Chris’ sister and brother-in-law came over one evening to check out the new house so after showing them the inside, we all trooped outside to check out the backyard.
As we are all standing there (admiring how much space there is for a yard in the city – yeah!) not one but TWO little raccoon heads pop up over the fence. Uh-oh. We watched these critters saunter along the fence, not even two feet away from where we stood, and into a hole in the roof of the neighbour’s garage. Yepppp they live there. Great.
Chris’ brother-in-law informed us they’ve been waging a long battle with raccoons (the joys of homeownership in the city that only picks up garbage every other week…) and he suggested hanging tennis balls soaked in javex along with sprinkling cayenne pepper as a deterrent.
We took a close look at the roof over the extension of the back of the house and now recognized large clumps of raccoon droppings… yuck. This means that after they are done eating, socializing, doing whatever it is they do they use our roof as their toilet and leave not so little piles of crap everywhere.
So after extensive research (Googling) confirmed the popularity of cayenne pepper mixes and ammonia which the little beasts don’t like, we have begun to wage our very own war against the raccoons. From everything we’ve read you have to start by cleaning up their leavings before you try to deter them. They are apparently quite smart and can “learn” new behaviours easily. We are hoping they will learn that they are NOT welcome on our roof, fence and in our yard, and the deterrents work by causing them to choose alternate routes and avoid coming through our property.
Preparing for battle: Chris got up on the roof and shovelled all the raccoon crap (if you plan to do this yourself be sure to use a shovel and wear both a mask and heavy duty latex gloves – that stuff is toxic and can make you really sick!). Then Gillian went up too and we sprayed the whole area with windex containing ammonia.
Stay tuned for updates as we wage this war on raccoons (humanely of course!)…
Have you experienced issues with raccoons in the city?
What methods/products have you used to get rid of them?
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