Keeping Raccoons out of the pond

Hi... has anybody had success in keeping raccoons from attacking their
ponds? Raccoons have ate of my 50 or so fish in the pond down to 10. The
pond is shallow, 2 feet at the deepest (but very long). Animal control
has provided me a humongous trap, but I can only keep it for so long
and also have only caught my cat's and dogs. Thanx

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:24:15 GMT, Dean Krick
wrote:

Hi... has anybody had success in keeping raccoons from attacking their
ponds? Raccoons have ate of my 50 or so fish in the pond down to 10. The
pond is shallow, 2 feet at the deepest (but very long). Animal control
has provided me a humongous trap, but I can only keep it for so long
and also have only caught my cat's and dogs. Thanx

Hot wire, electric fencing. You can get it at pet stores or ranch/feed
stores or do a search on your favorite pet store sight. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

What did they suggest you bait the trap with?
Someone once suggested using marshmallows
and attaching them in place so the raccoon doesn't
tip the trap to get at them, (and less likely to attract
cats?)

Also electric fencing like jan suggested, the scarecrow
motion dection sprinkler (attached to something solid).

good luck and let us know how it works out.

kathy

Dean Krick wrote:

Hi... has anybody had success in keeping raccoons from attacking their
ponds? Raccoons have ate of my 50 or so fish in the pond down to 10.
The pond is shallow, 2 feet at the deepest (but very long). Animal
control has provided me a humongous trap, but I can only keep it for
so long and also have only caught my cat's and dogs. Thanx


Lock up the dogs and cats during the night. Get several cans of cat
food and punch holes in the top don't open all the way to bait the trap.

Bob

On Tue, 2005-22-02 at 08:19 -0800, ~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:24:15 GMT, Dean Krick
wrote:

Hi... has anybody had success in keeping raccoons from attacking their
ponds?

Hot wire, electric fencing. You can get it at pet stores or ranch/feed
stores or do a search on your favorite pet store sight. ~ jan

This surprised me. I've always felt that raccoons are, if not the
smartest mammal on the planet, certainly the cleverest. I never thought
an electric fence would stop them - if nothing else, I'd expect them to
find the on/off switch. A friend of mine has a vineyard, though, and he
manages to keep the raccoons out with a simple two strand electric
fence.
--
derek

My suggestion, which won't do you much use, is to make your pond with the
sides going straight down. The only way that I have found to deal with
raccoons is this method (also has kept out the herons from my pond but I
have considerable growth around the pond and my sides go down almost 3').
If you want shallow edges you can still have them but then in the center go
straight down on the sides and put crates along the sides to put plants and
form a barrier to keep fish from going into the shallow edges. If you build
a pond, wildlife will come. I know the fish lovers in here will flame me
for this but I come down on the side of the wildlife which we are decimating
by building over their habitat.

DK

"Dean Krick" wrote in message
m...
Hi... has anybody had success in keeping raccoons from attacking their
ponds? Raccoons have ate of my 50 or so fish in the pond down to 10. The
pond is shallow, 2 feet at the deepest (but very long). Animal control
has provided me a humongous trap, but I can only keep it for so long
and also have only caught my cat's and dogs. Thanx

"Dean Krick" wrote in message
m...
Hi... has anybody had success in keeping raccoons from attacking their
ponds? Raccoons have ate of my 50 or so fish in the pond down to 10. The
pond is shallow, 2 feet at the deepest (but very long). Animal control
has provided me a humongous trap, but I can only keep it for so long
and also have only caught my cat's and dogs. Thanx

I've not had this problem, but some have had great success with motion
activated sprinklers, like this one from Amazon...

http://ihmp.net/@/dd


--
BV
Webporgmaster of iheartmypond.com
Come join our forums...PLEASE!!!
http://www.iheartmypond.com/phpbb

"Derek Broughon" wrote in message
. ca...
On Tue, 2005-22-02 at 08:19 -0800, ~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:24:15 GMT, Dean Krick
wrote:

Hi... has anybody had success in keeping raccoons from attacking their
ponds?

Hot wire, electric fencing. You can get it at pet stores or ranch/feed
stores or do a search on your favorite pet store sight. ~ jan

This surprised me. I've always felt that raccoons are, if not the
smartest mammal on the planet, certainly the cleverest. I never thought
an electric fence would stop them - if nothing else, I'd expect them to
find the on/off switch. A friend of mine has a vineyard, though, and he
manages to keep the raccoons out with a simple two strand electric
fence.
--
derek


It's really quite amazing. Even the young ones stay away from the fence,
although they have never been zapped. They obviously listened to Mama.

Okay, I must admit, a motion sprinkler did work for me when I discovered a
raccoon was in the neighborhood, he'd made a mess of my pond, but didn't
catch anything. I feel they may be more determined if they've had a meal or
two. To go to a fishing spot where they've been "skunked" and then get
sprayed if they tried again, well that is just insult to injury. Even
raccoons have some pride. ;o) ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

On Tue, 2005-22-02 at 18:05 -0800, ~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
Okay, I must admit, a motion sprinkler did work for me when I discovered a
raccoon was in the neighborhood, he'd made a mess of my pond, but didn't
catch anything. I feel they may be more determined if they've had a meal or
two. To go to a fishing spot where they've been "skunked" and then get
sprayed if they tried again, well that is just insult to injury. Even
raccoons have some pride. ;o) ~ jan

LOL. My dad had one got stuck in his compost bin - his best guess was
that the raccoon was there at least a week. I'm sure he had plenty to
eat, but he came out of there looking awfully slimy and rat-like, and he
just glared at us for watching him. Raccoons have a lot of pride :-)
--
derek