# Keeping raccoons out of trash cans
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 14, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203 "2010-08-14T00:16:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/21 "2010-08-16T03:15:34Z")
Second mothballs: they seem to keep cats out of the flower beds.
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### Author:  [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/22 "2010-08-16T10:35:02Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> You’re going about this all wrong.
>
> > [@Southern\_Yankee](#):
> >
> > This morning at 6:00 a.m. I went to drop a bag in and as I lifted the lid one of the scamps scrambled out and almost gave me a coronary.
>
> I think _you_ should hide in the trash can. Then when the raccoon comes to get his normal treats you pop out and scare him away! Do this all night for 20 or 30 nights and I’m sure they’ll learn to avoid your trash can :D.
Good plan… except I’d probably topple the can over as I popped out and then all I’d have is a raccoon laughing at me!
Well, the ammonia seems to be working. I didn’t have a chance to go out and get mothballs or Pine Sol yet. Today’s pickup day so the cans went out to the curb last night. Everything looked fine as I drove past them to work today.
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### Author:  [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/23 "2010-08-16T12:11:02Z")
We use a cedar locker bin like [this](http://binsolutions.ca/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/89393066b1de6c9924c14c145a83d718/l/a/large-b-60-open_3_2.jpg) one. The doors to the bin can’t open unless the lid is lifted. Raccoons and their ilk can’t get to anything inside. The other reason we got this storage locker is because the blue bins and garbage cans are ugly, and the cedar storage locker is less so.
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### Author:  [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/24 "2010-08-16T12:40:42Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#):
>
> We use a cedar locker bin like [this](http://binsolutions.ca/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/89393066b1de6c9924c14c145a83d718/l/a/large-b-60-open_3_2.jpg) one. The doors to the bin can’t open unless the lid is lifted. Raccoons and their ilk can’t get to anything inside. The other reason we got this storage locker is because the blue bins and garbage cans are ugly, and the cedar storage locker is less so.
I like that! Where did you get it?
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### Author:  [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/25 "2010-08-16T13:24:35Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#):
>
> I could rig some bungee cords but it would be pretty inconvenient to undo them every time I took out the trash. It would have to be a few daisy-chained, over the whole can. There’s nothing really to grab onto.
Your cans don’t have a lip in the front for the garbage truck to grab?
You could also screw an eye hook into the plastic, and attach one end of the bungee to that.
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### Author:  [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/26 "2010-08-16T13:43:00Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#):
>
> > [@Southern\_Yankee](#):
> >
> > I could rig some bungee cords but it would be pretty inconvenient to undo them every time I took out the trash. It would have to be a few daisy-chained, over the whole can. There’s nothing really to grab onto.
>
> Your cans don’t have a lip in the front for the garbage truck to grab?
>
> You could also screw an eye hook into the plastic, and attach one end of the bungee to that.
Yeah, one does, actually. The other we got ourselves from Lowe’s and there’s nothing on the lid to attach anything to.
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### Author:  [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/27 "2010-08-16T23:44:52Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#):
>
> > [@Eats\_Crayons](#):
> >
> > We use a cedar locker bin like [this](http://binsolutions.ca/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/89393066b1de6c9924c14c145a83d718/l/a/large-b-60-open_3_2.jpg) one. The doors to the bin can’t open unless the lid is lifted. Raccoons and their ilk can’t get to anything inside. The other reason we got this storage locker is because the blue bins and garbage cans are ugly, and the cedar storage locker is less so.
>
> I like that! Where did you get it?
Sorry, to be late in my reply. I can’t access the Dope from work. This bin came from a [Canada-based](http://binsolutions.ca/cedar-storage-bins.html) company. It would be stupidly expensive to ship it. They are also way more expensive than they ought to be if you’re a half-apt carpenter. We bought this one because timing was bad for us and we didn’t have time to build one from scratch. So between lumber costs (cedar) and then having to sort out the carpentry, we just paid for the bin. It comes in components and is roughly as easy as putting together Ikea furniture, but power tools are recommended.
We are thinking of building a similar one from scratch to use as a bike locker.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/28 "2010-08-16T23:48:31Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#):
>
> > [@Southern\_Yankee](#):
> >
> > I like that! Where did you get it?
>
> Sorry, to be late in my reply. I can’t access the Dope from work. This bin came from a [Canada-based](http://binsolutions.ca/cedar-storage-bins.html) company. It would be stupidly expensive to ship it.
I just looked at the site. It’s only $55 to ship it to the US or Canada. I’d say that’s not to bad considering how much it’s got to weigh.
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### Author:  [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keeping-raccoons-out-of-trash-cans/550203/29 "2010-08-17T12:30:06Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> I just looked at the site. It’s only $55 to ship it to the US or Canada. I’d say that’s not to bad considering how much it’s got to weigh.
That’s all? Wow, I would have thought it would be a lot more. We have zero raccoon issues with the bin locker. A lot of our neighbours use one too because there are a few row houses where they don’t have a walkway to their back yard, so they have to keep the cans in the front. As I mentioned upthread, the cedar bins are far better looking than ugly cans on your front lawn. There’s a lot of raccoon activity in our neighbourhood, but no one has been able to bust into the bins.
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