I am in a condo 2 miles from the heart of downtown Chicago. Not the exactly a place you'd expect to be teeming with wild life. In any case my 3rd floor balcony container garden is apparently a favorite haunt for a local Racoon. I am constantly finding clues of his little visits. A knocked over (or chewed on) water pitcher. Leaning pepper plants where he has been sniffing around. But I have rarely ever actually SEEN him.
Well this weekend I caught him in the act and when I surprised him he ran up the stair case instead of down trapping himself as the only way to get away would mean he'd have to come right past me. Or so I thought. Over the next five minutes I watched maybe the greatest feat of climbing ever as he carefully monkey bared his way under the stair shelves and onto a thin railing which he easily negotiated toward safety.
Entertaining as it may be I would rather not have an encore performance at another 3am presentation. I have already Raccoon proofed my deck (or so I thought) by installing plastic chicken wire everywhere I could think a critter could squeeze thru the bars. I’ve installed motion lights every where. I even bought some predator gaurd red bliking light zizmo that is supposed to deter coons. But he seems to have climbed right over that thing. I then put in DYI squirrel baffle type shelves where he apparently climbs over and now I have gone completely crazy and used dish detergent to soap the rails and sprinkled them with cayenne.
I am growing Cukes, Zuchinni, Tomatoes and Peppers. There no fruit yet so he hasn’t done too much damage, but I’m afraid he knows he has found the jackpot and its only a matter of time.
Just be honest with me am I going to lose this battle?
Raccoons ..Please Help!
If you haven't heard already - or given up - you should just get a Have-A-Heart cage trap, and capture the little devil.
Then you can transplant him to Wisconsin, if need be, and release where he doesn't need urban commando strategies to survive.