I plant Ogen melon from seed, watch them grow, water, wait, water some more, wait some more, and just as a melon begins to get ripe, a raccoon bites it open and reaches in with his grubby little hands, and takes out all the insides. I hope it was good :=( How do I keep the raccoons out of the melon patch? This one looks like he's praying for more melons!
Have you tried a cheap transistor radio, tuned to a talk station?
Sorry no help, but I have the same feelings about Evil Bunny Rabbits! Condolences.
In gardening catalogs, I have seen motion-censored sprinklers that will spray deer, raccoon, etc. I never tried one, but it sounds good. Thats the first thing that I would try , if I had the problem. And I have also seen predator 'smelly stuff', which deters their prey. Another thing I might try is a hot pepper wax spray at an extra concentrated level, so the coon isn't attracted to the melon.
Same here, only it's the squirrel family, they "belly up" to the salad bar in my backyard everyday. I have to put chicken wire over every plant, and covers on my lettuce, and Oriental greens that are growing. They bite chunks out of my ripening peppers and cucumbers. They are worse this year than ever before. There must 20 in my backyard all day. Sheesh !! Why won't they just go away!!
I had them in my barn eating the cat's food. Bought a live trap to catch them. Then I drove them a minimum of 5 miles away and released. Some old timers say that isn't far enough, but worked for us. I was going to spray paint it's back just to see if it was the same one I kept catching over again, but never did.
Have you tried a cheap transistor radio, tuned to a talk station?
12 gauge, Mod choke, 28 inch barrel, #2 shot. Can be messy but will work absolutely every time. And then, just because I do not believe in wasting anything you will need directions on tanning the fur and stitching a hat together.
Can not ever remember eating coon but there are those that do. I wounder how it would be w/melon on the side?
ROFL
We've been dealing with a racoon coming in the cat door to eat their food for the past month. Actually into the kitchen!! Of course we've moved the cat food but I'm having a hard time trying to stop my husband going out and buying one of those "12 gauge, Mod choke, 28 inch barrel" thingies. I'm sure the neighbours would be on the phone to the cops in seconds.
The raccoons are welcome to the cat food that I put out for the neighborhood strays. I rather enjoy watching them. But they can't, just can't, let me wait for a melon to ripen and then come in there before I get it and eat it. They just can't do it! And I really don't think I could even consider eating a raccoon in revenge for my melon. Nope. Not gonna do it. I got a suggestion from someone about putting pantyhose on my melons. Now that would look funny, but it might have a chance of working.
Ha Ha...
Then the girl raccoons would be trying on the pantyhose, and wanting to go shopping for new shoes.
Sorry, chicochi3, I could not resist a little humor here.
This message was edited Aug 17, 2007 5:21 PM
We all need more raccoons, and more beast. However do not need them to starve us. I would hate to lose a single tomato to any of them much less a melon I had grown for an entire season. There is a tree here which will poison the ground (chestnut) for other plants, it is only still here for the squirrels.
I know it may be in distention but given the choice I would still utilize the 12Ga method as a means of survival. I do love wildlife and was saddened this morning when I saw one of our local gray fox pups had been hit on the road. They are really rare around here and I have felt privileged to be able to observe them.
It's a good thing raccoons are cute and smart. Otherwise they would be extinct! They can be so maddening, then they look at you with those sweet brown eyes.
...then they look at you with those sweet brown eyes....
and you go awwwwwww and put down that 12Ga, and they launch themselves at you in a fruit fueled frenzy, having eaten too many melons/tomatoes, and you get bitten and scratched and end up in the emergency room getting treatment for rabies.....
LOL
Yeah, their cute faces don't tell the whole story. Still I have never known anyone to be attacked by one unless they cornered it. But yes, they do carry rabies.
fruit fueled frenzy
Get a garbage can with a lid. Put something on top of it so it's hard to open. Put something sweet inside, like a cake.
They'll go nuts trying to get in and forget the melons.
Of course, they're raccoons, so it'll last all of ten minutes, but hey - that's ten minutes more of life for your melon, right? LOL
No eating raccoons - roundworms are scary.
I caught one in a trap about 10 days ago and relocated him to the mountains about 10 miles away. If he follows the stream back to civilization he will be somebody else's guest in the next little valley. He was stealing my cat food every night. Now I am seeing tracks from a larger coon, he was in my trap but bent some of it getting out, and also hurt himself a little. He only stayed away about 2 nights and now he is back. I had bites taken out of corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, and squash. Was blaming the deer because I could see their tracks and droppings, but some of the damage might have been from racoons. Now the big guy is too smart to get into the trap again, even though I baited it with grain that smells like molasses.
In one place I lived, I had a pitched battle with raccoons that other people in the complex were feeding because they were "so cute." I have never shot an animal, but I came close with these guys. One of these raccoons would try to get into my house and get at my cats. I would catch it trying to get in through the screens. I'd chase it away with a broom and sprayed it with the hose, but it didn't help. Finally one morning I put out a hav-a-heart trap. I went off to work, and when I came back in the afternoon, there it was. It had obviously been in that trap all day, because it had clawed up the carpet around the edges of the trap trying to get out. I figured it was traumatized enough, so I covered the trap with a blanket, took it over just to the side of the house, and opened the trap. That raccoon shot out of there like a cannon ball being fired. It never came back to bother me and my cats again. It obviously spread the word, because ever since then, wherever I have lived, no raccoon has dared set foot in my yard.:)
Those hav-a-heart traps are worth every penny.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/784732/ Try this site if you want to read about the wonderful life and times of a bunch of raccoons. I about fell out of my chair laughing.
