In some regions they are, and in other they aren’t. We don’t know where the OP lives, or maybe we could give more helpful answers. Let’s not panic the OP with scare tactics that might not even apply to him. :rolleyes:
Racoons are gnerally harmless if you don’t fuck with them, and they are fun to watch. It sounds like you don’t have outside pets, but if you do, make sure their rabies shots are up to date (always a good diea) and call your local Animal Control and ask themabout the risks of racoon-rabies in your area.
Do NOT, I repeat NOT, try and kill or poison the animal yourself. Not only is that cruel, but it can be very illegal.
My local police have a really spiffy Animal Control website, and according to it, raccoons are not a rabies problem in this area. So that’s one bit of relief. Also, I live in an area with a lot of student rentals, which means a lot of largely unguarded trash bins–so I suspect that if I bungee my bins, the raccoons will be happy to go bother someone else instead. If not, I’ll buy my own bins, with locking lids.
According to the animal control website, though, there really are coyotes in this area. I thought so; I thought I heard them in the woods behind my house, a few weeks ago.
This is overstating that case. Raccoons can be a carrier for rabies, as can skunks, foxes, opossums, bats, et cetera. Despite this fact, the incidence of rabies in domestic pets in most areas is tiny, and in humans is virtually negligible; you’re literally more likely to be struck by lightning or to contract a lethal virus from another person than you are to be infected by the rabies virus. That being said, infection is nearly invariably lethal if not immediately treated to suppress the symptoms of the resulting encephalitis.
Your pets should all be innoculated against rabies in any case, but awldune is otherwise correct that you do not want your pets interacting with raccoons; while they don’t typically display unprovoked aggression, they will respond in defense of themselves or a food source with vicious and cunning behavior; I’ve seen more than one dog with nose torn open after tangling with a raccoon, and I’ve no doubt that they could easily kill a domestic cat that was so foolish to tangle with them. You certainly don’t want to handle one yourself; even “tame” raccoons rased by hand will eventually develop unmanagable behaviors as they grow to sexual maturity.
As Sattua has discovered, they can also be quite destructive; consider them like miniature bears (feeding and foraging habits being fairly similar) and treat them likewise. They’re quite cunning and capable of great feats of manipulation when it comes to accessing food sources; garbage and pet food should be secured, bird feeders need to be perched in accessibly (as in, atop a high, featureless pole with no access from a nearby tree), and possible nesting places in the house/garage made unappealing via boards with protruding nails, noxious (but not poisonous) substances, et cetera.
I’m not a big fan of poisioning, 'cause it is indiscriminate–too much chance of accidentially poisoning someone’s pet–and spring-jaw traps are just all-around dangerous, but live trapping is a good option (though if you catch one you’re going to have to deal with a very pissed off raccoon). I don’t think a supersoaker or hose is going to do much for you, and I’m sure he’ll appreciate the egg as an extra-special treat. A Wrist Rocket with a marble as ammo might be more effective; unless you hit him full force in the head you probably won’t seriously hurt him but the bruise will discourage him for a while; more than likely, though, it’ll just make him more cautious. Since you can’t use a firearm, I assume that you live in a suburban or municiple area; have you contacted the local animal control or fish & game office for assistance or recommendations?
They still can be illegal, depending on the OP’s jurisdiction. And it still might not solve his problems.
A sling was my first thought, but, given what we know about the OP’s location (other humans living nearby, other wildlife, etc.) killing or removing one may not solve the problem. Scaring off the critter might work for a bit, but then there is likely to be another critter to take his place.
I would change my vote from Supersoaker to locking trashcans. (Esp since the bird feeder is now kaput.)
OTOH, it might be fun to hit 'em with a Supersoaker. Maybe one of these.
In some areas, other not so much, and the OP doesn’t have oputside pets. So, other than the mess the critter creates, there’s no danger.
A powerful slingshot can break bones, put out an eye, crack a skull, or peirce the skin- causing a agonizing infected wound and perhaps a slow painful death. Why inflect this on an innocent animal, harmless to the OP, whose only fault is that he’s messy? Sure, use bungees, or even cayenne pepper in the trash. Or- best yet, call Animal Control, who will do the legal, safe and humane thing.
Note that also 'Coons are big animals, and getting real close to them and causing them serious pain with a slingshot could cause them to turn on you and do some nasty damge.
Raccoons can also destroy siding, scatter garbage, chew through electrical insulation, and scare the living crap out of you when you go to throw out the trash at night. They’re fun to watch in their antics (as are bears) but it’s not an animal in which you want to encourage foraging behavior.
The preferred thing from both a humanitarian and clean-up point of view is to live-trap and have animal control take it away. It’s not clear, however, that this is an option for Sattua.
I don’t know, I think even suburbanized raccoons would have an atavistic response to teeth-baring. But that’s why I want Sattua to try it – to see whether my experience was a one-off.
We purchased a house for use as a frat house. The vendor was the Church of Scientology, who had been using the place as a drug rehab. The condition of the building was such that we gutted it immediately in anticipation of renovating it. Unfortunately, we did not have the proper building permit, so the project was stopped for a winter – a winter during which we lived in the place without luxuries such as water, doors, windows, complete floors or complete walls. We unwillingly shared the building with many racoons – we kept trapping them, but more kept moving in.
One night Bill partially woke up, and petted what he thought was his cat that had curled up beside him in bed. After a while he woke up further, realized that his cat was in another city, and that he was petting a racoon. He hopped out of bed, and tried to shoo the racoon away with a broom, but it did not want to leave the comfort of the bed.
I had to build a wooden enclosure to hold my trash cans upright. Once the can is knocked over, which mama raccoon did easily, the lid can be pried off. I called it my “can corral” and it held three cans with hooks to bungie the lids down. Once I built it, the raccoons didn’t have much reason to hang around.
Just some treated lumber from the hardware store and an afternoon.
My raccoon story - my son comes up from his downstairs bedroom complaining of strange animal sounds from outside his window. I investigated and found a raccoon kit stuck between two fence boards, slowly strangling. Mama Raccoon paced the top of the fence, growling for me to keep away.
At first I thought it was a kitten, the kitty-cat version, before I saw it was a baby raccoon.
In my sympathy, I lifted him from between the boards and went to drop him over the 6-foot fence to refind his mother. I then decided he might get hurt dropping that far so I decided to run him through my house to the back yard.
Somewhere along the way, the little guys head flips open to reveal a set of teeth that would’ve made Fizzgig proud. These he sunk into my right hand.
Now, Colorado raccoons only rarely have rabies, as compared to the east-coast variety, but the health dept. recommended I get the shots anyway. I figure there’s a raccoon worth $75 out there (the sum of my co-pays) thanks to me.
Lessons learned: Wear gloves next time. Raccoons have lots of teeth. Rabies shots hurt.
Don’t mean to zombify a thread, but I’m cleaning out my email, and found this; so in the interest of fighting ignorance, I’m throwing it in here for future reference.
As someone who grew up around several raccoons over the years, I have found that this is only partially true.
The males that we fostered would get sufficiently aggressive at puberty to the point that we had to take them out to the woods and let them go into the wild, but the females never did. We had one female that stayed in a tree in our back yard for three years and raised two litters of little ones, and while the babies were always afraid of us, the mother was always as tame, friendly, and affectionate as she was as a young one.
It’s not hard to keep raccoons out of the garbage, in my experience. Just pour about an ounce of ammonia in with the trash, and they’ll go raid somebody else’s can. I lived for fifteen years in a neighborhood with 'possums, raccoons, and loose dogs. The only time I ever got my trash bags raided on trash night was when I ran out of ammonia.
They can’t stand the smell of ammonia. A bit of ammonia on a rag put in a container so they can smell it will make them go away and help keep them away. That is how we got one out of my husband’s car.
