Okay, the raccoons have gotten ridiculous

[Aerows]

I was out on the side patio, and two juveniles mobbed me. Like, sniffing my feet mobbed me. I went on the other patio to get the cat and bring her in, and there they came, and I had to grab her up and toss her inside while one of them grabbed my damn foot and sock as I was *fleeing* it. I don't think it was trying to bite, I think it was just hungry and was trying to stop the food wagon (I haven't left food out for them because they have gotten to be a nuisance).

What in the hell do I do with these damn things to get them to stop mobbing me? The cat was just sitting there like "they aren't going to mess with me if I don't mess with them" but they freaking run up to me like I'm their damn mother! Seriously, I felt a little raccoon slobber on my sock. It was trying to keep me from running away because I didn't feed it.

[NightWatcher]

1. Sweet! I wondered where they went after they left my place last month

We would get 3-4 in the yard going after the cat food dish or climbing to the roof to make a racket. Then all of a sudden last month they stopped coming around.

[Aerows]

2. Yeah, they came over here

and decided to be a freaking nuisance.

[NightWatcher]

6. I was just getting to the point of contemplating violence on them

I know it's not their fault, we live out in the woods and civilization creeps into the wild more and more each year, but damn they were pissing me off. Glad they left before I reacted in anger to them.

[Aerows]

7. I think they are getting geared up for the winter

and probably by next month they will go away. I'm not sure I want to wait that long though, with the ankle grabbing.

[In_The_Wind]

3. Love can be very clingy at times.

Seriously, is there Wildlife Control you can call to trap and release them?

[Aerows]

5. That sounds like what I'm going to have to do

It's one thing to have them hanging around, but charging me and grabbing at my ankles is, to put it mildly, rather frightening.

[In_The_Wind]

8. It would have frightened me. No one wants to risk getting bitten.

It's a real inconvenience to be trapped inside your home. [img][/img]

[Aerows]

9. They charge the damn door!

How in the name of goodness would you get one of the things out of the house if it got in? Gah!

[In_The_Wind]

10. We had one that ripped the screen door last Spring.

At first I thought it was the dog trying to get out ... until I looked closer.
It might have given my little doves heartaches.

[pokerfan]

12. Friend of mine

had an entire family of raccoons building a next under his garage and basically just being a general nuisance. He rented a trap and trapped them one by one, eventually relocating the entire family to a state park twenty miles away. The trap looked like one of these:



He said it was pretty comical. The first morning he looked out and there was one raccoon in the trap and five raccoons sitting in a circle around it.

[Aerows]

13. My father has one that he used to trap a bobcat

that was lurking around the shop. I don't know why I didn't think of that!

[Aerows]

47. Dad won't let me use it

He's afraid it will trap the house cats. .

[likesmountains 52]

4. If you can find a link to Paul Theroux's "Our Raccoon Year"

read it...
It was in Harper's a few years ago.

[Aerows]

16. It's not like that

They just sort of took up here because the cat liked to be outside and I unwittingly left food out for her. I didn't know little bandits would come.

[Aerows]

11. This pretty much describes the experience

What happened:
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What it seemed like happened:

?w=500&h=333

They move so damned fast and they aren't afraid. They dart right up and it seems like there are 5 of them for every two there are. Singly, they aren't scary or weird, but in a bunch? My word. You feel like you are being overrun!

[HipChick]

18. Aww...who could turn away those faces..

[Aerows]

20. The teeth in their mouths are scary

For the most part, I figured out tonight that they can take a hint if I shake a broom at them that they are getting too close, but they still have this tendency to run up like I'd love to have raccoon slobber all over me.

[PoliticAverse]

27. As is the possibility they are carrying rabies. n/t

[Aerows]

39. Well, yeah

that scares the piss out of me, but I'm pretty sure these are just overly rambunctious, and I made a big mistake by feeding them after inadvertently feeding them by leaving cat food out.

[Wounded Bear]

14. I think we need a 'word of the day' thread with 'racoon slobber.'

[Aerows]

15. It's gooey and sticky

Last edited Sun Nov 3, 2013, 02:35 AM - Edit history (1)

and scares the shit out of you if it runs in your socks and you feel their little hands gripping your foot for dear life because it is (as they seem to be perpetually), starving, and don't want the bringer-of-cat-food to vanish before their dark little eyes.

EDIT: And did I mention big, scary teeth that would make a wolf proud?

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. I would be freaking out! I have an unnatural fear of rabies, and I would be

so worried about having been exposed to it.

I hope you can get these little guys to take off already!

[Aerows]

19. These guys are juvenile

and they are extremely active and only come out at night, so I'm pretty sure they aren't rabid, since they want to eat everything under the sun. That said, I'm not wanting to get bitten by them because I know what their teeth look like, and they scare the hell out of me.

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. Still, be careful. I believe saliva & mucus carry the disease, and animals

don't always present with symptoms but are still able to transmit it.

[magical thyme]

24. your fear, or rather, our fear of rabies is not unnatural...

it was my first thought when I read this.

You don't have to be bitten; saliva alone is enough to infect micro-tears in your skin. A boy died a few years ago back in Texas a few weeks after finding a bat in his bedroom. While chasing it back out, it brushed up against his chest and apparently grazed it. There was no visible bite.

And an animal can be infectious while still asymptomatic. Some years back, somebody up in the Ellsworth, ME area brought an infected mare in from upstate NY. The mare only seemed a little depressed when she arrived, which they attributed to the trip. And then one morning, the barn owner opened her stall door and the mare greeted her by clamping down on her thigh. She was only able to get the mare to release by poking her in the eye with a stick. She was not able to get the stall door closed fast enough, and the mare spent the day running around loose on her farm attacking anyone that got too close. They were able to chase her into and lock her into the indoor arena, where she ran around attacking and biting the jumps, until she collapsed. When the vet got there, she was down with a fever of 105. He had to sit on her neck to euthanize her to keep from getting bitten, as even down with that fever she was still trying to attack him.

It was an absolute horror story without end. Everybody who had any contact with the mare had to go through the rabies series. The barn owner did a crappy job of everything and many of the horses there had to be euthanized because she hadn't kept records on them. One woman who had worked for her and been fired found out by accident because she hadn't kept records of that and she wasn't notified (she'd gone back home to Rhode Island). She got the series late, but didn't get rabies. She did, however, react terribly to the rabies series, ended up in a coma for a week, was without a functioning immune system for an extended period of time, and IIRC had some residual nerve damage as a result.

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. Very, very scary stuff. The real problem with this disease is that

once symptoms present, it's too late.

[magical thyme]

28. Yup. Not to mention that it's nearly always fatal. nt

[REP]

21. Nothing you can do. See the masks? They're fuzzy little bandits.

We just gave up and feed them, along with the skunks and deer.

[vanlassie]

22. Squirtgun?

[Orsino]

23. Separating wild criters and their parasites from your pet would probably be a good thing. n/t

[Blue Diadem]

31. raccoons risk for larva migrans disease

Remembered a story years ago about a young child who died from it.

This particular link contains a study that was done in California.

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/12/03-0039_article.htm

[Aerows]

40. Oh god

Just what I need with my already slim body weight is a round worm.

[Jenoch]

29. I remember your other thread about the raccoons.

These young ones have been habituatuated to humans (you) and show no fear. That is never a good thing for a wild animal.

I think you need to live trap them and relocate them at least 5 miles away.

In the meantime, get a plastic squirt bottle, and put 1/2 water and 1/2 bleach and spray it in their faces from a safe distance away. If you don't want to go to the trouble of the bleach water, get some pepper spray. Do not let them grab you ever again, that is quite dangerous.

[Aerows]

34. I know, it's my own damn fault :(

I thought they were cute, now they are getting nasty and very aggressive.

[Jenoch]

36. Have you sprayed them with anything?

You really need to get rid of them because eventally, they will do something to you or your cat that is more than just a minor irritation.

[Aerows]

38. Should I try spraying them with that

"NO!" stuff? It's to keep pets off of furniture, but I think in their face it might seem like skunk spray.

[Jenoch]

42. Make sure to keep your distance. Good luck.

I don't know what the laws are in your area concerning Mace and pepper spray, but if it is regulated, you can buy wasp/hornet spray from the hardware store. It shoots about 15 - 20 feet. One quick squirt in front of them, you don't even need to hit them, and they will likely run off and will not return.

[Aerows]

43. Keep my distance?

The damn things mob the sliding glass door! All I have to do is stick it out of the door and shoot.

[Jenoch]

44. Go for it.

Your post reminded me of my father. My parents moved from a house they spent 20 years in to a townhouse. My father used to garden and take care of his yard. When he got to the townhouse, he had nothing to do, so he took to feeding the Canada geese in the park and the front yard. It got to the point where the geese would stand at their front door and pound on the glass with their bills in order to get fed. My mother was not pleased with all of the goose crap on the sidewalk and near the front door.

[Aerows]

45. It sounds terrible

I love animals and would do about nothing to harm one, but the foot/ankle grabbing incident scared me.

[Jenoch]

48. If it were a couple of puppies, it would be adorable.

[Avalux]

30. It's all your fault you know.

They got used to you feeding them, now they're all like "what the hell dude!". Hopefully they'll figure out you're not going to feed them anymore and go on their way.

[Aerows]

35. I know.

I'm a dumbass. I didn't realize they would get like that.

[avebury]

41. I remember on of the Animal Cop

show episodes quite a while back where some people had to have them come out to get rid of an enormous infestation of raccoons that had taken over a house.

[Aerows]

46. I don't need that type of problem

I love animals, but I don't love them as much as they seem to love food and mischief.

[rrneck]

32. I usually just yell and throw stuff and they go away. nt

[Brigid]

33. Those raccoons have not gotten ridiculous.

They've gotten dangerous. Contact your local wildlife management officials for assistance.

[Aerows]

37. It's my own damn fault.

I thought they were cute when they approached, and one took up around the house and I fed it. It was okay and was small. The problem came in when it started getting bigger and brought friends. They seem to be okay when there is one of them, but when there are two or three, they get very aggressive. It grabbed my damn socked foot when I threw the cat in and that scared the shit out of me.

EDIT: And local wildlife officials? I couldn't get them to come out and take care of a dog that was terrorizing the neighborhood. A cop showed up at the door, asked where the dog was and if he was dangerous, I said "possibly" because he was huge and they said "Well, we can't do anything unless he bites someone, sorry ma'am."

I shit you not, that's what he said. I have about as good of a chance of getting a local wildlife control person out here if I had a seven foot alligator in my front yard as I would if I called the pope.