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California Gardening

is there a plant that deters raccoons?

15 years ago

Hello,

I've had to fence in my vegetable garden (made up from 1" vinyl square fencing material) to keep the raccoons and their worm-ridden poop out of my vegetable beds. I'd like to pretty up the fence with either a vine or planting something in front of it. Are there any plants that will further deter a raccoon?

I've heard raccoons are soft pawed and might be deterred by a thorny or prickly plant...any creative ideas? All I can think of right now, is a thorny climbing rose.....

Do raccoons have any other dislikes that I can use to my advantage? I know they don't like water blasts but rigging up a motion detector water sprayer in the midst of water rationing won't be good. Any other ideas?

enjoy the day!

-----lucia

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Comments (5)

davissue_zone9
15 years ago
I can't think of anything more impenetrable than Bougainvillea. But wont they just hop over whatever gate you make?
fruithack
15 years ago
Unfortunatly electric fencing is probably the only means of exclusion. A good dog can help. Usually the tactics evolve from exclusion to elimination.
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Thanks all for the suggestions.Rita, I compleely forgot about using bricks around the tomatoe plants.Thats how I finally got to keep them lily bulbs in the ground a couple years ago.Have to remember BRICKS to put around my tomatoe plants or flower plants.Dont know about the moth balls and the blueberry bushes, I might pour a box of them in the pot arpund the blueberry bushes to see if it will help.nets of anykind wont stop a coon if it wants the blueberries.Several years ago, I gathered up my inside garbage sack, which had some empty cat food cans in it,and didn't want to go out after dark to put it in the big garbage can, so I set it on my side porch, which is screened in. That night a coon came and worked like crazy trying to get into my porch area, It tore the bottom of the screen door up, tore the screen up and almost tore up all the grill that was across the bottom half of the screen door, after the cat food cans.I know that's what it was after, cause just weeks before that I had put my garbage sacks out in the bigger can and the next morning,I found my garbage scattered all over the yard, with every catfood can cleaned as if they had been washed.Dont know if it was just one coon or several, but, they had opened the big garbage can and turned it over and pulled the two sack of garbage out on the ground and tore open the sacks, and cleaned every cat food can in them.I had a chore picking up all the garbage and putting in a new sack. Then I went to wal mart and bought some BUNCHEE STRAPS, and now when I put garbage out in the big can,I criss cross two of the bUngee straps over the lid,so they cant get it open.I had to buy straps that was a little too small,so I could stretch them tight across the lid, so it made it impossible to get them off.. jean
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Racoons are they worst, frankly, and they are cunning. There is no way to stop them other than trapping, killing, large, aggressive dogs or electric fence. The fence can be fairly cheap depending on size (some are battery operated), but I doubt that's possible in a rental. I'm sorry! I hate them, too (and used to think they were cute). Here is a link that might be useful: One example of an electric fence
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Don't know that plants will deter. But I suggest you not heave them as far as you can. Instead, drop into a bucket of soapy water so that you're sure they're goners. I also suggest that, if you live in the US, you contact your county's Extension Service and/or Agricultural Commission to learn what they suggest. To locate a county Extension Service, use this USDA map: www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension Here is a link that might be useful: locate your county's extension service office
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The fact that they are working over your lawn suggests you have a grub problem. Let them work. Once they have eaten all of whatever is troubling your lawn, they'll move on. They'll also clean up unwanted moles, voles, chipmunks and rabbits. Just keep your trash secure. It's good to have predators in the neighborhood. Keeps the pest pops down.
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applenut_gw
15 years ago
We had one for a pet when I was young; they're very strong, very smart, and very tenatious. Nothing short of an electric fence will keep them out.

It loved to eat raw olives (yuch!)
lucia_ca
Original Author
15 years ago
The 4' high, 1 square-inch vinyl fencing is strapped to those metal "T" posts and the top foot is left loose so it sort-of flops towards the outside. I read on the net somewhere that this tactic makes it harder for anything to crawl up the length of the fence. I don't know if what I have works, or if I've just been lucky, or if the fencing has kept the veggies off their radar, but so far so good!

I might give boug a try, though our winter (zone 9/14) frosts might do it in......

Gardening is a labor of love, isn't it?!
----lucia
debbysunshine
15 years ago
We get Racoons every summer and they just sit on the deck and sing atleast that is all I've seen but we have and electric gizmo plugged in, had a good hunting male dog, bars of soap, Critter Ridder, and Bouganvilla and Pyracanthia bushes all around the fence plus lots of cactus and they still came in.. Sunday at the Zoo we saw goats eating cactus prickles and all so if animals want to get in that's all there is but a scare crow using some smelly clothes would make whatever think there was someone present and probably stay away. Racoons can carry rabies and have a nasty bite and my hubby used to stand outside and talk to them and they get pretty close and that just worried me a bit. But this is Ca. and the animals are rapidly losing their source of food and homes so who knows what will come next. We live in the city with plenty of close neighbors and had a bobcat in the backyard and you can hear coyotes all summer long at night. So I can't imagine a plant or chemical that can work against the visitors. Most electronics are set like at the Zoo to keep the animals in the enclosure..

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