Invite me and my gun tote’en buddies over for a weekend and before we leave ya’ll will all look like Davy Crockrett wanna be’s. 
Wildest Bill, city ordnances don’t allow hunting of raccon or deer here, probably the same for the OP’s.
Critters are kinda down to earth if you get my gist.
They don’t believe in monsters so they would need some kind of contact with the predator before it occurs to them to be afraid. Not likely with a zoo creature.
Jeeze guys Davy Crockett or Danl Boone you ain’t.
BTW Wondering why you are seeing raccoons now, In February?
It’s mating season.
That boar is visiting all the ladies he knows.
GET A CROSS BOW!!! NICE AND quiet!!
Strange thing in my city, it’s not illegal to run into a deer or raccoon with your car but you can’t hunt them.
Heh. You need to get yourself a pack of them thar coonhounds, boy.
Seriously, raccoons are nasty creatures that breed like rabbits. It annoys me when people try to protect them “because they’re cute.”
<hayseed yokel voice>
“Them varmits still messin in the trash pile?”
“Yeah Paw.”
“Well, boy, since your Maw and your sister ain’t around, I reckon we should grab the Astroglide and go HOSE THEM COONS!!!”
“YEEEE-HAAAW!!!”
</hayseed yokel voice>
Sorry.
I’m waiting for someone to mention playing transistor radios.
I’d be afraid that the coons would:
- Tune the radios to a station they like (probably CW) and crank it up.
- Toss my radio into the creek.
or - Take the radios apart, learn how transistors work, understand ICs work, then computers and take over the world.
Anyway, they are just trying to make a living, as are we all.
You didn’t get this idea from Spider Robinson, did you?
I live about 20?miles south of Chicago’s Loop in an unincorporated area between two south suburbs and right next to a large? forest which had to be saved from people who wanted to make strip malls and even more ugly “homes” out of it.
Thus raccoons and deer lying about on the scenic road every morning, the deer in pieces, and you have to watch out for their severed hoofs if you run along the road. Raccoons are out in force every day of the year in the afternoon until dawn. In Chicago itself if you happen to be walking home (if you have a place up there too as I did for awhile) from a night out with friends at 2 AM, you can hear raccoon claws going up and down the treetrunks (Chicago has a lot of trees in it). They never go away. Some of them die in your shed or under your windows and bloat up, and you have to pry them loose from frozen ground or something and get them tossed in the woods.
I myself never harm them, although I have tried sprinkling pepper around, which has no effect. Any kind of ornamental fountain or pond people have is completely destroyed every night. A friend bought a sound emitting box that was supposed to keep pests away and it had no effect at all. He had some success with a device that sprayed water on them if they approached, but not much. They dig up bulbs and uproot lilies and the deer eat the tops off all flowers and plants except for daffodils. My second cousin in another state shoots them from her porch, but I don’t have anything to do with guns and am much too squeamish or whatever it takes to kill anything except worms and bugs.
Coyote urine was tried by my mentioned friend and had no effect. My neighbor wouldn’t believe it if I told her anything about a raccoon parasite. As for my local animal control people, I have a feeling there A)is no such thing and B)if there were they would be like that guy on GREEN ACRES who was the county agent and was always wondering where he was when he would come over. Also, I wouldn
t want urine on my roof, which is what I worry about most.
Still I would rather live where I do than someplace else, because at least I have only one neighbor and they MAKE NO NOISE. Have you any idea of how great that is? No loud music, no parties, no barking dog, just amusing cats that come over and visit me. They eye the raccoons, who keep away from them. This area used to be farms, and the country people kept the vermin down the way you are supposed to.
The newspaper recently reported that a whole bunch of rabid raccoons were on the way, and should arrive in the area in two years. It didn’t say why they weren’t trying to dispose of them before they arrived in Chicago. I know people who have put large amounts of washday chlorine in their ponds, having given up on the idea of keeping fish in them, which are just fished for and eaten by raccoons. It turns out raccoons are not discouraged by chlorine either.
There are no vermin repellants that work. One of them, that costs about 14 bucks for a few ounces, has pictures of dogs, cats, squirrels, and raccoons crossed out on it, IMPLYING that it will discourage these. But on the directions where it lists the animals that it will discourage, NO RACCOONS ARE LISTED. The deer repellent, equally expensive, has no effect on deer or anything else.
As I mentioned before, the raccoons whistle, gurgle, scream, screech, rustle, and stomp (on the roof) all night, fighting with each other over scraps of food, and each one of them weighs at least 70 pounds.
WOW A 70 pound raccoon.
The largest I ever caught was a 35 pounder. A big sow.
They are going to have to do something about populations soon. Rabies is a big concern. That is part of the natural population control.
You are a good example of what happens if trapping is not used to control wildlife.
The price of fur is down so that a trapper connot make money so why try? Back in the 70s a big prime coon could bring as much as $50.00. Now you use a trap which sells for as much as $12.00 ,live traps cost a lot more,to catch a coon thats worth little or nothing ,and hope someone does not steal your trap.
Having dealt with raccons raiding a large vegetable patch in my youth I can assure you there is no truly effective, humane way to discourage raccoons short of dogs or exceptionally tough cats. Urine based repellents and ultrasonic devices will not work. They must be killed or trapped and removed.
I didn’t see any this year even during the ice storm when would think they would be lookng for food. This is due to the dogs just being here (they are fenced and didn’t kill any coons) or the distemper virus killing thim off this Spring.
The March issue of Consumer Reports reviews Contech Electronics’ “Scarecrow.” It’s basically a sprinkler with a motion sensor, and CR says it works. If you wanted to keep raccoons off of your roof, you’d have to find a way to secure this at one corner. And of course, it can’t be used in freezing weather.
Contech’s website is http://www.scatmat.com.
Carniverousplant.
Raccoons are related to bears. They den up in bad weather,sort of a semi hibernation. Around here you usually don’t see them from around late december until mid february,mating time,and then until it warms up,mid to late march. The exception to the above is very warm weather.
I haven’t gone looking but there are probably 4 or 5 in our two hay mows right now.
BTW I hit one a couple of nights ago with my pick up. He must have had suicide or sex on his mind because I did everything except drive off the road to miss him.
The next time the circus comes to town (or if you have a decent sized zoo around) you can get lion and tiger droppings. Turn the manure into the soil around your house, and your pest problems will be gone. Even though lions and tigers are not natural predators of racoons and deer, the pests seem to know not to mess around in the area.
It works for about a year… just in time for the next visit of the circus.
“The next time the circus comes to town (or if you have a decent sized zoo around) you can get
lion and tiger droppings”
How nice, what happens if some mountain lion gets a whiff & pays ya a visit?
Seriously, if they are feeding coons & its against city ordnances (check at your library) to do so, a call to your local CITY animal control people can get that changed.
There’s a product for keeping dogs and cats away that also works on raccoons and deer, etc. It’s at most big pet stores, comes in a wax carton (the kind like a quart of milk), and contains bone meal dust. Not really a bad odor to humans, just sort of makes you sneeze when you spread it out.