Crafty little devils.

Hurray, the Racoon thread has been moved over here to the Wildlife Gardening Forum. Thanks, Dave.

Looks like Rita has it down pat ~~~ If you can't beat 'em then join 'em!
Yes Tee, crafty little devils.

We had one a couple years back that was getting in our garbage can. Can had 2 handles that locked over the top but he figured it out. We put bungies. He figured that out. We put more bungies. We finally had a "system" with 6 bungie cords & on top of that we had to take 2 additional bungie cords & bungie the can to a pole in the yard otherwise he would push the can on it's side & shove it all around the yard killing my plants in the process.
Well let me tell you it's not fun living with your trash can like that not to mention a royal pain every time you go to put trash in it. We hated like heck to do this but we finally broke down & bought some mouse traps. We set three up by the can. Know what? He never touched the can again. And he wasn't dead either; we would see him in the yard. He must have been gotten by mouse traps before & he would NOT go near the can as long as they were there. We quickly learned that we didn't even have to set them, just place them at the bottom of the can & it was safe from him.

Ha! I've had plastic garbage cans that had the edges chewed up when they couldn't get into it. Now we have a large heavyduty single can that seems to be wildlife-proof unless it's knocked over by extreme weather. It's the kind that is mechanically emptied into the truck. When I have to put out a second can, it's just a regular garbage can...so I try to put all the edible stuff in the big can if possible and cardboard and other inedibles in the smaller can.

See, that's it. I don't have any fancyness for garbage cans, just a plastic one that you can get the top off really easy. That is why I seperate my elible garbage from the rest way before it even gets chucked into the kitchen gabage. I just save the edible stuff and just toss it directly outside in the shrubs each night. That way, they leave the actual garbage can alone.

I'm so glad y'all requested the Gardening for Wildlife Forum! Raccoons are such crafty critters ... very smart! I've never intentionally attracted them to my yard but they are always wandering through at night and raiding the feeders. It's illegal to intentionally feed wildlife (other than birds) in the community where I live. I see raccoon sand opossums traipsing through the yard some nights. They catch fish in the waterway behind the house but they love to eat the fruit and nuts in the bird feeders too!

I've never had a problem with raccoons getting into my garbage but my garbage can now stays inside the garage until the morning of pick up. We can put it out on the street after 5p.m. the day before pickup which I used to do ... until about a month ago. After the recycle and trash were picked up one day I brought the can back to the garage along with the recycle bins and closed the garage door as usual. About an hour later I went out to the garage to get in my car to go somewhere and the minute I opened the kitchen door .... PHEW! A skunk had apparently sprayed either the garbage can or recycle bin!! It was so strong I thought maybe the critter had gotten trapped inside the garage! If you've never smelled skunk smell ... believe me, it's not pleasant! I left the garage door open for a few hours until the odor was gone!

I have never actually seen a skunk but that doesn't mean they are not around here. After all, who knows all the critters that visit after dark?

Got a photo of this racoon during our camping trip at Mount Diablo Jul 2007, this one was not at all trying to make himself scarce even with people around and at daytime:

It always scares me a bit when I see a raccoon during daylight hours, especially in the middle of the day. Raccoons are carriers of the Rabies virus and are usually nocturnal with occasional sightings in the early morning or late evening hours. I've always heard to beware and watch carefully if you see a raccoon during the day ... if they act odd or unusual, keep your distance.

They are nocturnal normally, but if food is very scarce and if they live close enough, you might see them in daytime. Especially a mother raccoon who is having trouble keeping her kits fed.

I also saw a racoon near our garden but on the other side of the fence..I was just checking if there were some slugs or snails gnawing on my plants, and I heard this crushing sound of leaves, and I saw the bandit mask..the racoon was trying to climb the city tree but kept for some reason kept on sliding down, I guess he was too fat to hold on I quickly advised my neighbors to keep their garages closed, lest they want a racoon hanging about at night.

There was one year that I saw a mama racoon each day during the late afternoon but full daylight for weeks. You could really see she was a nursing mother. I figgure she needed the food, knew this was a good source and needed to make sure she got to the food first before another racoon found it.

I never thought about that ... mama's of any species will do whatever necessary to feed their young. Years ago I was feeding a bunch of feral cats and if any food was left at night the raccoons would come to eat it. I remember one night, well actually it was @ 3:00 a.m. I was in the kitchen and heard something outside, looked out the front window and there was a mama raccoon with three little babies eating dry cat food from the bowls. My backyard neighbor at my old house told me that her husband had a pet raccoon when he was a youngster.

Well folks ... It's way past my bedtime although I don't really know anymore what bed-time is since I sometimes find myself still awake at 2 a.m. and I'm always up by 6:30 every morning!

I'm not waving hello ... but rather G'nite. We really do need a separate smily icon just waving hi or by, LOL.

I love that waving Welcome Icon. Too cute!

We sometimes see a raccoon during daylight hours and when we see the little raccoons, they're too cute!

Don't have any pics of the little ones.

I have mamas with all their litter in tow most nights in the spring and summer as soon as the little ones are old enought to bring out. The babies really are awefully cute.

We have lots of raccoons here....so we keep all garbage in the garage until trash day morning! Photo of 3 kits that were out in the backyard one morning last summer.

Those babies are cutie pies.

Cute!

Very cute babies.