Racoons and squirrels eating avocados

[Newgene McMensa]

Well, the rascals are back. I don't mind them eating the fruit but there have been some raccoons caught around here with rabies. The squirrels run around like crazy - more than normal - there may be something wrong them too.

So the question is.... is there anything I can do to discourage them coming in the yard or backyard trees?

I hung some of the owls with glass eyes and I think that has worked near the owls, but not the rest of the tree.

Anyway, my goal is to keep them out of the year and the trees and not just scare them with decoys.

I thought about putting a solution of red pepper in one of those aspirator bottles you connect to a hose and spraying the trees and yard.

Anybody ever tried this? Or have another idea?

[Frank]

Trap and release, shoot if you can. Red pepper flakes would not keep
squirrels out of my bird feed.

A large Hav-a-hart will catch practically every thing when baited with
peanut butter. I've caught numerous squirrels and a few groundhogs and
raccoons but only the smaller raccoons will fit in the trap originally
bought for ground hogs.

Laws vary. Around here you can trap and kill but not release but I
release anyway. I'm careful with what I trap as rabies is endemic here too.

[Nil]

On 18 Jan 2017, Frank <"frank "@frank.net> wrote in rec.gardens:

> Trap and release, shoot if you can. Red pepper flakes would not
> keep squirrels out of my bird feed.

I don't know about raccoons, but in my experience you can trap and
shoot all the squirrels all day long and it will make little difference
if you have something they want, like fruit. If you remove one animal,
there are plenty more just waiting to fill the void. To really get rid
of them you would have to eliminate them all for miles surrounding your
home, and that would probably only be temporary. Otherwise, you would
have to get rid of whatever is attracting them.

> Laws vary. Around here you can trap and kill but not release but
> I release anyway. I'm careful with what I trap as rabies is
> endemic here too.

Same here (eastern Massachusetts). And it makes sense to me - if you
release a trapped squirrel elsewhere in the area, you will be
overpopulating an area that's already full and that animal may die. Or
it may find its way back from whence it came. Also, it can bring a
disease into a previously uninfected population.

There's no good way out.

[songbird]

Newgene McMensa wrote:

>
> So the question is.... is there anything I can do to discourage them coming in the yard or backyard trees?

...

raccoons are prevalent here. doesn't matter
how many we trap and move they soon return.

tall fences discourage them, but once they
know there is food inside the fence they'll
still come in.

electric fence does much better.

they are the reason we don't bother to grow
sweet corn any longer. it's just not worth
the bother. cheaper to buy a few ears in the
summer when we want some. :)

squirrels are not common here. hawks
will eat them...


songbird

[David E. Ross]

A local public garden had a severe squirrel problem in two white
mulberry trees. The squirrels would eat the new shoots before they
could leaf out. Apparently, the shoots give the squirrels a buzz; it is
like squirrel marajuana.

One early spring, the trees were sprayed with a watered mixture of
cayanne, liquid soap, and human urine. At first, none of the gardeners
wanted to do the spraying; but the donor of the urine was finally
convinced to do it. This kept the squirrels away from the two trees
until after they were in full leaf. The sqiurrels were not interested
in the mature foliage because it did not have the "magic potient" they
desired.

But that was only a temporary, one-year solution to the problem. Now
those two trees have bands of aluminum flashing wrapped around their
trunks. A few squirrels learned to take a running leap and clear the
bands so second bands now slightly overlap above the original bands.
This past summer, the trees that had appeared about to die because they
did not have enough foliage looked better than they had in years.

I am going to try the aluminum bands on my peach and loquat trees this
year. I will wait until just before the fruit starts to ripen -- spring
for the loquat and summer for the peach. If successful, I will add
bands to my grape vines.

Havahart has a large cage trap for adult raccoons, for which the best
bait is sardines.

Here in southern California, red squirrels can be killed because they
are not native but an import. Gray squirrels are native and protected
by law. I do not care which kind I catch. I live very close to the
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (a national park). Any
squirrels that I catch in my medium-size Havahart trap gets released
there. The Recreation Area contains many hungry coyotes, hawks, snakes,
and even a few eagles and mountain lions.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
<http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html>
Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>

[Brooklyn1]

Squirrels are the easiest pesky critters to eliminate, a couple of
feral cats can easily clear forty acres of all rodents. For larger
critters trap and release works well... NorthernTool.com has excellent
traps, I think much better than Have-A-Heart. Occasionally I have an
invasion of a few possums, they are dumb so are easy to trap, I drive
them a few miles away and release them at a large dairy farm, there's
water and food. Once the adults are gone my feral cats take care of
their juveniles. Contrary to what many think true feral cats do not
hunt birds, they don't waste their time and effort hunting what will
fly off... rodents are much easier prey. It's the indoor-outdoor cats
that hunt birds for entertainment, it's rare they eat the birds they
catch. Feral cats subsist mostly on what they catch; rodents, frogs,
lizards, even some insects.

[Frank]

You can never eliminate all these critters but I think you can cut down
the local population that sticks around your house and it takes a while
for others to move in and fill the vacuum.

[hub...@ccanoemail.ca]

< snips >

> For larger critters trap and release works well...
> NorthernTool.com has excellent traps, I think much better
> than Have-A-Heart.

I have never liked the Hav-A-Heart design -
- it works but it's too fiddly to set.
There are other makes available that work as well..
John T.

[songbird]

David E. Ross wrote:
...

> Havahart has a large cage trap for adult raccoons, for which the best
> bait is sardines.

we've found that the black sunflower seeds
work very well and are much easier to deal
with than peanut butter or cat/dog food. they
seem to appeal to every critter we want to
trap and move.

i'm trying to get out of the practice
though as it seems so pointless and instead
go after the den sites (making them less
appealing to the new ones who might want
to move in) and fencing off the areas that
are most important. for every critter we
don't have to transport it saves us a few
hours of BS (which over a season can add
up to a few days or weeks of lost production
or farting around/napping :) ).

because i don't want to trap raccoons,
skunks, possums, any longer we close the trap
for the night and then open it during the day
(for groundhogs aka woodchucks).


songbird

[Frank]

Mines quite old. It is somewhat clunky and I like peanut butter because
it sticks to the trigger making the critter work harder making sure to
trip it. It has twin doors and that prevents trapping of large raccoons
as when doors fall, if anything is sticking out like a tail the critter
can get out. I trapped a mother skunk once and her kids would not
leave. Fortunately I got the trap open that was below my deck with a
long pole. Skunks confined are said not to spray.

[Don Wiss]

On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 12:09:18 -0500, hub...@ccanoemail.ca wrote:

>I have never liked the Hav-A-Heart design -
> - it works but it's too fiddly to set.
>There are other makes available that work as well..

Depends on the age of the trap. Havahart changed the design some years ago.
The new ones are real easy to set, but harder to trigger.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Don Wiss]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 19:48:49 -0500, Frank <"frank "@frank.net> wrote:

>A large Hav-a-hart will catch practically every thing when baited with
>peanut butter. I've caught numerous squirrels and a few groundhogs and
>raccoons but only the smaller raccoons will fit in the trap originally
>bought for ground hogs.

For raccoons it needs to be the real large Havahart. I have one (now on
loan so I don't know the model or size) and despite being somewhat large
the raccoons were able to trip, but get out. I think the mom would go in
with the kits behind. When the door came down the kits kept it from closing
and all got out. So be sure the description has large raccoon in it.

I used marshmallows. They are cheap. They worked.

>Laws vary. Around here you can trap and kill but not release but I
>release anyway. I'm careful with what I trap as rabies is endemic here too.

Not much rabies around here. But you have to release far away. Preferably
with a river in between.

At one time I did successfully eliminate the squirrel population. After
some years they figured out how to get the feed from my squirrel proof bird
feeder. I tried everything. Then I decided to relocate the knowledge. Now
my Brooklyn row house has pretty much enclosed back yards. After many
dozens of relocates the block had no more squirrels. And it worked. The
next winter the squirrels that moved in didn't even realize that there was
food in the feeder.

I haven't put the feeder out in years. So I cannot tell what happened next.

Don http://foraging.com/ e-mail at page bottom.

[Brooklyn1]

On Sat, 21 Jan 2017 12:15:45 -0500, Don Wiss <donwiss@no_spam.com>
wrote:

This works much better than my Have-a-Heart, and the price is right.
I've not used it for racoons but it's caught many large possums:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200622254_200622254

[Frank]

My double door Hav-a-hart is 37 inches but these have one door. I think
the bigger one may be marginal for large raccoons. Price looks good.

I had a home made box trap made from wooden support frame and chicken
wire. Door was board on grooved slider and trigger in back of trap
would pull nail from slider to make it fall. I had to add a sliding
nail to lock the trap shut as critter could otherwise lift door. I
could diagram, but not hard to figure out.

All I caught was a skunk and was confused on what to do and had to go to
work. I had called an exterminator and he wanted $200 to remove at the
time (would probably be $500 today). Wife put on rain gear and removed
door and skunk got out but she had run and did not get sprayed.
The door got lost so I trashed the trap and got the Hav-a-hart now about
40 years old.

Son used it in his house to get a squirrel trapped in his heatilator
type fire place. He removed a panel and squirrel got into baited trap a
day later.

These critters can cause real damage as another son had the same problem
in his town house where squirrel died and it cost him nearly $1,000 to
have squirrel removed and damages to fix the wall where they had to
break in to access it.

[Brooklyn1]

There are special traps for skunks. I get lots of skunks here but I
don't mess with them. They arrive at night to eat the dried cat food
I leave for the ferals, I wouldn't care only they turn the entire bowl
over and make a mess... the food falls into the holes in the mat and
even they can't get to it.
http://i66.tinypic.com/2v0ihrd.jpg
Joiner and Ebenezer are best buds, they hunt as a team.
Heated shelters and water:
http://i66.tinypic.com/r6xqvk.jpg
Even at well below zero Candy hunts in the snow:
http://i63.tinypic.com/21orcex.jpg
Ferals as kittens, all born in my barn:
http://i68.tinypic.com/syv97b.jpg
It's very rare I see a squirrel here.

>Son used it in his house to get a squirrel trapped in his heatilator
>type fire place. He removed a panel and squirrel got into baited trap a
>day later.

>
>These critters can cause real damage as another son had the same problem
>in his town house where squirrel died and it cost him nearly $1,000 to
>have squirrel removed and damages to fix the wall where they had to
>break in to access it.

The best way to dissuade squirrels is to keep feral cats around. Feral
cats are big and strong, twenty pounds of solid muscle and designed to
be hunting machines. Cats do no damage to house or garden but they
sure make quick work of any rodents. It gets cold here in the
northern Catskills in winter so I provide heated shelters and heated
water bowls, but the cats more than earn their keep... and they are
gorgeous to watch their antics, they love to play in the snow.

[Frank]

My son's have cats but when a squirrel gets in from the roof there is
nothing you can do other than makes sure things are sealed up. We had
cats too but got plenty of mice in parts of the house. I recall cat
sitting endlessly at wall as mouse was on the inside of the wall board.
I had to drill a hole in the wall and put in poison to get it.

Our area is too suburban for feral cats yet enough open, mostly wooded
areas full of pesky critters and deer. You can't rid the area of them
but you can dissuade them.