Ramble On, Raccoons!

Don’t look now, but here come the critters to kick off their season of mischief making.

Raccoons seem to be the wiliest of the bad guys—they’re agile, persistent, and smart. So whatever you do to make the rascals relocate, remember to change your tactics frequently. Otherwise, they’ll catch on to your game and you’ll be right back where you started.

The conniving critters will eat just about anything they can get their little paws on. But even these top-notch foragers have their favorite menu items, and corn, fruits, and berries of all kinds top the list. Here are a few tricks that just might make the clever rascals ramble:

• Raccoons hate the smell of both bleach and ammonia. So fill old margarine tubs or other small bowls with either aromatic liquid, and set them among your vulnerable plants.
• Keep ‘em out of your garbage cans by dipping a large wad of paper towels in ammonia, dowsing it with hot sauce, and tossing the wad into the can.
• Raccoons have hairless and very sensitive feet, and they don’t like to walk on anything that’s sticky, slippery, sharp, or just plain strange feeling. So lay a 3-foot-wide strip of any of these materials around your veggie patch, and those critters’ll clear out fast: broken pot shards or jagged stones; nylon netting; plastic sheeting; smooth, round pebbles; thorny rose or bramble fruit canes; wire mesh.