I think that there are more burglars/bandits in our neighborhood than we realize. About 4am this morning I heard a loud rattling at my back door. The first thing I checked was to make sure it wasn’t my cat Grady. He was sound asleep in a cardboard box (his choice of bed). I finally got the nerve to approach the back door. The first thing I noticed was the storm door was wide open. I flipped on the light and I jumped backward seeing a raccoon balancing on top of the storm door. He was reaching upward trying to get to the roof. I carefully cracked the door making sure he didn’t run inside the door when he came down. He came down as I closed the door and headed toward your house. The picture was taken through our regular door window so it caused a reflection of the inside.
I caught raccoons trying to get in my chicken coop once. I had a shouted at 'em, they jumped and ran. Climbed a tree and others a fence. I ran behind the ones on the fence and punched one in the ass and sent it off!
I think I scared them bad enough, 'cause I haven’t seen any since. (Got cameras now and not a whisper.)
That’s impressive!! We have a raccoon that has learned how to break open our mouse traps and steal the bait. Maybe you can come beat it up for me 
I told some people and they were horrified. Then would say something about getting rabies…
They didn’t try to engage with me at all! I’m fine people!
Sadly Parvo hits Raccoons particularly hard in our section of Georgia. There was a sizable Rabies outbreak in North Georgia Raccoons over the last year as well. We get possums far more here. Occasionally the odd Mustelids as well.
i keep a brick of fire crackers. if somethings in the yard i dont want to or cant shoot, i light 2-3 of them and fling them out my back door. does the trick and they usually dont come back. alot of times they come at night when i cant see anything to shoot anyway.
Two words: Redbone coonhound.
Keeps the riff-raff out.
They climb to the top of the tallest thing that is man-made to take a big ole country poop. When I worked at a gravel.pit, they would poop on the highest part of the conveyers. I had to watch myself every morning of flying poop, when I first powered up the conveyers. Racoons are downright nasty critters. Just about any breed of hunting dog will.keep them away. Some breeds are better than others, obviously.
I here ya! Ever since i quit having a dog on patrol my house has gone back to ground zero for all the critters.
The bears come right up on my porch. I watch them from the window and when he turns away i open the door and toss out a string of firecrackers. Boy he takes off like his ass is on fire. I can here him crashing through the woods, trying to get away, for several minutes.
Had to get another trap because the racoons have come back in force. They seem to stay away from my chickens now that I have a Foghorn Leghorn rooster, but I see their footprints all over the garden. I would like to be able to use fish emulsion again with my plants getting dug up. For an animal that is so smart, you would think they would no there is no fish under the plant!
Unforunately, my neighbor likes to feed the racoons. These two young coons came right up to me next to my chicken coop. Cute when they’re young, but they’ll try to kill the hens when they’re older. They haven’t messed too much with the garden. But squirrels in my orchard – that’s another story.
