topic Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND! in Home

HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Julie928 — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 04:10:30 GMT

I'm hoping those of you who share my love for water gardens can give me some suggestions. We have a pond with a waterfall in our backyard. It's a nice size, about 16 X 14 and three feet deep at it's deepest point. We have four koi and one BIG goldfish that call our pond home. The other morning I went outside to feed the fish and was scared to find one of my heavy concrete frog statues knocked to the side and the other statue knocked into the pond! I also have a very heavy cast iron sitting mermaid perched on one of the large rocks and that was knocked into the water as well. All five fish were accounted for but were very skittish. My husband & I draped a net over the front area of the pond but the fish seemed to be freaked out by it ~ they wouldn't swim anywhere near it. I should mention that I went a little overboard with the plants but that turned out to be a good thing since over half the water surface is covered with greenery and that gives them good cover. They also have a large cave they can swim into. Someone at the pond store suggested using fishing line about six to eight inches above the ground and use stakes to create a fence of some sort. We did that this afternoon and removed the net and the fish seem much happier. But.....I went outside to check the pond and there was a big old raccoon up one of our trees! We had one of our coonhounds outside and she made her presence known to him or her. Okay, sorry to be so long-winded but wanted to give all the details with the hope that someone might be able to offer us some suggestions to keep them away from our pond and keep the fish safe. :-)

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Lila4Now — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 04:33:17 GMT

Don't know where you live, lack of water sources and high heat will bring several visitors to your pond. Just a basic fact of nature.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Kachina624 — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 04:53:13 GMT

Trap and release elsewhere. Sometimes local animal control agencies have traps you can borrow. They may or may not help with relocation. Also contact your state wildlife/fish & game department and see they can be of assistance. These things will hang around until they get your fish if you don't get rid of them.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Suzy Snowflake — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 05:11:36 GMT

This solution worked for us. Soak tennis balls in ammonia for an hour. Put them in areas that are generally visited by those pesty varmints. They hate the smell and stay away. Re soak after a few days and after a rain. This really works great.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

wismiss — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 06:33:00 GMT

We had a raccoon (maybe racoons) catch and eat some fish from our pond years ago. One of the necessities is to have plants for the fish to hide and not be seen. I know that may sound strange, but they will hide if they sense danger. We also put a fine woven net over the pond so the raccoons could not get to the fish. We left it on for about two weeks and the raccoons finally got the message and didn't come back. We used strawberry netting, or it might also be called bird netting. We also put clumps of our dog's hair in several places a little way away from the pond.

Good luck in your endeavor to ward off those rascals. They got a $20 fish from our pond, so we knew we had to do something.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Drythe — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 08:20:24 GMT

This is going to be a little delicate to say!

If you have male dogs, or if your husband is willing, a few sprinkles around the pond will usually deter the Raccoons.

Of course if you have neighbors nearby, this might have to be a night time foray.

Good luck.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

ID2 — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 09:45:08 GMT

If it were me I would get a live trap. Trap them one at a time and release them miles away. I did that to a squirrel that wanted the inside of my garage as his home. He now resides on a nice lake front property of one of our lovely parks.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Nataliesgramma — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 10:54:17 GMT

@ID2 wrote:
If it were me I would get a live trap. Trap them one at a time and release them miles away. I did that to a squirrel that wanted the inside of my garage as his home. He now resides on a nice lake front property of one of our lovely parks.

Thats what we did......borrow a trap..throw in a can of cat food and you will be better off removing it.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

evelyner — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 13:16:17 GMT

My mom has a pond, and raccoons used to come, so they covered it with a mesh net.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Sweetbay magnolia — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 14:16:13 GMT

Put those coonhounds to work! (I have two). I guess that's not really a viable option, as they are bred to track and corner for the likes of a hunter . . .

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Tigriss — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 14:51:56 GMT

Wow...ummm...it is natural that racoons visit a fresh water source especially one with potential food! That being said, human urine and dog hair are a great ideas. Also human hair from the salon will help, but trapping them is not a good idea unless you have experience with these kinds of animals. They are not squirrels and are very, very dangerous for inexperienced people to trap and release. They are natural fighter with very impressive weaponry. Deterring them would be best, but allowing you dogs to get close to them could result in them being hurt, seriously hurt, but the barking usually keeps the coons away. The ammonia tennis balls is an excellent suggestion is as well, because it doesn't require contact of any kind. Keep the ammonia away from the pond because it can harm the life in the pond and cause algae if used too much with potential run off from rain, but a few weeks of it will deterrent the coons for quite a while.

You pond sounds wonderful, no wonder the coons find it wonderful too! It sounds like a little spa or water park for them.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

RedTop — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 15:39:54 GMT

In my area of southern WV, raccoons are the number one carrier of rabies. If I had a raccoon coming to my pond, I would be aggressive and take it out of the picture. People with livestock and pets do not tolerate the presence of a raccoon, period.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Tigriss — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 18:23:16 GMT

Redtpp, that is one way to deal with a racoon, but I didn't take the op as a person who was a gun owner. That is one certain way to rid your self of one, but many will come as the year goes on, so deterring them is a more long term option that getting your gun every time you see onE, and it really is time consuming to hunt to deal with them. Growing up in the farm, this was a used means of dealing with pest, but we had 23 grandkids willing to do the hunting.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Julie928 — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 19:36:07 GMT

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I may try dog hair around the perimeter of the pond, urine, too (made me laugh buy hey, if it saves my fish....) and the ammonia soaked tennis balls sound good. I worry our dogs might get ahold of those, though.

I really went overboard with the plants this year which turns out to be a good thing. About 75% of the pond is covered with plants. I bought lots of plants last year too but they didn't take off like this. I guess the pond does get better and more established every year. The man who built our pond built a wonderful cave for them to go into ~ it is covered by large, flat rocks resting on top of large round ones. I bought some beautiful plants already potted that you just plop in the water to rest on top of the cave. They even flowered for us! (We have lots of shade so any flowers are an exciting thing, lol). I am grateful for the cave as that is where they spent the winter months and it's good for them to have a place to hide and feel safe.

No, I am not a gun owner/user, lol. I love all animals and understand they need places to go, too. (Just not my backyard please).

Thank you again for your suggestions! I really appreciate all of them!

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Suzy CurlyQ — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 19:50:20 GMT

Tigriss, HOLY COW!!! 23 grandkids! I am in awe of you! I bet you guys have so much fun all the time!

Ok I just had to say.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Suzy CurlyQ — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 20:02:57 GMT

Ok your place sounds like paradise! No wonder the wildlife are having parties in the middle of the night!

storytime...

My family one time went to Branson and stayed at the lake for our accomodations and we came back to our tent one night and behind our tent were several racoons fighting! And let me tell you it sounded like the most awful skreeching and screaming!!!! We could not see them and the trees around our tent only magnified the sound. SCARRY! Just had to tell you that.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Tigriss — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 20:14:07 GMT

My father has 7 brothers and sister, now from their early 50s to late 70s. I am the next to youngest grandbaby. There are around 50 great grand babies and 24ish greatgreat grand babies on that side alone. Often we would be sent fishing to catch fish for supper or hunt worms to go fish with the next day. We lived there and most of the Grand babies came there after school because day care just wasn't something we did and the farm needed laborers, so after school and summers it was. We had tons of fun and got into loads of life lessons from the beginning. The boys did most of the hunting because granny was traditional but felt we needed to know as well, so we learned, but we also learned the house while the boys didnt. That might be why the women folk out lived them!

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

gardenman — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 20:17:53 GMT

Netting and fencing don't generally prove overly effective as raccoons are very clever and have nimble hands that can undo pretty much anything you can do. Nets are very effective at stopping herons and other fish eating birds, but raccoons will just move them out of the way.

The best, least obtrusive option is an electric fence. This only needs to be a foot or so tall to keep out a raccoon. Havahart and many, many other companies make such fences for a pretty reasonable price. Google 'electric fence for koi pond' for options. They're generally not recommended if you have a small dog (under 15 pounds) as the shock can be pretty intense, but most sane creatures once they've gotten shocked once won't go near it a second time. Only humans who forget the fence is there/on and get zapped are stupid enough to go back again, and a couple of zaps will force even the most stupid human to pay more attention.

I would be very hesitant about putting anything ammonia related near a pond as ammonia is a major source of trouble for fish. That pretty much includes urine too. The nitrogen cycle in your pond would need to be very powerful if a significant amount of ammonia found its way into the water.

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

Tigriss — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 20:20:55 GMT

Suzy, that is too cute. The kids were fighting over who got to sleep where or eat that candy bar you left out!

Racoons are cute but they are fierce fighters. Now that is one tough family to grow up in!

Re: HELP! RACCOONS ARE VISITING OUR BACKYARD POND!

adoreqvc — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 21:35:47 GMT

Julie I hope you have your raccoon dilemma solved quickly, and one word of warning is those critters are nasty and mean, and ultra aggressive, so watch out.

Below is my personal experience with one specific raccoon, and an experience I shall always remember.

A few years ago we stayed in a log cabin resort in the mountains and left the door slightly open, as hubby was unpacking the car, when out of nowhere it silently appeared.

Not your friendly type of critter, but a mean eyed vicious showing teeth making aggressive noises type raccoon, and it aggressively began advancing in my direction.

I felt like I had just entered the Twilight Zone....You know...... That place where nightmares become your reality!!!

Yup you guessed it...... I ran for the bathroom and screamed by head off through the window.

Help arrived very quickly and caught that sucker.

Even though I am an avid animal lover and protector, I also knew raccoons carried rabies, so that was really too close of a "howdy how ya doing personal visit for my comfort zone".

(I also do not mind seeing them in their natural environment, but not up close and indoors).

My husband was so relieved I was not attacked or bitten, but then he laughed and said my screams probably paralyzed the poor thing for life...."Yeah right......poor thing my eye".