A new idea for an outdoor Livingroom

[Credes]

The racoons that have visited have so far just drank from the pond. In arizona we used carpet tack strips glued to the top of our block fence to stop the coyotes from walking it.

All neighbors knew, and no small children that might get stuck. Did stop the coyotes finally.

As stated and shown its a coffee table on a deck in the front yard there is no way to put tacks up on the rails which would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. It is completely accessible which is the price I chose to pay by making it an outdoor living room in the front yard of a city block. But even in the backyard where raccoons years back shreded the kids pool when they fell in, stopping them is about impossible. Little buggers are as agile as cats and far more intelligent. But lesson learned and I will just make it less enticing for them.

 

[Credes]

destructive little critters .I hope the foresting they are doing behind my house do not send critters my way .So far I have 2 snakes in my shed and they are not welcome to stay there either lol

Well I picked up the trap from the city but we had hail last night so they never came out. But I have 2 weeks to use this but what I was really surprised with is the the suggestion from the staff was to use marshmallows with vanilla extract on them. It seems that is the best bait they know of. And I could hardly blame them it was delicious. And to add even more issues the raccoons here are known to carry a worm that will transfer to humans and if not caught early could kill.

Try to make a simple thing where I was more worried about neighborhood kids and cats and what do I get raccoons LOL.

 

[sissy]

well better raccoons than egrets lol or owls or eagles

 

[Credes]

well better raccoons than egrets lol or owls or eagles

We had eagles at my mothers and they tried picking up a full grown cat then dropped it from who knows how high. The cat came home with a broken neck that took most of a year to heal we were surprised it even lived. Every now and then we would pass an eagle that was hit by a car and yes I mean hit by a car. They would stay on the road too long eating road kill.

 

[DrDave]

A raccoon devasted the plants in my streambed trying to get past the netting to the Koi 2 nights ago. All my parrots feather was mashed and the water lettuce plucked out of the nursery so they could look for fish. The fry are too small for them to bother with but they looked anyway.
Time to set the IR alarms and do some coon hunting.

 

[sissy]

I am surprised here in VA I have yet to see a raccoon but have seen a lot of fox

 

[Credes]

A raccoon devasted the plants in my streambed trying to get past the netting to the Koi 2 nights ago. All my parrots feather was mashed and the water lettuce plucked out of the nursery so they could look for fish. The fry are too small for them to bother with but they looked anyway.
Time to set the IR alarms and do some coon hunting.

I have been thinking of putting up an ir detector also since the pond is part of a deck with only 2 exposed fronts its simple matter to use one transmitter a mirror to do a 45 degree angle to the detector. But I am trying to easy methods first. You probably were hit for the same reason this is the common month for them to have babies which is why I am hoping to take out the female first with the trap. What I did find interesting when I talked to the wildlife staff he pretty much did a hard hint to kill them instead of bringing them in since they would have to put them to sleep. And that would eat up dwindling funds they dont have to spare. Even after draining my pond its finally clearing up enough I could see enough of the pond bottom to try siphoning out the worst of the mud from the plant they ripped apart. I have been thinking of making a more enclosed structure to hold the plants by covering the box that would hold all the plants with one of those gridded light covers you find at home depot for flourescent lights, then covering that with rocks to hide it and that would still allow the leaves to come up. That should make it very difficult for them to dig them up I hope.

 

[Credes]

I am surprised here in VA I have yet to see a raccoon but have seen a lot of fox

Thinking back I have never seen a raccoon till I caught them outside laughing at me. But I have seen the damage they caused locally before to another pond and our kids pool. Now if you want super destructive you should see what a beaver could do to every tree in your yard. And those things are huge the ones we trapped up in Northern Ca must of been well over 100lbs with 4 inch teeth. They look so much smaller on the discovery channel.

I've never seen a fox before probably too stringy to eat.

 

[sissy]

you could put your plants under a milk crate upside down and plants can still grow through it and fish can't root through plants either solved my problem with my koi so far crossing fingers to hope they don't figure a way around it

 

[sissy]

you have to weigh the milk crate down of course I use pvc pipe just big enough to go through the holes and put rocks inside pvc pipe with end caps on each end

 

[Credes]

you could put your plants under a milk crate upside down and plants can still grow through it and fish can't root through plants either solved my problem with my koi so far crossing fingers to hope they don't figure a way around it

Since this is a coffee table I have to be careful on what shows cosmetically but that might be a great idea as a platform to support the box if I paint it black. And a great area for the fish to hide.

 

[sissy]

you can get them already black mine are black

 

[sissy]

my lillies are growing right up the center of the crate and I think it gives them stability also .

 

[Credes]

my lillies are growing right up the center of the crate and I think it gives them stability also .

What I am looking at would be a flourescent light diffuser panel, they are about 4 feet long by 2 feet and instead of being a solid opaque sheet but is a grid of 1/2 inch squares. Its about a 1/4 inch thick so hard to break. With this I could cut it to fit the size of the box that would hold all the plants. Then cover it with a layer of river rocks to hide the panel. A question though has anyone used a product like peat moss for the plants instead of dirt?

 

[addy1]

Peat moss can cause ph issues, I use only pure clay kitty litter, or pea gravel.