Rocky Racoon, get out of my room....

Holy Shit I have an infestation. My wife insists on feeding cats outside, and now we have a raccoon neighborhood. I saw about 9 of them last night. My wife's Dr. Doolitle attitude is going to bite us in the ass.

Does anyone know the best way to shoo them off that doesn't involve gun blasts and Long Island cops coming to my doorstep?

You're a lucky man. We saw some Raccoons in a wildlife park recently, and thought they were the most adorable things ever. I'd love to see some of those in my garden at night.

But if you're really set on getting rid of them, how about biological control? Leave out enough food and/or rubbish to attract some bears to your house, and I'm sure the Raccoons will go packing pretty smart.

Once they're there, they're not going anywhere on their own, Dave. They are territorial and once they've settled in, that's that. Nomadic they are not.

Raccoons, for as "cute and adorable" as they are, they're potentially dangerous to your property. In the winter they'll eat your shingles to get to the warm roof for a little den. They'll bugger up your siding if they think they can get into your house that way. Not to mention they'll have you pissed when the food gets cut off...they'll absolutely make a mess of your trash can. They're not good animals to have around. Did I mention they're susceptible to rabies? I had a buddy kill one because it was on his lawn hissing at his kid. Scary shit.

I'd suggest snaring them. Snares aren't hard to make...just make a hangman's noose out of some safety wire (the kind you hang heavy pictures with...the steel stuff) and put a barb on it so that once it closes a bit, the wire can't easily back off from the barb (more like a 90 degree kink). Put 3-4 of them around the food dish, and the wee beasts will get their heads or feet caught. They'll start hissing, so they're like your own little alarm. Just remember to tie the OTHER end of the wire to something heavy or something that will not give, like a pole. Call animal control to pick them up.

Davey Crocket may be right. There's also the Have-a-heart live traps, but those buggers are expensive.

Step 1 -- no more food. Seal your trash cans and do a good job of it. If you have room in your freezer keep the organic stuff inside until trash day.

Animal control will probably bring live traps out to you if you call them. That's done here all the time.

We had a raccoon problem off and on until the eagle showed up. Now they stay in the woods. Maybe you could rent one.

S.

You can see if animal control has live traps available. We've been getting tons of use out of those because Lubbock is *crawling* with awful, starving feral cats. Not sure if they have raccoon traps as well.

We had a couple of raccoons because we did exactly the same thing. They were adorable and our daughters loved watching them through the slider, but I didn't want massive vet bills when they eventually got territorial with our cats. We stopped feeding outside and they were gone within a week.

They may not do anything about raccoons, I haven't tried it, but I'm guessing they would.

This cat thing has been one of the worse things about Lubbock (and there are many terrible things about Lubbock). I've trapped 5 thus far, and those are only the ones living basically in and around the house I'm living in---saying nothing about the alley and our neighborhood which is crawling with cats.

It's appalling. I've never seen anything like it.

Gary -- that is saying a lot when compared to the Hippieville that is Urbana.

As for raccoons, we had a pet raccoon growing up. They can be sweet for a bit, but they get older and want to mate. As Pete says, they become absurdedly territorial. And, they are ridiculously smart. You can purchase live traps at a sportsman store (Bass Pro or some such) and then, animal control will definitely come out to get them.

Otherwise, just lock up your food while simultaneously planting food on your neighbors property

Smart, dangerous and very irritating. I don't know how Matt has this weird idea that they're cute and fun to have around. They will kill cats and can attack children, or anyone dumb enough to go up to them thinking they're cuddly. Wild animals need to be respected. Even domesticated ones should be respected but wild can be dangerous.

We have them all over Vancouver and in Toronto the problem is worse.

They have very skilled hands and can open doors and what you think are secure garbage lids. It's very impressive. Leave nothing for them and lock everything up. People have given good advice here for the most part. Personally I have no qualms with shooting them but in a city that's just not an option so you have to use other methods. Traps and re-location are the way to go.. but even that can be a little sad if your an animal lover because you could be breaking up a family.

All that aside I have great respect for animals that can still find a way to live in our man made environments. Suirrels, rats, several birds, mice, coyotes, foxes. I'm always impressed when an animal can adapt that well.

Space Ghost wrote: Gary -- that is saying a lot when compared to the Hippieville that is Urbana.

Fuck, I know, right? It's not like I was coming from the most urbane city in the world or anything. It just turns out I ended up in probably the most redneck and ignorant largish city in the entire country.

For example, our health department just shut down. The whole thing. We're the biggest city in the US without a health department.

We are completely overrun with Racoons in Toronto. I've seen big fat ones squeeze themselves through very small openings in the seams of roofs. I've also watched in horror as two of them in the early morning ripped a third apart in the middle of the street, pausing only briefly to lazily get out of the way when a car wanted to pass. When I checked the scene out after sunrise there was fur everywhere and a bit of blood on the road. Nasty, disgusting, prolific creatures.

Defintely don't leave food out ever. If you don't attract racoons, you'll get rats or something.