Raccoons: Do they ever leave?

[LalahCatlady]

If you re locate them closer than a mile, they will return and you will have trouble catching them again!

 

[LalahCatlady]

In a word "NO". I have gone the move them route, but live in a wooded area and they are like sand on a beach. None of the advertised sprays, powder, etc work. I have shot more than I can remember in the last fourteen years I have been here. I have reinforced my coop/run to the point it looks impenetrable, but it requires constant upkeep because they are nasty, persistent, preditors! Your only defence is to keep reinforcing your coop or get a guard dog that won't bother the chickens but will stay outside and they are hard to find.

 

[Annasg]

Raccoons got in on mine and killed 5 of them in one night. I set a live trap and caught them but I also killed them. And for those who are against killing them this is how I feel. My chickens give me food that helps me with my grocery bill since I am on SS. The raccoons bring NOTHING to add to my life. I caught 6 in the live trap and killed them. I live on the river so there are more than that I have to try and control. Good luck. Once they feed at your house, they will bring their families and try to move in on you.

They will not leave on their own and they will not leave you with any chickens that are alive

 

[Annasg]

BTW! The raccoons dug a tunnel under my chicken coop to get into my girls. I had screen wire on the outside on the ground but they got under that wire. Shoot 'em . I lost count of how many I have killed.

 

[Jill80]

I just dealt with a raccoon this morning actually. Two in the past week actually. One had tried to dig under the coop. Caught it. Relocated it. But, before I caught it, I noticed some of my ceramic eggs were missing. (Some of my girls like to nest in the forest since they free range. And they just dont always lay in the coop. So, I try to at least encourage them to lay in easy to find or easy to access places. So, the ceramic eggs were not in the coop.)

I assumed the raccoon was the one who took the ceramic eggs. So, after I caught it, I bought some new ceramic eggs the next day. Well, the day after that, the ceramic eggs once again went missing. So, I set the trap again.

The first two nights, I actually caught two of my cats. Filthy creatures. They get fed enough inside. There's always food in their bowls. Anyhow, last night, I caught another raccoon and relocated it this morning.

For a minute, I considered just shooting it, but, I thought they were actually possibly a pair of baby raccoons I'd seen before I'd gotten chickens. So, I decided against it.

I guess all of this is just a really long winded intro to my question.

What's wrong with relocating them? Aside from... I guess the fact I'd just potentially be handing the problem off to someone else and also teaching them not to fall for traps.

I mean, now that I look back on it, I probably should have just shot it. And, I guess I will in the future.

Depending on where you live it may be against the law. In Tennessee if you trap a nuisance animal (raccoon, rat, opossum , skunk, squirrel) you must kill it. Relocating it will only cause an infestation to another area and the problem doesn't actually go away. And if others have the same idea as you and relocate their trapped vermin, it may end up coming back to bite you as someone may end up removing the vermin in your area. The best part is you don't really have to dispose of the body. Just dump it out in the forest and let nature take it's course.

Side note. Generally opossums are fairly harmless to most people, but if you have chickens, they will go after the eggs, the chicks, and nesting hens. So they get a spot on the naughty list here.

 

[Bigbluefrog]

I apologize in advance if this has already been asked!

For the past month or so, after sunset, I have awful visitors also known as raccoons. They either come in pairs (quite chunky) or in triples (a chubby mother and two of her children, I am assuming). They saw at wood. They bite at the hardware cloth. They leave signs every single night.

I have game cams. I have sensor lights/motion detectors. There are predator lights/solar nite guards around the coop and run. I have tried cayenne pepper, garlic powder, powders mixed in water with liquid dish soap, bottle of hot sauce, a concoction of cayenne pepper/jalapeno peppers/onions stewed for 20 minutes and sprayed, rags soaked in ammonia, essential oils... basically, any natural repellents/remedies you can think of, I've tried.

How do you get these awful, obnoxious, persistent, creepy eyes out of your yard? Live trap them? Shoot them? There's the tiny fear that they will continuously reproduce and come back.

Will these raccoons EVER leave? Or is the only remedy a concrete yard?

Thank you so much!

No, where there is one - 5 more appear. Have a photo of 5 by the bird feeder. Now if I didn't have chickens I wouldn't care. 4 times I found them in the fenced in run.
Trap and shoot.
Sad, but if they found food they will be back.

 

[Bigbluefrog]

Depending on where you live it may be against the law. In Tennessee if you trap a nuisance animal (raccoon, rat, opossum , skunk, squirrel) you must kill it. Relocating it will only cause an infestation to another area and the problem doesn't actually go away. And if others have the same idea as you and relocate their trapped vermin, it may end up coming back to bite you as someone may end up removing the vermin in your area. The best part is you don't really have to dispose of the body. Just dump it out in the forest and let nature take it's course.

Side note. Generally opossums are fairly harmless to most people, but if you have chickens, they will go after the eggs, the chicks, and nesting hens. So they get a spot on the naughty list here.

It's illegal here to relocate.
Racoons are territorial so relocating will cause stress and most likely die anyway.
I would relocate if I could. But hubby said it's against the law

 

[aart]

No, where there is one - 5 more appear. Have a photo of 5 by the bird feeder. Now if I didn't have chickens I wouldn't care. 4 times I found them in the fenced in run.
Trap and shoot.
Sad, but if they found food they will be back.

Good reason to stop feeding wild birds once you have chickens.

 

[Folly's place]

We feed the wild birds intermittently, away from chicken areas, and stop when the opossums or raccoons arrive.
Mary

 

[Annasg]

I apologize in advance if this has already been asked!

For the past month or so, after sunset, I have awful visitors also known as raccoons. They either come in pairs (quite chunky) or in triples (a chubby mother and two of her children, I am assuming). They saw at wood. They bite at the hardware cloth. They leave signs every single night.

I have game cams. I have sensor lights/motion detectors. There are predator lights/solar nite guards around the coop and run. I have tried cayenne pepper, garlic powder, powders mixed in water with liquid dish soap, bottle of hot sauce, a concoction of cayenne pepper/jalapeno peppers/onions stewed for 20 minutes and sprayed, rags soaked in ammonia, essential oils... basically, any natural repellents/remedies you can think of, I've tried.

How do you get these awful, obnoxious, persistent, creepy eyes out of your yard? Live trap them? Shoot them? There's the tiny fear that they will continuously reproduce and come back.

Will these raccoons EVER leave? Or is the only remedy a concrete yard?

Thank you so much!

I put a blaring radio out in my woodshed to deter the raccoons. Sounds like I have someone milling around in my backyard all the time. I actually believe this was the first of many things I tried that works for me. I live on the river and there is a den down by the river that is big enough that my German Shepard went into, turned around and came back out. It's a BIGGUN. I also lined the outside of the run with concrete blocks because raccoons once dug under the fence and killed 6 of my 7 hens. That has helped tremendously.And the answer is NO! They will never stop coming as long as you have chickens. I lost count a long time ago on how many I have trapped and shot. PS: They are about the bravest little, nasty critters I've ever had to deal with.