I live in a rural area with a strong raccoon population (Nearby swamps, marshes, woodlands etc.) and have never had 'coons dig up transplants or bulbs (Squirrels & crows are another matter.). In gardens & lawns however ... they do dig for grubs & worms & beetles & such.

Urban friends however have experienced your situation. From what I was able to learn, the raccoons only dug into planters & gardens where organic fertilizers were put into the soil around the transplants. Fertilizers such as bone meal & 'Fish Emulsion' types. The 'coons smell the 'edible' materials and dig to investigate.

Conclusion is that raccoons do not dig out plants except to attempt to find food - or where they think there's food.

Can't help with a simple solution for your blueberries. hereabouts they get our grapes - wild & cultivated - but we have so many we simply consider it sharing ...

Mothballs are piosioness to pets so I would try something else if there are pets in your household.

YIKES !! I didn't even think about dogs eating them. Well, as I suggested, maybe make little cages out of wire so no pets (or children) can get to them. SORRY !!

I also Googled and found that Cayene pepper can be harmful to cats....didn't know THAT !! (Have seen that in the past as suggestion to deter insects, I think...)

I did just Google and found that they DO sell bobcat and coyote urine so check this out and see what ya think....

Here is a link that might be useful: Purchase Predator Urine

After you replant it take some bricks or large stones and put them around and as close to the plant as you can. Should stop them from digging. As to the blueberries, not much you can do except net them and even then a racoon could rip the net apart if is wanted to.

Jean, We had the same problem a couple of years ago. The raccoons were digging up the newly planted daylilies as fast as my husband planted them. They were considerate, though, as they neatly laid the plants to the side of the hole. They were probably looking for grubs. We also stopped feeding our cat outside, as that was drawing them to our yard.

We called the city and they brought out cages/traps. We baited with cat food and marshmallows - they love marshmallows. Once the city officer caught the mother raccoon, that ended the problem. They sure were cute, but mean little boogers.

We haven't been bothered with them since.

Nancy

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

People assume noise & lights will keep 'critters' away ... However, it works temporarily only. Raccoons (especially) & coyotes, feral cats, skunks etc. in suburban & urban areas are used to human smells & lights & noises and simply learn & adjust & continue to do what they need to do to search for food. A neighbour's sheep farm had BOTH radio & yard lights but the coyotes still got at the sheep. We have a floodlight that illuminates a large area of our yard and many times - many times - I've switched it on at various times through the night to see all of the above - once even a mature black bear - NOT even look up or stop what they were doing. At most 10% of the time the sudden light made the creature nervous ... some did move off (most didn't). A permanent light & radio will quickly be ignored - they learn it's not a threat. One other point - blood meal - BM might deter herbivores such as deer & rabbits but blood meal is food to predators such as raccoons. That bear I mentioned above tore open a 5 gallon pail of blood meal in our garden and ate quite a bit of it before scattering it about.

For nuisance animals you really only have a couple of choices: Remove them live or dead and make your situation undesirable to them. They only come around for a nesting or den site and to find food.

Last point is that all such predatory creatures LEARN from other successful creatures. One raccoon having success at your place will eventually bring others around too. Sometimes it might be their own offspring. Sometimes another animal just hanging back & observing what's going on.

keeping your garbage up, not leaving cat food out, will help. We'.ve been dealing with racoons for a while now. DH has this water gun with ammonia in it, he squirts the coons when he sees them, (animal lover that he is, he is careful to avoid the eyes). We live trapped one and took it off. there was another there that night. But, and it is a big but...they have rid my yard of voles.

I think you would have to hire a "critter ridder" to get rid of them...if yo can't or won't kill them. And that would be expensive.
kay

We don' leave cat food down and

Kay,I never leave cat food out or any other food either.I am trying to get rid of these varmits, not feed them.I have a indoor cat and she never gos out no more.She is Miss BLACKIE's baby.She use to be a indoor- outdoor cat, until she came up missing for about 3 weeks one time,and when she finally got back home, She was nothing but skin and bones and filthy dirty, I took her to the vet, and her hind leg was crushed so the vet removed the leg. so after that she became strickly a inside cat.I never leave cat food outside. A neighbors cat comes here almost evey day, cause he knows I will feed it some dry cat food, he cleans up every grain of it too,and I bring the dish back in.. I called the city a couple days ago to inquire about if they can do some thing to get rid of the coons,and I was told they can c atch them and haul them off, but it will cost me $ 75. for one trap, cage I guess, and if they have to come back to reset the cage its another $25,and $ 75. each time they have to bring a cage out to catch it. I can not afford that, so I told them forget it then,I will figure some thing else.

Jean

I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems.

Two springs ago we started seeing odd problems which we couldn't figure out. Newly planted pepper and basil plants were pushed out of the dirt and the raised planter box they were in was rototilled. I would replace the plants, and the next day they would be dug up again. It slowly occurred to me that I had put worms in that bed the year before, and something must be digging for the worms (and/or also grubs, slugs, and snails).

Then starting late fall, we noticed that the lawn area (adjacent to the property line hedge) in that same side yard was getting torn up. BADLY. We were also having rat (and gopher) problems, and when my garden help suggested that the lawn problem was due to raccoons, we called in professional help. They started trapping the coons (humane traps, humane deaths), and I stopped counting after 10 raccoons. (According to the experts, we were at the peak of a cyclic raccoon population explosion.)

Things have been more peaceful in that side yard since then, though something (I am thinking (HOPING) one of the local cats) has been tromping through my raised beds again. No more lawn tearing up, anyway.

(Jean - we had to have the exterminators come back MANY times to reset the trap, if it was accidentally triggered and/or triggered by a rat (which could squeeze in and out of the larger traps needed for the coons). We were NEVER charged for the resets, only for the times an animal was actually caught (we also got a couple of skunks) - though of course then we had to pay for them to deal with the animal.)

Wow -- we were never charged a penny to have the raccoons removed. That's what we pay taxes for...I am shocked that your city would charge you. Sorry to hear that, Jean.

Nancy

Well.I think I have at least 7 comes in my yard,althoI have pnly seen 2 and they came up on my porch.I say 7, because one morningI was at the kitchen sink washing some dishes,and I glanced out the window which is over the sink,and I seen this male and female coon come out of the attic of the house next door, then 5 little coons followed,They came out of a hole up under the eve of the house,and walked across the carport and jumped to the ground.A few days later I talked to one of the boys that was living in the house, I say boy, but hes in his 30's I guess,and I asked him if he knew coons was living in their attic.They were renting the house. He said well he been hearing lots of noises in the attic but just figured it was a rat up there.I told him yea, a mighty big one too. 7 of them.Since then they moved out of the house, and the hole was fixed,so don't know if they got back in that attic or not.New renters are living in the house, now.

jean