Andy and I were out of town last week and Dana was home alone. As he left work for work one day he heard a noise around the garbage can so he kicked it. The noise stopped so he thought he scared off whatever was making the noise. That evening when he returned home he heard something inside our garbage can. When he looked inside he saw this:
photo by Dana Kennedy
This young raccoon was trapped. It was 85 degrees F that day. Dana said the creature was pretty docile at day’s end after cooking in the can all day. He tilted the can on it’s side and Rocky headed toward the back yard and freedom. And water for sure! But first Dana took this photo. We think he looks like “cute” Puss-in-Boots from the movie, Shrek!
Raccoons are an urban problem. They have adapted quite well to city life and know where all the best garbage cans are. I wish I had a motion sensitive camera so I could see exactly how they get into ours. It is 4 feet tall, round, smooth rubber, in the shape of an inverted V, and the lid overhangs the edge. We think they must jump, pop the lid up then hang on the edge and hold it open for their buddies. Then the reverse to get out. I almost had a heart attack one morning when I opened the garage door and two raccoons burst out of the can in front of me!
There are a lot of suggestions on the web about how to make raccoon-proof closures but I don’t want to unlock the box every time I takeout the garbage. The PBS documentary, Raccoon Nation, suggests humans are making raccoons smarter by trying to outwit them with our locks and bungee cords. They love a puzzle and will work to figure out how to get around our deterrents. The best repellent I ever used was moth crystals sprinkled around the can. They didn’t like the smell at all!
Are you battling raccoons this summer? What is your best way to deter them?
Raccoon Nation was an eye opener! Raccoons and cock roaches may inherit the earth!
Oh yeah! I got another raccoon story I’ll post in a few days.
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We were camping at Burr Oak when I found a young raccoon at the bottom of a nearly empty dumpster. I put a fallen tree branch into the dumpster so it would have a ladder to crawl out of the dumpster. That apparently worked because it was gone when I checked back.
During a different visit we stayed at the lodge there. Just outside of the lodge I found this little guy inside a drainage grate.
There was a sizable pipe leading to this point, and I figured that it probably got there through the drain pipe and would get out the same way. When I checked back later it was gone, so it must have followed the pipe back out.
Oops! I forgot that I couldn’t insert a photo into my comment. Here are two links showing the raccoon under the drainage grate.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42536135@N07/5752615278/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42536135@N07/5752069523/
Love those photos especially the close up – I pinned it to my Pinterest board with a link to your blog. That would make a great poster!