Racoon traps? I think if the raccoon was only attacking one/or a few plants then I would leave the plants there-or trap the pests. Otherwise they will move on to other items in your garden.

Actually your chance of becomming infected is *very, very* small. You need to eat the eggs. That means eating raccoon poop or eating or chewing on something that has been pooped on :-) There have only been two documented human infections from this parasite in North America (one was the child you mentioned - he ate some bark from contaminated firewood). BUT - raccoons are still dangerous! Firstly they are a wild animal, and are capable of inflicting a serious bite or scratch. They can kill or seriously injure cats and small dogs in territorial fights. Most importantly is that they can carry raccoon rabies. Raccoon rabies didn't exist in my neck of the woods until a few years ago, but it's here now, and it's also well established in southern Ontario. Some municipalities will trap and remove raccoons, particularly if they exhibit odd behaviour (being out in the day or aggression), but that might not solve your problem, since a new raccoon will quickly move into the vacated territory. You might even find you have more raccoon problems as there will be competition from several raccoons for the territory. What you need to do, is remove anything that's attracting them. Ensure your trash is sealed in raccoon-proof trash cans (or keep it indoors). Don't put trash out early. Compost bins may need to be simillarly secured. If you know they're nesting on your property, you can block off access to the nest, or remove it. Treat any lawn with grub problems because that attracts them too. Neighbours can be a problem if they don't take these steps too, but if you make your yard very uninteresting to the raccoons, they'll prefer to bother your neighbours :-) It really is impossible to keep them out of your yard unless you can completely enclose it. Some things might deter them for awhile, but if you have something that's attracting them they'll be back. I had a raccoon actually come inside this spring! It scared the crap out of us (how do you get it out?)! We made sure that there was no trash at all (even in trash cans) out back for a month, and I stored all new compost I generated in zip lock bags inside a bin for a few weeks as well. There were signs he'd been back to check things out, but he never became a problem visitor. BP

As best as I can see from the picture, it is most likely raccoon droppings. Deer scat, although similar looking, is pelletized whereas the picture above is small seeds which is indicative to raccoon scat. Also deer scat would not be in neat little piles, it would be more spread out. As coon scat dries, it breaks apart into neat little piles as in the picture. Here, the deer scat also has much larger pellets, about 1/2 inch in diameter or larger and the droppings are not that dark.

Every source I've checked says that there ARE plentiful deer in the San Fernando Valley. You might not have seen an actual deer, YET, but they are there! San Fernando Valley Wildlife