Arg! some racoon ??'s

After setting out the hav-a-hart trap for many, many, many nights and
continuing to catch possum after possum, I finally got "the" racoon who's
been ransacking my pond, released in many miles from here in the forest
preserve, and went to bed a few nights w/o hooking up the scarecrow and
setting the trap.

Lo and behold, this morning I have rocks moved, lily buds nibbled and plants
shredded. This is a mild one, but I know it gets worse (lily pots upturned,
etc.). Arg! So a few ?'s from those with experience:

1) Possums don't do this, do they? I keep releasing them, thinking them
harmless. In the past I've seen snails shells outside the pond, too, but
could possums ALSO be doing the trashing?

2) I my backyard is enclosed with a 6' fence, so the coons can't see the
pond, but they can hear the dribble of the waterfall. Would it do any good
to move the hose each night so it doesn't make a dribbling sound, or will
these varmints smell the pond or something?

I need to trap this new one, I know, but I'd like to dissuade future bandits
from even climbing over.

On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 13:24:21 GMT, "Mike Miller"
wrote:

After setting out the hav-a-hart trap for many, many, many nights and
continuing to catch possum after possum, I finally got "the" racoon who's
been ransacking my pond, released in many miles from here in the forest
preserve, and went to bed a few nights w/o hooking up the scarecrow and
setting the trap.

Lo and behold, this morning I have rocks moved, lily buds nibbled and plants
shredded. This is a mild one, but I know it gets worse (lily pots upturned,
etc.). Arg! So a few ?'s from those with experience:

1) Possums don't do this, do they? I keep releasing them, thinking them
harmless. In the past I've seen snails shells outside the pond, too, but
could possums ALSO be doing the trashing?

2) I my backyard is enclosed with a 6' fence, so the coons can't see the
pond, but they can hear the dribble of the waterfall. Would it do any good
to move the hose each night so it doesn't make a dribbling sound, or will
these varmints smell the pond or something?

I need to trap this new one, I know, but I'd like to dissuade future bandits
from even climbing over.

They smell the water...

With last nights power outage my electric fence went down
....sigh and I had my first raccoon incursion since I installed
it. No fish lost, (or even really annoyed) but one of my lilies
was shredded and there was a load of second hand spaghetti in and
around the pond.

"Mike Miller" wrote in message
. net...
After setting out the hav-a-hart trap for many, many, many nights and
continuing to catch possum after possum, I finally got "the" racoon who's
been ransacking my pond, released in many miles from here in the forest
preserve, and went to bed a few nights w/o hooking up the scarecrow and
setting the trap.

Lo and behold, this morning I have rocks moved, lily buds nibbled and
plants
shredded. This is a mild one, but I know it gets worse (lily pots
upturned,
etc.). Arg! So a few ?'s from those with experience:

1) Possums don't do this, do they? I keep releasing them, thinking them
harmless. In the past I've seen snails shells outside the pond, too, but
could possums ALSO be doing the trashing?

2) I my backyard is enclosed with a 6' fence, so the coons can't see the
pond, but they can hear the dribble of the waterfall. Would it do any
good
to move the hose each night so it doesn't make a dribbling sound, or will
these varmints smell the pond or something?

I need to trap this new one, I know, but I'd like to dissuade future
bandits
from even climbing over.

We have a 100lb. gopher living under our shed. The thing is like 3 feet
tall. My wife caught him by the pond 2 days ago. So it appears I have
unjustly accused the foxes of pond damage. My apologies to the fox.

So no racoon makeup nor fox costume for me...Me's hunting ground hogs this
weekend...FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!!

BV.

It looks like possums probably aren't a pond pest.
Here is what I found out about their diet -
The possum's diet consists of small animals such as baby birds and rodents,
and other dead animals. It is mainly a scavenger, and does not hunt often.
Opossums are omnivorous and consume an amazing variety of plant and animal
foods. Invertebrates, such as insects, slugs, snails, and worms, can comprise a
large part of their diet, and they're not above scavenging carrion.
Diet: Fruits, vegetables, nuts, meat, eggs, insects, carrion

And I agree with ajames, the scent of water is most likely how raccoons find
your pond. Raccoons have been known to raid container ponds several stories up
in apartment buildings.


k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

Thanks for the possum info. I'm glad, because the seem so dopey and
harmless. And I'm sort of glad the racoons smell the pond, it makes this a
little easier. OK, guess it's back to the trap and scarecrow every night.

The annoying part about this is that the possums keep setting off the trap
before the racoon even arrives! I've emptied the possum from the trap 3 or
4 times within a 1 hour timeframe (without any bait the 2nd, 3rd and 4th
times!). Seems they scavenge earlier than my racoon family. Thanks again.

Here's another funny thing: for a couple of days I could swear I've seen 2
herons way up in the sky in my area. Now, I live in Chicago, and they do
live around the streams here, but I've never seen them in the air near my
house. Gulp! Hope my teeny pond was way out of their eyesight range!

BTW, can anyone point me toward some electric fence supplier?

ajames wrote because the seem so dopey ... annoying part about this is that
the possums keep setting off the trap

Another factoid I scared up today - the possum's brain is the size of a kidney
bean which probably explains why they keep wandering into the traps...
;-)




k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

Very rarely is it only one raccoon. I have many opossum in my area and
have never had a problem with them. I use peanut butter for bait and
it seems to only catch raccoons and an occasional daytime squirrel.
"Mike Miller" wrote in message
. net...
After setting out the hav-a-hart trap for many, many, many nights
and
continuing to catch possum after possum, I finally got "the" racoon
who's
been ransacking my pond, released in many miles from here in the
forest
preserve, and went to bed a few nights w/o hooking up the scarecrow
and
setting the trap.

Lo and behold, this morning I have rocks moved, lily buds nibbled
and plants
shredded. This is a mild one, but I know it gets worse (lily pots
upturned,
etc.). Arg! So a few ?'s from those with experience:

1) Possums don't do this, do they? I keep releasing them, thinking
them
harmless. In the past I've seen snails shells outside the pond,
too, but
could possums ALSO be doing the trashing?

2) I my backyard is enclosed with a 6' fence, so the coons can't see
the
pond, but they can hear the dribble of the waterfall. Would it do
any good
to move the hose each night so it doesn't make a dribbling sound, or
will
these varmints smell the pond or something?

I need to trap this new one, I know, but I'd like to dissuade future
bandits
from even climbing over.

On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 13:24:21 GMT, "Mike Miller"
wrote:

I need to trap this new one, I know, but I'd like to dissuade future bandits
from even climbing over.


Get coyote urine.

"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
news:bhipo5

So no racoon makeup nor fox costume for me...Me's hunting ground hogs this
weekend...FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!!

BV.
I hope you have better luck with them ground hogs then we have had. We have
our yard enclosed with fence. The ground hogs are burrowing under our shed
and making huge holes to get out and into our yard. I have a teacup poodle
whom i cannot let outdoors cuz i am afraid she will travel down one of their
holes. We have been using a have a heart trap. Caught two ground
hogs.......... but this last $*&%^*% we cant seem to trap. He keeps avoiding
the trap no matter what we do. The hole that thing dug is huge. If we fill
it in, he digs others. It so happens that this last ground hog (hopefully)
is the biggest. He is outsmarting us. I thought they were supposed to be
dumb animals. We have 3 dogs. The other 2 are min pins. They go out and dig
the holes even bigger cuz they smell the ground hogs scent. So now none of
my dogs can go out til we catch that last one. So i have whining dogs at the
doors to go out all because of this ground hog. Hope you catch them BV.
Cathy