Did you all catch the spelling of 'mothballs' in that post? Don't know if moth balls would work; never tried 'em. I'll edit/correct it in the morning. Geez--I must have really been on the roll.

I've used mothballs to keep racoons away from my pond but can't say it worked. I always found the mothballs in a different place the next day, like out in the lily bed instead of next to the pond. Never did figure that one out.
.

The same warning is given about daylilies. Cats + daylily = death. One of my darlings ate all my seedlings in half last week. From what I can see he has no ill effects. Although, I already knew he adored eating my lilies and had unfortunately not died from it in the past.

Connie, what did you expect the Moths to do with the balls... Of course, they have to move them around the garden!
The cat [Daffodil Pot Wrecker] is in for a shock tonight.. Ive moved the pots and put chicken wire , up around the top of the woodstack , under the Snowball Tree.. NO MORE THOROUFARE HERE MATE!!! It will be like hitting a big' FLY SWATTER'

Connie, the raccoons most likely moved the mothballs because they simply didn't want them there. I see that with voles and poison, too. I once put a disposable tray of D-CON poison pellets on a vole trail and covered it with an old board. A couple days later I saw the empty tray had been pushed out from under the board. I thought I finally found a poison they liked so I quickly put another full tray down. The next day--same thing, empty tray pushed out and not a pellet in sight. I went through 4 trays of pellets before I noticed a disturbed area in the grass about 3 feet away. Upon investigation, I found out where all the pellets were going: they had dug a shallow trench and covered the pellets with an inch or two of dirt. I've seen where chipmunks and gophers will move mothballs out of their way of their business too, so I suppose your raccoons didn't like the smell and did the same thing.. They're a fussy bunch. But, I'll bet their little paws were burning pretty good afterwards. Mothballs can cause chemical burns to skin.

Roosterlorn said:Connie, the raccoons most likely moved the mothballs because they simply didn't want them there. I see that with voles and poison, too. I once put a disposable tray of D-CON poison pellets on a vole trail and covered it with an old board. A couple days later I saw the empty tray had been pushed out from under the board. I thought I finally found a poison they liked so I quickly put another full tray down. The next day--same thing, empty tray pushed out and not a pellet in sight. I went through 4 trays of pellets before I noticed a disturbed area in the grass about 3 feet away. Upon investigation, I found out where all the pellets were going: they had dug a shallow trench and covered the pellets with an inch or two of dirt. I've seen where chipmunks and gophers will move mothballs out of their way of their business too, so I suppose your raccoons didn't like the smell and did the same thing.. They're a fussy bunch. But, I'll bet their little paws were burning pretty good afterwards. Mothballs can cause chemical burns to skin.

Then what? Did you continue to monitor what happened to the trenched D-con?
That voles would go to the trouble of preparing a home for the poison that they didn't plan to use somehow later, is very puzzling.
Did the racoons, etc. also place them somewhere purposefully?

Rick--yes, I did continue to monitor it. It was in the Fall of the year. I thought that maybe they were squirreling away a winter food supply so I left their depository totally undisturbed. The following Spring I uncovered it and found the entire mass partially to completely decomposed (no longer in much pellet form). None of it appeared to have been eaten. At the same time, I was able to see and determine that the delivery tunnel had been solidly sealed off with dirt from the main route for about 12 inches. While the voles continued to work the area under the snow that winter, they avoided this spot. So, what can we conclude? My theory was that these little guys are so smart, they somehow recognized the pellets as something that made them sick and so to avoid any accidental consumption, especially by the very young, they moved all of it to a safe place of no risk. What do you make if it?

Try crushing the mothballs, use the old fashioned kind ( naphthalene) with a hammer and sprinkle it out lightly, if it rains you will have to reapply. It worked on my cats on my lily beds in the past. I now just keep a bare dirt area fluffed up and clean for them. putting a litter box outside has never worked, it seems given a choice they do not want to use a litter box if anywhere else is available. All the cats in the area never caused the amount of damage one dog can do. Even when the killer cat would bring her prey home to turn out in the lily beds to chase and re catch.

I'm sure it was the raccoons that moved the mothballs... from the rockery around the pond to the lily bed a few feet away. Fortunately I haven't noticed a raccoon problem for the past several years. They are as bad as cats for stinking up the gardens...

Guess I won't bother with the litter box idea then. Probably not worth bothering with mothballs either since it has done nothing but rain here lately. Anyway, the poop problem extends from the house foundation across the gardens and lawn to the sidewalk. The sidewalk and driveway are the only places they seem to avoid.

Our neighbor feeds a feral cat each night but it comes here to poop. It's so annoying! The neighbor laughs it off even when I tell her I've slipped on it. Might be funny to her but a broken hip or leg isn't funny.

I have to share that I now have a cat stupid enough to eat lilies. First: I did not raise her, I inherited her and she was not allowed outside so she is mentally impaired. There is nothing I can do about that now, I have tried. I have another one (came with her) who is worse. He eats brooms.

I caught her chewing on an Asiatic lily, I am sure she consumed some of the leaves. I yelled, she ran over to another one and started eating it, I yelled some more. Unfortunately she thinks NO means "go faster".

She is fine, no signs of illness. Other than mental.

I have to mention I have no lawn and only one blue fescue grass plant (my yard is way to small to waste on grass) and all the neighbors had mowed theirs. So I have now planted black millet so the cats will have some grass to chew on. That is what they did last year-or went to the neighbors.