How to keep Racoons out of the garden

[897tgigvib]

I guess the hordes of Raccoons around

Here are not self respecting

predators, and neither are any of the other animals, except for 2 voles and 1 tiny birdie, a young female towhee who can squirm through...she seems to want to be around me, even when I sit in front of my cabin reading, flying around me, perching on a tree trunk to walk upside down downward. Squirrels have not made it in either, and we have browns and greys. Otters don't come in, Hawks, Eagles, and Osprey don't have any desire to, the mountain lions and foxes don't bother it...The deer do try to nibble through it. The one part in the top photo has stuff in front of it to stop that, and more tools n things now.

Bob, I'm for my 57 years, know that?

 

[bobm]

I presume your racoons are not vegetarians then ! :bouquet I just might have quite a few more trips around the sun on ya .

 

[897tgigvib]

Raccoons are omnivorous, but for the most part around here during the warmer parts of the year their major food is Madrone and Manzanita berries, but also the Dewberries. Ours are big and bold. The Black Bears could get into my "Fort Knox" garden, but so far have not even tried. Almost nothing stops a determined Black Bear. They pretty much eat the same things the Raccoons do in the warm parts of the year, then they hibernate. The Raccoons in winter here eat the abundant kinds of Mushrooms, and their poo is diarrhea in winter from that diet. I live in the woods, I know these things. Both the Bears and the Raccoons will also eat garbage or unattended food, and we make sure that does not happen.

My neighbors who live several miles away all also fence their gardens in. Most use chicken wire.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Chicken wire is only good in keeping chickens in, but will NOT keep any self respecting predator out.

This is sooooo true.

 

[dickiebird]

Chicken wire is only good in keeping chickens in, but will NOT keep any self respecting predator out.

This is the same thing I have found.
Around here racoons will tear chicken wire to shreds to get at what they want!!!!

Calif. racoons must be whimps compared to the ones in Mo.

THANX RICH

 

[bobm]

Fencing in gardens with flimsy chicken wire is NOT quite the same thing as housing in chickens or any other type of livestock. Living the high life in the N .Cal. lake surounded by woods row most likely make them forget about the tasty meaty morsels that the racoons and bears as well as other carnivores including neighborhool dogs tend to dine on in the Big Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Cal., Clark county in Washington as well as other parts of this country.

 

[897tgigvib]

Maybe I'm just lucky then, and my gardening friends up here too. The raccoons do have plenty of Manzanita and Madrone berries, and even wild black and dew berries. (Maybe the raccoons live some kind of high life. I don't.)

 

[so lucky]

If I were a raccoon I would try harder to get through chicken wire if there was a chicken on the other side, than I would if there were berries or tomatoes on the other side. Just sayin............

 

[bobm]

Maybe I'm just lucky then, and my gardening friends up here too. The raccoons do have plenty of Manzanita and Madrone berries, and even wild black and dew berries. (Maybe the raccoons live some kind of high life. I don't.)

Speaking of the high life... I have seen many a news story of free spirits growing certain Mary Juanna crops in your part of the State. Maybe your omnivores have baked some Alice B. Tocklas cookies from those crops and sampled a few causing them to see only rainbows. :rainbow-sun

 

[897tgigvib]

It is sort of off topic here, but animals and gardens up here, and keeping them out is a related thing. I have seen many helicopters flying over a great many times, and yes there have been many arrests up here. My semi public vegetable garden has nothing to do with those illicit gardens. There indeed are some gardens that grow that stuff for what they call medicinal purposes. Mine has none of that. By the way, the rare condition that my eyes have that is called Peripheral Ulcerative Keratitis makes that stuff contraindicated for me. My cornea specialist did make a point of telling me that. It has the effect of dilating the capillaries in the eyes, and that brings in more of the immune system cells to the eyes, and that is the last thing I need. Those immune system cells of my own body are not recognizing my own eyes as being "self", and so they attack the cells. Very similar to as if my eyes were transplanted. In fact, a last ditch effort, if the present course of treatment begins to fail, would be for me to take the same kinds of medicine that transplant patients take. Those medicines tend to leave the body vulnerable to other problems. So it is very important I avoid the use of certain green leafy substances. I invite a helicopter to come give me a visit. It might be a nice break for the police crew in it to find nothing illegal and no weapons, just an ole neanderthal saying howdy, can I have a ride in yer helicopter? Please please please?

I think So Lucky is probably right. The Raccoons probably have very little reason to enter my garden with no chickens in it.

And there I was, thinking about getting a few chickens! Maybe I better not. On the other hand, there is a place about a mile and a quarter as the Raven flies from here on the other side of the hill, where they do indeed have a few chickens of mixed breeds, at least one white goose with a minor deformity, and 2 or 3 ducks that I think are also mixed breed. They have at least one old rooster. Those all basically free roam, in and out of a fenced yard with several usually open gates and an old coop. I know they get only minimal care, and I never hear much about Raccoon troubles, but they also have an assortment of dogs and outside cats.