Raccoon Deterrent?... seems to work

[Jetz1138]

Hi, new pond guy here.. After our first winter the raccoons in early spring took many of our first fish. I put trail cams up and got some photos of them. So I bought a scarecrow sprinkler, works good, but they still get in some areas since the pond is large with several shallow entries. I've been good at catching raccoons in traps, but for some reason, they avoid the trap and go right for the pond, walking right past them. I bought some wire mesh with 1/2" squares. cut them to fit over rocks where they've been going in. I cut many of the 1/2" sides and bend them up to make sharp needle like spikes.. hopefully you can see them in the pictures. Raccoons have the very soft paw pads and they really don't like walking on this stuff. we haven't had any fish taken by raccoon all summer... "knock on wood"....

 

[Jetz1138]

Here's a few more pictures of the mesh spikes and you can see that they really don't look bad. They're hard to see from afar. they're really easy to remove and just lay over rocks. I know many probably have better solution, but just thought I''d share.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Clever idea

Hopefully they will decide to leave after being stuck a few times and then you can pick up the mesh.

 

[Tula]

Always glad to see an effective deterrent , that's safe for wild life

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
Nice job
Beautilful pond.

Ruben

 

[peter hillman]

Thanks for sharing that!

 

[Jetz1138]

I haven't seen a raccoon show up on the trails cams for 2 months now. I'm sure one step on those screens and most raccoons won't try that a second time. This is another photo and the last time I caught them on camera.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

A version of those spike mats is available available for gardens.

http://www.gardeners.com/buy/scat-mat-cat-deterrent-roll-78x11/8592448.html

 

[addy1]

They must not like my pond never have had a issue from them.

 

[Jetz1138]

Hey Meyer, go figure I spend so much time cutting and making my own they they already have some similar..... someone else told me they also make a version for birds to keep off flat roofs. Like a pigeon mat or something like that.

 

[addy1]

Hey Meyer, go figure I spend so much time cutting and making my own they they already have some similar..... someone else told me they also make a version for birds to keep off flat roofs. Like a pigeon mat or something like that.

Yeah but think of the practice you got and you did it yourself! lol