing. Thankfully, there's been no damage or carnage.

I had a fake heron right beside pond heron visited. Guess he figured out it couldn't attack him. BUT DH could. Hopefully no other ones will com around.
Bonnie

I had a fake heron as well. From what I have read, the herons can figure out very quickly that the heron statue is fake and that you have to move the fake heron every day or so.

The fake heron now decorates my deck.

Hello! I have a question for Becky about the chicken wire covering your pond.

I have an old claw foot bathtub as a pond. It has a huge water lily that covers the surface and a zebra grass/rush which is quite tall. Since I lost my two big beloved hand tamed pond comets last year I have been searching for raccoon proofing solutions. A net on the surface seemed problematic with the lilies and a solid cover at night would be prohibited by the zebra grass. (I enjoy the zebra grass because the dragonfly larvae climb up it to hatch out into dragonflies.) So I simply wrapped chicken wire around half the pond, leaving open space for cleaning and zebra grass, and secured the wire with bungee cords under the pond.

Got up this morning and the water lilies were torn apart and 3 of the 4 little pond comets were gone. The part of the pond which was covered by wire was in better shape, and "Pink" the goldfish probably hid just there in the dense lilies under the wire, however, though those big masked creeps were slowed down, they weren't stopped. My yard is a popular raccoon destination as I also have ducks and chickens which, I'm sure, smell ever so tasty, a scrumptious compost smorgasbord. and then a lovely fish buffet to boot, so I know my neighborhood 'coons aren't going anywhere anytime soon.


So Becky, what did you do with your chicken wire? From your photo it looks quite unobtrusive. Mine is an eyesore and since it didn't really work anyway... I need a new plan. I'd like to jump on it ASAP as I still have Pink to house safely and a little girl who wants another goldfish in the pond.
Thank you!!!

laurelhed - Hi! Welcome to ATP!

The chicken wire is still covering the ponds. I could take the wire off during the day (but have no place to put it) and be wire-free (which would look so much better), but alas it stays on most of the time. I no longer have tall plants sitting on the pond shelves because of that. But I do have way too many fish, which is okay by me. I scoop out the water every so often to water my garden with (great liquid fertilizer!) and replace with fresh water for the fishies! And I still cover it at night with the plywood covers. Haven't had a raccoon touch my plants or fish since. They might try, but that plywood cover sitting on the chicken wire won't hardly budge. So plants and fish are safe to this day. Sadly, it is the ONLY way I've found to protect my little pond flora and fish.

The only other way would be to dig and install a real in-ground pond that is DEEP so the raccoons couldn't get the plants and fish. Which isn't going to happen as much as I would love such a pond....

BTW, I have another container with just waterlilies and 2 additional water containers with only 1 water Lotus in each one and the raccoon messed with it once and haven't since. (Knock on wood!) So it's the fish that the raccoons are after, not the plants.

Thank you Becky!

Yes, I know they love their fish dinners. Sigh. I'm wondering if a plywood cover would work as well on my pond since it's high enough that they could lift the cover off.

Any thoughts?

Anyway, for anyone who has had 'coons in their water lilies, mine have been torn up multiple times and have always come back beautifully, blooms and all. It just takes a little time.

Thanks again for your help Becky.

laurelhed - Without the chicken wire, the plywood cover could be easily pushed aside for the raccoon to get into the pond. The wire keeps it from moving easily, so no raccoon entry or damage. That is the reason I keep the chicken wire over my ponds.

When I had a raccoon attack over a year ago, 2 of my waterlilies were actually destroyed. A few survived. I wound up ordering a two new ones to replace the ones that I lost. I managed to save a few of my minnows, who have since re-multiplied to fill the ponds up again. So though I lost quite a bit in the attack, it didn't stop me from keeping these two pond containers. I just had to stop growing taller water plants other than waterlilies in the ponds and to make sure I cover them every night.

This is probably not a solution acceptable to everyone....we have had damage to a number of plants and our cats have been terrorized by raccoons wanting to eat their food. I use a live animal trap and then take the raccoons for a ride in the country where there aren't houses nearby. Some people think it's inhumane because they have to find a new sleeping site, but if you've had them tear the siding off your house to try to get into the attic, you're ready to shoot them. Another solution may be to keep a dog around. We never had raccoons until our outdoor dog died several years ago. I think just the scent discourages the raccoons. They are terribly destructive creatures with few natural enemies and they seem be increasing their population.

First time in 45 years we had a raccoon visit that was interested in cat food. When I saw some footprints around my largest pond I flipped. We bated the trap with cat food and he went in. He's gone now.
We can't stay up all night to shoot one and they are fast and hard to see in the dark so I borrowed a trap and it worked fine. I see them hit in the roads often. If I could just get rid of the armadillos that are digging all over my garden in the mulch that would be wonderful. They will be my next hunt project. They can be shot anytime here because they are an exotic in Fl. I'm thankful the raccoon never went into the smaller pond to go fishing. It does have 1 plant shelf in it. Larger pond is straight sided and 2 feet deep. No rocks anywhere except around the top.

Good luck all with keeping fish safe and plants intact.

Bonnie D.

Glad you were able to get rid of the raccoon easily. We've got skunks here that come by if we leave cat food out. I have no desire to handle one of those in a cage. No armadillos, though.

We have netting over our pond. It keeps out the herons and egrets and keeps out raccoons 90% of the time but while we were on vacation for a week, they figured out a way in got my two favorite goldfish. I have two goldfish and a koi left.