What animal is pooping on my stuff???

[Mark_in_NH]

Bob,
I know this will sound disgusting to some,and I apologize. I also don't know it is allowed within the rules of the TBN. But. If possible, can you post a picture of the poop ? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
A picture is worth a thousand words. If it is racoon poop, one or many of us will know it instantly.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Mark, we had heavy rain storms today so the poop is now in pieces and sort of melted. Certainly not picture worthy. Maybe in a couple of days. But I'm reasonably sure it must be racoon poop based on the drawings from Pfred. And the fact that they are very commonly seen in and around the yard.

 

[DannyD]

Sorry, I saw no humor in the post. As for the coons in the area we are talking about, guess what, if you live near woods etc. you are going to have wildlife. I used to have a skunk that lived under the drive in the pipe, he would come up and eat the cat food, then leave. Never even attempted to spray anyone or anything, kind of neat really.

IF the animal is rabid, you are doing it and all a favor by humanely killing it, other than that I would let it live

 

[MarkLeininger]

You can get prints by putting baking powder on a piece of cardboard if it's in a structure and there's no wind, or put out some damp sand.

Raccoon scat transmits round worms, particularly to children who tend to put their hands in their mouth while playing. The scat also carries a nasty airborne virus whose name I can't remember, so use a respirator if you're cleaning it up in an enclosed area. Raccoons are a host for the tick that carries Lyme. Distemper is pretty common. Need any more bad news?

 

[DannyD]

I vote with the rest, take away the food source (your garbage must stay INSIDE) and they will leave. They are on the porch for one thing, food. If you have berry trees that close, you have a food plot for them. One other thing could be doing this, and that would be a cougar or other predator, that is running them off. You will not see it, but the coons know it is there, if in fact it is. I dont know of many predators coons have in the wild, since they can run fast, and climb fast also. Hawks maybe, snakes if big enough, or it could just be a banner year for young and you are getting them.

I do wish you were close to me, I know of lots of places to release them that would be safe and secure.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

The garbage cans are always locked in the garage, there is no dog food outside, the pool house is not stocked with food (unless you consider beer in the mini-fridge to be food), never seen any signs of racoons inside there or the garage. But they are all over the pool areas, the stone paths, the stone steps, the play areas, etc. At least the poop is all over those areas.

The only way I can remove the food source is to burn down the woods. All the fruits & berries are native to the woods, we have dozens of naturalized apple trees, hundreds of hawthorns (thorn apples), dozens of assorted crabapples, and countless other sources of berries like wild raspberries and mulberry. I don't even have a bird feeder because the seeds used to attract the racoons into the yard where the dogs would attack & kill them (took the feeder down 7 or 8 years ago).

What I don't understand is WHY THIS YEAR? It has never been like this before.

 

[beenthere]

Bob
Have read with interest your plight, and have had the same experience.
Seems the raccoon will dump on a spot, and it will attract others to do the same thing, as well as the original coon will come back to that spot. What I do, when I find it on my deck, is wash it down with the hose, then spray with a solution of bleach. Seems the bleach will cover the odor of the scat and discourage them from returning to this area as a 'toilet' dumping spot. Ihad a lot of firewood stored in an open shed, and for years had the problem of the surrounding coon using it as a 'dumping' ground. There was a layer a few inches thick from the visits, that could not have been just one coon. After thinning them out, they still used it but not as much. I now store all wood on pallets outside, and have enclosed the shed. No more coon in there!

As to trapping, I live trap them. 3 and 4 years ago, I trapped 36 one year and 38 the next. This has been discussed in another thread. I 'imprint' them before they leave the trap, so I know the same one doesn't get back in there another time. If I had a spot, I too would just lower the trap in water and drown them (I think this is the cleanest way to go, as they blank out and there is no mess). Sorry Danny.

This year I am back at trapping. Find that marshmallows work pretty good in the live trap. Part of my problem is the nice folks who trap them in town and then dump them off 'out in the country' to give the problem to someone else. Having trouble now with too many squirrels, and find a neighbor who lives in town has been doing just that. Braggin' about how many squirrels he has live trapped in town. I have gotten pretty deadly with the .410 double barrel, and have the population thinned down a bit.

I am concerned about the disease that the coon carry, which can become airborne from the dried scat. Whatever it is, it stays viable for a long time, and am concerned for children that visit and just touch everything and don't wash before putting their hands in their mouth. It is a disease that is particularly rough on children. I need to locate the source of the information I have somewhere.

P.S. I don't put out any food for any animal or bird.

 

[thcri]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">(
IF the animal is rabid, you are doing it and all a favor by humanely killing it, other than that I would let it live )</font>

I was told that drowning was the most humane way to get rid of an animal. I would never kill an animal unless it really got to be a pest by destroying things or if it was rabid. I have a daughter that loves animals and if I even thought of killing one I would be on her list. But in my dad's case the racoons over came their welcome. Yes they pooped on everything, destroyed bird feeders and they had no fear even during the day to come out and about around the kids. I don't blame my dad for killing them the way he did. And as another poster posted, moving them only took the troubles to another area.

That is also why Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota are raising the limit on deer because there are just getting to many and creating diseases.

murph

 

[MossRoad]

Sorry to hear of your poopy predicament. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Sounds like racoons. The little buggers are prolific. Do you ever hear them fighting at night? Most terrifying if you are close by and it starts. YIKES!

As for gettng rid of them, pretty hard. As you have already mentioned, make the garbage innaccesible and don't feed them anything. What I can't figure out is how folks will put out food for birds, then shoot cats, racoons, woodchucks and anything else that shows up for the banquet they put out. Just doesn't make sense. Bottom line is, don't feed ANY wildlife if you don't want wildlife around your home.

As for your particular problem, I don't know of anything that will repell them. Sounds like your dogs did a good job. Might be worth looking into that angle again. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

We had racoons for years as kids. They were wild and every night we would feed them half a loaf of bread. The moms would bring their babies and let us hold them and play with them. My dad had a half of a giant clam shell for a bird bath. It was about 2.5 feet accross(you know, the kind that would grab Tarzan by the foot when he was under water). They would take their food over there and dunk it first. It was all great fun for 15 to 20 years until one particularly aggressive male figured out we kept the food in the house and he wanted it. He'd get into the house any way he could... through the doors, windows, garage and chimney. We did a good job keeping him out. So good that he started clawing through the roof. He did about $2000.00 damage. It was our fault he was there and our fault he found out about human food. We created the problem, so we felt responsible for the bad behavior of the animal. So we ended up trapping him and the DNR re-located him.

 

[DannyD]

My guess would be a bumper crop of little ones. Being the animal person I am, I would love to see more where I live. Wish I had a more agreeable way for ridding them for you, best I can do is the animal control

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Bob,

Here's some information on cleaning up a raccoon "latrine".

And here's a raccoon repellent, and another method.

There's plenty more out there. Here's a Google search result.

 

[beenthere]

Thanks Bill
That is what I was talking about too. And using wood from my wood storage (about 30 cords when the coons discovered it as their 'latrine') that was layered in coon dung was not a pleasant task, keeping in mind there was probably some of the 'dust' on every stick of wood. Eventually it was all fired, but had to do a lot of handling in the meantime.

Again, I think the bleach I use disrupts their search for the 'latrine' area and they may not like the smell. I have had bleach work to keep mice from returning to an area to nest (such as the engine compartment on my lawn tractor!).

Amazing the availability of information on the net. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[LMTC]

Bob Skurka-- email me from the links on our website if you care to hear our tale and resolution. We routinely deal with 20-50/year.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Well here is how I will be resolving this problem.

A 2 PRONG ATTACK.

#1) I will get some of the spray REPELLANT to try to drive them away from the areas that I really don't want them. (My daughter's play area is tops on that list because they have really made a mess out of that).

#2) The other prong will be death. I don't like the idea of drowning them because that seems to me to be suffering. Shooting them is viable, and I don't oppose it, but it is distasteful to both my daughter and the lovely Mrs_Bob, who will certainly hear the crack fo the .223. So I will try posioning them. I have to guess that we are overrun with the critters so we may be facing a population explosion based on how much grief we are getting this year.

I generally don't like posion because it is non-selective, but used properly and monitored I think it is a viable solution to reduce the population. I think it is probably more humane than trapping & drowning, or trapping & shooting. Head shots also run the risk of spreading rabies so a chest shot is much preferred to cleanly kill them. So I will have one of the rifles at the ready, complete with some good hollowpoints to insure a quick kill. But the weapon of choice is going to be poisoned bait, and a shovel to clean up the bodies.

There are too many kids around, and too many pets in the area to risk a population overrun by the cute little masked critters, especially given the risk of rabies and disease. I don't want to eliminate them, but they apparently need to be thinned down. Just like I have to live in harmony with them, they have to LIVE IN HARMONY WITH ME and my family and the other neighbors. This year there is NO harmony! I'd prefer if the coyotes got them instead of me, but I will do what needs to be done.

I just want to thank all of you for helping me identify what the real problem was/is. Now I have the task of dealing with it.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Well the poison is set. I took care to place the bait in areas to minimize contact with non-raccoons.

Cubes of poison, each about 1" square, were placed in "cottage cheese" and similar size containers. Then a little coca-cola was added for some additional attractant in SOME of the bait stations. These bait stations were then nailed into trees, on posts, etc at positions that have them elevated so that dogs/coyotes can't get to them. Raccoons, possums and squirrels are at risk. They were placed in such a way as to surround the trouble spots that are frequented by the troublesome raccoons.

I don't like doing this, but given the possible disease ramifications of not dealing with them it seems like a reasonable course of action if the local population is expanding.

I will check the bait stations in the early morning to see if they were disturbed. Any bait found on the ground will be replaced or disposed of so no ground only feeding animals can find them accidently.

 

[MarkLeininger]

Bob,
One other thing I forgot to mention is that we electrify the area right around our chicken coop because we have so many predators, including raccoons, around. I've heard more than a few ungodly screeches in the night that I'm sure were some critter touching that wire. I don't know if that's practical for your setup, but at least around things like your kids play area or your patio you could put in temporary plastic stakes and run a wire about 6" off the ground. We run 3 wires, one just above the ground, one about 6" and one about 2 feet, but I think you only need one as a deterrent. It can't kill anything so it's safe, but nothing will ever come back once it touches that wire (including your kids). We already had the charger for the horses, but even if you have to buy one a low output model would only cost $50 bucks or so, and wire is next to nothing. You could probably make a decent setup around the yard for a few hundred dollars total.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Mark

I have electricity around the pool so I could put a fence there, but the play area is a good 100' or more away from the nearest electrical so it would be most practical to use a solar unit there??? The stone stairs and other areas probably couldn't be protected by electric wire, at least not an be attractive.

 

[rcaretti]

If the poison doesn't work out, you could always contact your state trappers association, maybe there is someone in your area willing to trap them. Probably have to wait until November though. The fur doesn't become prime until them, and it's not worth a trappers time until the raccoon has its winter coat.

 

[MossRoad]

Bob, I have a sokar charged fencer on our garden. One strand about a foot up and another at about 18". This is outside of an existing rabbit fence, so any animal that wants to climb the fence gets shocked. Anyway, it works well and keeps out the woodchucks. It will charge several miles of fence. I think I have about $200.00 wrapped up in the charger, insulated standoffs and the wire. This is all to guard $25.00 worth of vegetables. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Moss, the problem I have with the electric wire is that there is no barrier at all around the play area and stringing electric fence simply will be a visible eyesore and something else to mow around. The stone path that is being used as a pooping area is cut through the woods, there is no way to protect it with wire. The concrete stairs down near the pool cut through a small planter bed that has overhanging shrubs, again no real way to protect them, unless I circle the entire pool, pool house, stairs, and stone path and assume that no raccoons will enter the area via trees which all overhang about 1/3 of that area. I guess what I am saying is that electric wire might be practical in some areas but is not desireable in any area. Now if I put another garden in, then I would consider it for that area.