My poor begonia! After removing 10…that’s TEN raccoons so far, this is still happening! 
Another victim. And the big pot just planted yesterday now looks like this: 
And to add salt to the wound, last night’s trap was baited with an ear of sweet corn. Here’s how that looked this morning….
totally devoured. and the trap? 
Totally empty!
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How maddening. I can’t believe you have caught ten already. What a lot of frustrating work.
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It is time consuming to bait the traps every night, and clean them after one is caught. I’m trying everyone’s suggestions for bait: peanut butter, stale popcorn, fried chicken legs (after I’ve eaten the good parts!) have all worked fairly well.
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Those are some destructive raccoons. And a lot of them! Hope you that see the last of them soon. I can only imagine how frustrating that is.
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There seems to be a never-ending supply of them. One neighbor caught 33 last summer, trying to keep them out of his barn because he has horses and the raccoons in this area carry a disease that can be transmitted to them.
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Wow!!! That is an endless supply! Up here its hard to find anyone to take them if you catch them or find babies. Rehab centers wont touch them any more because of those diseases.
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Arrgggh! Looks like you have got a Houdini Raccoon on your hands.
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He’s a clever one. I now have 2 traps. The neighbor has a big patch of sweet corn planted, so he’s beginning to trap, too as he’s seen 5 crossing the road from his property to mine last night!!!
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So discouraging.
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It’s really frustrating. I used an ammonia/water spray on the outside of my containers a couple of nights, but that sure takes a lot of t
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I’ve tried several different sprays and repellents, but when it rains so often it makes them totally ineffective. I’m not so committed to go out and spray in the middle of the night as soon as the rain stops, so I guess I’ll have to pay the price for my laziness!
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I understand. 🙂 That’s why Hubby put up the electric fence. We’re in south-central Kentucky, so even if it doesn’t rain, we have such heavy dew and sometimes fog, that no repellent would last overnight. I certainly sympathize.
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If I just had one garden, I’d use an electric fence, too but I have gardens here and there, and I wouldn’t want an electric fence around our decks. Plus maintaining them is a pain, too.
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How awful! It made my heart sink to see your pot all dug up. As a gardener I know how upseting it must be to see all the hard work dug up by raccoons.
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I’m beginning to think they just do it for fun, or out of boredom!
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Your raccoons need to use up their energy climbing buildings! Seriously though it must be very disappointing to have this happen to your plants.
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I wouldn’t mind so much if they did it for food, but there is nothing in there to eat, and after dumping them out so many times, they must know that by now. Although, I’m not sure how big a raccoon’s brain is, but I know they are good at figuring out how to open gates, trash cans, and other things.
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What a shame! Have you contacted your Department of Natural Resources? Your area must be severely overpopulated. Maybe they’ll have suggestions…or introduce a predator or something. I feel so bad for you.
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I don’t think raccoons have any predators except motor vehicles! Back in the 20’s when raccoon coats were all the rage for college guys, my great uncles made good winter income catching raccoons, but now of course real fur is not acceptable. We will at some point have to figure out how to manage increasing populations of wildlife, but it’s a tricky, complex situation.
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So frustrating! I feel your pain. We had rabbits eating our snow peas last spring and solved the problem by collecting urine (ours) and circling the bed with it. Sounds like the same approach as your ammonia spray. Raccoons must be SO much more tenacious than rabbits.
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And numerous, apparently! We have a family of foxes that is taking care of the rabbit problem this year.
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Oh good grief. We, years ago, had 200 laying hens that eventually began to dissappear. Even with trail cameras set up we never knew who or what was behind it all.
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I’d just like to know what acrobatics they used to get that ear of corn out without tripping the trap!
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Oh no! It must be so disheartening for you. Could the plants go in the cage?
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I did move the begonias into the screened room, but the big pots stay on the decks. Last night they moved the landscape timbers along the Lavender Slope again, looking for worms I suppose. I wouldn’t mind them moving the timbers so much, but they scatter the stones into the path and then I have to sort them out and put them back on the slope!
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What a lot of extra work!
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I feel your pain. Although raccoons have never done that to my plants, this past winter they got into the crawl space under my house and torn down the insulation and made a royal mess. But after removing 10 of them, you’d think it would be coming to an end.
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Terrible of me, but I’m hoping they move on to the neighbor’s sweet corn soon!!!
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Wow, it looks like a poltergeist has blitzed through! I hope you’re able to relocate them successfully – it certainly puts British wildlife pests into perspective!
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Yes, why can’t raccoons behave more like hedgehogs?
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Raccoons are just the rock n roll rebels of the animal kingdom!
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I’d hoped, with their little black masks, that they’d be more like The Lone Ranger, or Batman, or Robin! Enforcing law and order, and only doing good!!!
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I think they only act like that when they know you’re watching them. Turn you back and they’re all Kiss and singing Crazy Crazy Nights as they trash the place.
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Maddening! We’ve had deer on the front porch a few times.
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We have deer, but they seem more mannerly…only eat the buds off the tulips if I neglect to spray repellent
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We trapped 16 raccoons one summer. I was so mad after they destroyed a whole crop of cute little pullets. They didn’t even eat them, just killed them. My husband dispatched the varmints to the “buzzard buffet” at the far end of the property. But, it is said that anything a three year old child can get into, a raccoon can get into. Please be very careful when you are releasing them. Some are quite vicious and will turn on you.
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I am lucky to have a neighbor that releases them for me, but he said the last one was the meanest one we’d had so far! They are clever, and destructive. Once a vacationing friend had raccoons tear open a screen door and did lots of destruction, knocking antiques and collectibles off shelves, opening cupboards and ripping sacks of flour, sugar, etc. open. They even turned on a kitchen faucet so water ran the entire time he was gone!
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