Raccoons in my trash!

[LauraJean]

I tried my best to find a good category for this. I'm going to buy a shed, but not for another week or two at least. I recently moved into a house in the woods with no outbuildings/sheds/garage whatsoever. My vehicle is a Jeep Wrangler and already has things stored in it.

I have a raccoon that comes every time I put new trash out and rips it all open and spreads it around. I've re-bagged it a few times now. I'm disabled can't always make the 5 mile drive into town to go to the dump the second I have trash to put out. So the result is several bags at a time being outside waiting for a dump trip.

I need a temporary fix to safe guard my trash for a couple of weeks until I can finally get a shed. Any ideas? I thought of trying to cover it with a tarp but figured they'll either find a way under or maybe rip the tarp itself, which would not be good.

Would it help if I put it at the front of the house where the motion detector light is or would they not care? I just heard one 15 minutes ago and went out and chased him off in the woods. Ten minutes later he was back again. I watched him through the window and he's pretty small, maybe a juvenile. Of course, I'm sure he has a whole family that comes.

I just don't know what to do, but it's a real pain to keep going out and re-bagging trash that's spread all over the place. Any suggestions to hold me over until I can get the shed would be great. I can't think of a thing.

 

[justusnak]

Can you get a few metal trash cans?? The metal ones you can put bungee cords on to keep the lid tight. Those pesky coons will find your trash, even in a shed. Then they will take up residence in there. I say, get a trap...and a gun. I dont like coons..at all!

 

[LauraJean]

Can you get a few metal trash cans?? The metal ones you can put bungee cords on to keep the lid tight. Those pesky coons will find your trash, even in a shed. Then they will take up residence in there. I say, get a trap...and a gun. I dont like coons..at all!

Really? How would they get into a shed? I plan to buy a brand new one with locking doors and no windows.

I thought of buying more cans but a bag or two fill them and getting several is expensive! That's my shed money, and I really need a shed bad, not just for trash but for other things.

 

[justusnak]

Those pesky coons will get in any little space they can find...eaves..a slight space at the door....even digging. If the mice start a hole, to get to the trash, the coons will make it bigger to get inside. My son was telling me that he got some stuff to put around his coops...I think at Lowes...maybe Home Depot. It keeps coons away. You might look into that.?

 

[LauraJean]

I'm a first time chicken owner and my chicks are due to go out to the coop in a few weeks, so now between them and the trash I'm getting very nervous.

I will look into that product, thanks! I wonder if it really works.

 

[buckeye lady]

We were camping in Florida a few years ago and the food in the cooler would disappear everyday while we were away from the campsite. At first we thought that we were being raided by Some naughty campers. One day we had a large bag of leftover BBQ beef that disappeared. On the way to the shower that evening I found the bag with the bottom chewed out and the contents gone. That beef was in a large cooler with a lid that was so tight I had to tug hard to open it myself.

We were on a backpacking trip in Pennsylvania with a group of teens. We were all sitting around the campfire before bed, Roasting marshmallows and unwinding, There at the campfire sitting on his haunches like one of the kids was a huge raccoon!!! He was just hanging out!!!!

When I was a teen, I found a very young raccoon whose mother had been hit by a car. He couldn't have been more than a few days old. The little bugger climbed up my leg and torso and tried to hide in my hair. I took him home and raised him on baby cereal and milk, until he started to eat bugs, crayfish, and anything he could get out of the kitchen cupboards. He would sleep with me at night and go out during the day to play and forage. My Mom Was Livid. He was never caged and when he was about 6 months old he started staying out most of the night, He would come to my bedroom window in the morning and I'd let him in and he'd sleep in my bed while I went to school. He did eventually stop coming home, but would occassionally visit when he had a craving for Cheetos. He was a fabulous wild "pet".

They are very intelligent and resourceful critters.

Most people in the country that have to store trash outside have a trash bin built out of 2x4s and cage wire with a locking top.

I don't like to see them destroyed for foraging. Relocating them just moves the problem on to someone else.
See if someone can build a bin for you.

 

[LauraJean]

We were camping in Florida a few years ago and the food in the cooler would disappear everyday while we were away from the campsite. At first we thought that we were being raided by Some naughty campers. One day we had a large bag of leftover BBQ beef that disappeared. On the way to the shower that evening I found the bag with the bottom chewed out and the contents gone. That beef was in a large cooler with a lid that was so tight I had to tug hard to open it myself.

We were on a backpacking trip in Pennsylvania with a group of teens. We were all sitting around the campfire before bed, Roasting marshmallows and unwinding, There at the campfire sitting on his haunches like one of the kids was a huge raccoon!!! He was just hanging out!!!!

When I was a teen, I found a very young raccoon whose mother had been hit by a car. He couldn't have been more than a few days old. The little bugger climbed up my leg and torso and tried to hide in my hair. I took him home and raised him on baby cereal and milk, until he started to eat bugs, crayfish, and anything he could get out of the kitchen cupboards. He would sleep with me at night and go out during the day to play and forage. My Mom Was Livid. He was never caged and when he was about 6 months old he started staying out most of the night, He would come to my bedroom window in the morning and I'd let him in and he'd sleep in my bed while I went to school. He did eventually stop coming home, but would occassionally visit when he had a craving for Cheetos. He was a fabulous wild "pet".

They are very intelligent and resourceful critters.

Most people in the country that have to store trash outside have a trash bin built out of 2x4s and cage wire with a locking top.

I don't like to see them destroyed for foraging. Relocating them just moves the problem on to someone else.
See if someone can build a bin for you.

I would never kill an animal for any reason unless my life was at risk, so don't worry about that. And I don't see much point in relocating them because they'll always be more. I moved to the wilderness to be around nature and animals not to get rid of them. I just need to figure out how to secure my trash better.

That's a REALLY cute story about your 'pet' raccoon! Sounds adorable. I think it's great that you took care of him and I like that he eventually transitioned back into nature also, it's a really sweet story.

 

[TanksHill]

I would say your going to need to recruit some help. Your chickens will be next if you don't figure something out. Raccoons are known for reaching through chicken wire and tearing chickens apart. Its those hands of theirs. I hope you coop is sturdy and secure. I don't meant to sound grim but my friend up the street has found the mess after a raccoon got her hens. Not pretty.

good luck,
gina

 

[SKR8PN]

Living in the country is a trade off.........

As distasteful as it may seem, your going to have to decide which you want the most: fresh eggs from your hens or nightly visits from your raccoon friends. You can't have both. I have had to dispatch 4 raccoons, 2 ferrel cats, and 3 bunnies so far this summer.

I still have my hens and my garden.....so far.

 

[savingdogs]

Shed has not worked for us. We were not storing trash, but rather bags of dry dog food in a shed. They not only broke in through what looked like a TINY opening, they urinated all over inside our shed because they could not get back out once they got in.

We no longer store anything edible outside. Period.