I have my blueberry bushes protected with a chicken wire cage that has served me well for about 25 years, but things didn’t look right when I went to pick blueberries this morning. Ripe and green berries were strewn over the ground and some of the branches were bent low that were horizontal the day before. In the past green berries strewn on the ground meant chipmunks had slipped through the 1" chicken wire that is buried a few inches.
The bended branches made it obvious it was a much heavier animal and there was a huge and rather disgusting turd left by the bushes that confirmed the culprit. It took me a while to find out how it got inside, but I eventually found the breech- the animal had dug under the chicken wire. It couldn’t remember how it got in and tried to dig another exit but landscape fabric made it too hard until it found its original exit. The mulch was dug up in many places at the base of the chicken wire.
So the live traps are set with marshmallows trailing to a small bag of them in each trap. Tomorrow will likely be my chance for revenge. I might bury landscape fabric outside the cage to foil a return but I can usually trap them easily and in a normal year my first ripe peaches would have been their first draw.
I’m surprised it chose blueberries over a stinky bucket of garbage with plenty of chicken bones and other attractive, high protein scraps. I would have thought it would either choose the garbage or both.
From what I’ve been reading Raccoons can remember the solution for problems (like how to get into your cage) for up to 3 years, I’m up to three raccoons removed this season, and another got stuck in the my neighbors fence and the City came and removed it.
I use a smear of PB on a Ritz cracker with a mini marshmallow garnish, hasn’t failed me yet.
Every year (except the last) I trap and kill between 10 and over 30 raccoons on my 3 acres. I was hoping this year might be another exception because the bouquet of ripening peaches is absent but I guess the blueberries are enticement enough. The pest cost me a couple gallons of blueberries and there isn’t a whole lot of other fruit in my orchard this year.
Sounds like we have the same problem. Although they haven’t gone for my netted blueberries they stole all my cherries braking branches and just ripped my black raspberries to the ground just about. It’s mainly a mom her sister and there babies. I’m tired of shooting them and trapping them. I have eight plums left after they ravaged the tree probably looking for cherries. They bent the trunk over horizontal. I have peaches, red raspberries and apples left. I want to get an electric fence to protect them, and a more permanent one next year for the whole orchard. peanut butter on stale bread works as log as the chipmunks don’t steal it.
I’ve been dealing with ground hogs and coons for 25 years (coons for almost 50) and their damage is as easy to differentiate as their poop. We have possums also, but this is a coon (the only thing with human sized poop). Once it is light enough out I will check my traps.
The reason I trap so many on my property is because my neighbors inadvertently feed them to the point where they flourish beyond natural limits (they are like people that way). My duty is to try to maintain balance in the small area around my property. The song birds would thank me.
The ones I’ve stuck with I got from Gempler’s a few years back. Spring and latch trap door, so they can’t escape by tipping the trap, and a safety back door that is not only good if you are releasing a skunk (with tarp over the trap), but also makes for easy dumping of a corpse if you kill the animal in the trap. I believe killing trapped animals is the kindest and most responsible way to deal with the animal. I use a 1,000 fps high quality pellet gun.