HELP! -raccoon problems

[hatidua]

The raccoon (which is truly HUGE) that we thought was confined to hissing at us from the neighbors treehouse, seems to have taken up new lodging arrangements under my backyard shed. This would not be a problem but for the fact that I have two small dogs and if the dogs tangle with the raccoon, the raccoon will surely win....and then I'm either off to the vet or to the doggy mortuary.

I've called the city animal control people and they are perfectly useless...unless you are walking your dog off a leash, at which point they are eager to issue a ticket.

So, do any of you have any suggestions aside from shooting it? (which I'd be extremely willing to do, but have no interest in seeing the interior of the Boulder County Jail).

Oh, and although I realize that 'concealed means concealed', I can't even legally trap it and remove it from my property in case I happen to spread disease to a new population somewhere.....but I am welcome to hire a pest control company who will do that for me

Any and all input welcome -

[buffalobo]

A guy at work recently had a raccoon break into attic and take up residence. He and his brother tried for 4 days to trap/capture. Finally gave up and hired pro to take care of it.

Personally I would SSS.

[Mtn.man]

1 of those Hi Power (i post loosely) Air rifles, silent deadly problem gone.
If you trap it you will have to drive at least 40 miles away as they are like a bear in that they will return.

[buckshotbarlow]

bow or xbow does the trick here...

[Great-Kazoo]

Like to borrow my suppressed 22mag bolt action? Of course i must be on site, so lunch sounds good.














Just realized you're in boulder, fed it some weed and when it comes out for food, lay a trail over to your neighbors house.

[zteknik]

Gamo air rifle will do the trick..
I keep hearing about those live traps and there suppose to work good,but what do you put for bait in one?
Out in NY those buggers use to raid my BBQ grille all the time so they must like burnt hot dogs and burgers..

[JohnTRourke]

shoot it
a 22LR kills racoons fine and out of a rifle it's pretty quiet, no one notices DAMHIK

[Irving]

Shoot it and then throw it in your trash, problem solved. Send me a PM.

[TheGrey]

We had a cousin of that giant bugger at our house last year. He trashed our deck like a rock star and scared the bejesus out of us. I'll tell you what sent him packing:

I dumped a liberal amount of moth balls in some of the places I though he was using as a den. Then I got some crystalized coyote pee (found at Ace hardware) and sprinkled that, too. And then I sprayed vinegar everywhere. You could see the stink-lines of my yard from space after that.

(The fact that you have dogs may make you decide against the mothballs; I don't have pets that go outside and I don't want you to chance them snacking on them. If there's a way to shove the mothballs under the shed after the racoon beats feet, then fill in the holes, it may discourage other inhabitants.)

Don't make the same mistake I did- hold your breath and keep your mouth shut until you are well away from the area you've sprinkled this. You will have to avoid that area of your yard for a little while until the stench dissipates. Your little dogs will likely not find it pleasant.


In fact, probably one or the other of those will work; I just panicked and dumped EVERYTHING around to get rid of the critter.

Good luck, man. Let us know how it goes.

[hatidua]

So far, I've been told to soak rags in ammonia and stuff them under the new residence, any other suggestions out there??

edit: thanks for the mothball and vinegar idea's, those will be added to this afternoon's shopping list as well!