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Sun, Aug 17, 08 at 18:35
| I have several seperate coons and a family of them that keep hitting the pond.
Caught 1 in the live trap and relocated him to a preserve about 20 miles away, he came by himself I think. Then it was hit again by another single cause the pond was just somewhat tore up and one missing fish. Then last night a family came cause the pond was tore to shreds and rocks and slate was pulled out and all the fish were gone (3rd time the family has come since spring)for a total of seven or eight raccoon hits since spring. I am going to put up an electric fence and need advice how to do it so it doesn't look too ugly. help please |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by pashta_2006 Z4 ADK NY (pashta@aol.com) on Sun, Aug 17, 08 at 18:53
| I don't know anything about elec fences, but I am so sorry that you have lost your fish and had your pond ruined. That is heartbreaking. Anne |
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| I don't know about fences either but I live trap them and shoot them. Here in OH we aren't allowed to transport them to another place soooooo I have to! After several coons we don't see them anymore for a year or so. I hate to do it but there are so many coons around and no natural preditors you have to take out the nusiance ones. Sorry if that offends anyone. |
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- Posted by bonecarver z6NY (My Page) on Sun, Aug 17, 08 at 19:23
| we went to tractor supply and bought a 5 mile fencer. Way more then then you would think you need to go around 50 feet of pond. But... it packs a punch and does what we want it to do very well. Even keeps my great Dane out of the pond.( only took one time too) It runs off a 12 volt battery. we used fiberglass fence poles, they do not look too bad and from a distance they are hard to see, they will hold 3 strands of wire, and the middle wire guide is adjustable for height. We were going to cut them down ( we have the fence due to the heron) But for raccoon You are going to want 2 strands of fence so they can not get under it or over it. Here is a picture of our pond The Fencer we have: Hope that helps some... |
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- Posted by terrestrial_man 9 (eyuracleo@hotmail.com) on Tue, Aug 19, 08 at 3:36
| Glad I do not live out in the country! But as my yard is somewhat naturalistic and the only one in the area that appears to be so I have become a refuge for some wild critters including possums and now a raccoon! This baby is large and has done its deed with the pool with the Nuphar growing in it. No big deal since the pool has long been more of a boggy area than the nice pond it was until the sides rusted out on the galvanized steel tank. But it is a kick to watch the Raccoon run around inside the pool along the edge trying to snag minnows!!! Poor thing. Must be smart though and maybe even a mind reader since I am in the process of preparing to finish reroofing my home-just got the west side to do-it is covered with plastic film that I will have to remove before removing the old shingles. Seems the raccoon has decided to help remove some of the plastic already-guess it is trying to get me to get with the program!!!! |
Here is a link that might be useful: A good site on info on raccoons
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- Posted by groundbeef1 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 19, 08 at 10:11
| Make sure that raccoon doesn't get into your roof. That can be a serious problem, that would require the assitance of animal control/pest control. A trapped wild animal in your attic is nothing to mess around with. |
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- Posted by sleeplessinftwayne z4-5 IND (My Page) on Thu, Aug 21, 08 at 12:56
| terrestial man, you are now and forever T-man to me. I get a kick out of the antics of raccoons and while I don't encourage the ones that live near me now, we fed 32 baby raccoons and 7 mommas for a season. I could kick myself for failing to get a video or two. Their mammas had been injured by someone's illegal leg traps and mamma couldn't find enough natural food for everyone with only three legs and the fourth hopefully healing from it's amputation. Really, really sick to see those injuries. No wonder those traps were illegal there. Injured or not those mommas kept those babies in line except for the one family of five who were the delinquents of the century. They ran her ragged. They could find trouble just sitting in one place. Once one sat on a ground bee hive and it caved in. They ran on the tin coping that covered the parapet on our roof and it sounded like a train was headed for the house, they got on the roof of the green house and played games up there under the shade cloth. They got between the sliding screen door and the glass and dropped the door on top of momma. We got to see raccoon discipline first hand. She was mad. We saw the families get mixed together only once. It was complete panic with three mommas and 14 babies running around frantically, trying to find the correct group. It took about 20 minutes for everyone to get rescued and while it went on, it was funnier than the Keystone Cops. Apparently they recognise each other by smell so every one was smelling everyone else but they couldn't figure out they had to stay together. Each night the families took turns, each group patiently waiting in it's own spot until it was their turn to eat. We went thru many bags of black sunflower seed and puppy chow that summer but, it was worth it. They did no damage except for the screen door, did not leave any droppings behind and seemed to know we were trying to help them. A few times, a momma would lean up against the door to let us know they had run out of food and they would go back to their own special places until I had replenished the containers. The next year, some of them came back, just to say hello. Once they got our attention they chittered a while and then left. They didn't seem to look for any food dishes. I wound up missing the brats. Sandy |
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| my neighbor has a solar wire set up around his macadimaia (sp ) tree to ward off rats it really isnt that visiable and with coons I would think you could keep it fairly low his seems to work wonders |
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| I have been using a horse corral fence charger around my pond for years, to keep the raccoons out. They got into the pond several times prior to having the electric fence around it and they devastated the plants and ate all the fish. I made my own posts from 1/2" pvc water pipe, spray painted them green and drilled a 1/8" hole at the top to pass the wire through. I don't even notice the wire and posts now, as they do not stick up in the air too far. I guess they just become part of the surroundings and blend in My charger is controlled from a plug in timer and runs only between midnight and six o'clock in the morning. There is a product on the market called "Fido Shock", that sells for around $70.00. It comes complete with charger, wire and posts. Other posters have mentioned that it works well for them around their ponds. |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Thu, Aug 21, 08 at 21:47
| My husband modified a FiShock fence which was fifty bucks at Petco by using bamboo for the posts and copper tubing for the wire. It looks nicer than what came with the package. Works really well too. |
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- Posted by mybusyfamily6 8 (My Page) on Sat, Aug 23, 08 at 12:06
| buyorsell, Do you have a picture? |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Sun, Aug 24, 08 at 17:56
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- Posted by lauriewoods(lauriewoods2000@gmail.com) onTue, Feb 24, 09 at 0:11
| Ten years ago, when I first moved out to the country I had a small gaggle of geese I raised myself by hand. They would eat out of my hand, very affectionate, and I made them a little pond when they were goslings. They would take naps with me-- I loved them and my little flock of chickens very much. So they all made their nests around the barn area and all of them hatched goslings of their own. It was really something to see, they were all beautiful Toulouse geese. Then early one morning I went out as usual to feed everybody, and to my everlasting horror I found them all dead. Torn to pieces, not eaten, mind you, just killed and torn to pieces, all the goslings with their heads torn off. I ran to the hen house and opened the door to find two raccoons in there busily killing my chickens-- there were six dead on the henhouse floor. I screamed for my husband to get the gun, screamed so loud he heard me all the way in the house, and scared the raccoons so bad they went back out a three inch ventilation hole at the top of the henhouse wall (which is how they got in) as slick as a whistle, I wouldn't have believed it possible if I hadn't have seen it with my own eyes. I have since come to the conclusion that they can flatten their bodies out to an incredible degree, their heads are very flat, and I suppose their rib cages can flatten out much like rats' can. We have since put chicken wire over every ventilation hole in the hen house. I began to realize then that raccoons are not the adorable little Walt Disney-esque creatures I used to believe them to be. But I still used Have-a-Heart traps over the years to try to control them, driving them far away and releasing them. Until last week. When I found my favorite duck, Francis, a beautiful male Rouen with the most beautiful feathers I've ever seen, dying, partially eaten alive, because I was unavoidably late getting home to close the hen house and the raccoons had come. My dog was going crazy when I got home trying to get into the enclosed henyard, which I ran to from the car, as fast as I could, I flung open the henyard gate, my dog ran in and chased the raccoon out of the yard, leaving me to put my once-beautiful half-eaten Francis out of his misery. I cried over that one, folks. I'm still sick about it. We've now strung electric wire above and along the henyard fence, and I'll be shooting the raccoons I catch from now on. They carry rabies, and you people are foolish to feed them and invite them onto your property. They are very intelligent, I'll give them that, and they can modify their behavior as needs be to get what they want. But they are the original natural born killers. Be careful. |
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| Laurie, I can empathize with how you felt walking out to find both of those two situations, where there had been a raccoons frenzied, feeding attack. As I said in an earlier post to this thread, I have gone through that site of devastation and butchery,carried out by those masked marauders, too many times, prior to installing an electric fence around the pond. There is nothing worse that seeing half eaten fish, along with bullfrogs ripped open and left to die on the grass. Plus the pond filled with muddy water and rocks, mixed with torn up plants. Not a pleasant sight to greet a person first thing in the morning! |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Tue, Feb 24, 09 at 12:39
| My neighbor fed stray cats and raccoons for a decade and it never stopped them from destroying my ponds. Her food bowl was about twenty feet from my fish pond. Then she moved and left most of the cats....thinking someone else would adopt them....stupid *****! |
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- Posted by sleeplessinftwayne z4-5 IND (My Page) on Thu, Feb 26, 09 at 5:32
| I have to agree with Horton that feeding the night time wildlife is to be avoided, but there are exceptions such as the one I mentioned. Add to that, we were in the woods. These city raccoons are a pain. No body taught them good manners and they are pushy! I may have to install the Fido Shock Fence this year after all the problems last year. Between the muddy water all season and the destroyed plants and pots and the burned out pump, I have to get control somehow. Good luck, Sandy |
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| I live in the country where we not only have raccoons and opossum's but fish loving big birds like cranes, hawks and eagles. After our first year of loosing fish to any or all of them we made a small dock over a box like water tank cover with sides that extend into the water about 12', the fish swim up and under the dock and are safe from all. Haven't lost a fish since. Raccoons stopped coming in and after our recent visit from the river - no possums! But I have been known to dispatch several quite quickly. |
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| I have a small pond in the backyard which had plenty of fish and now maybe 1 is alive. Last night and for the 3rd. time we found the pond statue tilted over inside the pond and the water pump neatly laying on a rock next to the pond, no longer working. The plants around the pond as before seemed to have been smushed by a big animal. This is our third water pump, the backyard is surrrounded by a brick garage and 6 feet tall fences on each side of the yard, so there is no possibility that it was a break in (nothing else was missing or damaged), when the 2nd incident ocurred we noticed that part of the outside filter had been chewed, we are perplexed, we saw a small possom the other day in our porch, but I think it maybe a racoon, what could be putting down our water pump neatly on a rock while still running? Could it be that whatever it is thinks that it is catching something live and when trying to chew gets a blast of electricity which causes it to abandon it? We dont know what to do! |
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- Posted by dancingcook (My Page) on Mon, Aug 30, 10 at 15:53
| After struggling for years with various remedies, including having 7 raccoons and 11 opossums trapped and removed (which made no difference at all as others just took their places and/or they all came back!), I had bought a fi-shock fence online (just google "fi-shock" and then search for pond fence). Since then, the only time I have trouble is when the batteries run down, so the critters must monitor the pond intensely. The fence is low and doesn't look bad, and I hardly notice it anymore. Here's a pic:
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- Posted by blueseatx z7 TX (bluesea112@yahoo.com) on Tue, May 1, 12 at 23:21
| Per my vetinarian, the best way to deal with racoons is to dispatch them. If you trap them alive and relocate them, you are handing down a death sentance to the birds, fish, and small animals in the area you relocate them to. If you live within the city limits, buy a .22 caliber air rifle that shoots pellets no less than 800 feet per second and not more than 1100 feet per second. 1150 feet per second is the speed of sound, so pellets flying over 1150 fps will make a loud "crack" like a rifle bullet. At some point an electric fence will fail. It could be from a limb falling against it and grounding it out, a dead battery, or power failure during a storm. You have to understand and accept the fact that electric fences ALWAYS fail at some point. When your fence fails, the racoons will be there to kill your fish and poultry. Animals can sense electricity, and racoons are especially good at it. If you do not dispatch the coons, they will still be there to kill and destroy the animals and fish you have spent years raising. God created our world with a life cycle and a food chain. If you attempt to ignore it or adjust it, then you are ultimately going to fail. |
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