Why We Have No Vegetables: Raccoon Gangs

This week, our Crittercam revealed yet more nocturnal raccoon antics in our vegetable beds. Not only are the raccoons digging for grubs, but they are also using the vegetable beds and bird netting as a sort of trampoline/wrestling ring. Apologies for the haphazardly applied banjo music.

The Crittercam may have revealed an emergent phenomena: raccoons in urban locations discovering the benefits of social behavior.

Leave a comment

6 Comments

  1. Several years ago I was working on the computer late at night, on the second floor of the co-op I was living in. I heard a weird sound from outside, so I tentatively stuck my head out the window to take a look.

    The neighbours downstairs had a small inflatable wading pool, and a family of raccoons was having a party. There was an adult and a half dozen kits, and they were splashing and playing with great joy.

    They would slide down the pool edge, they were playing with the filler hose, and tossing the cleaning brush in the air like a cat toy. I wish I had video of it.

  2. I’m wondering if using one of those nighttime flashing things might help. I installed several from Night Guard around my beehives and I haven’t seen much damage to anything in recent years, although my target is a bear, not a raccoon. The ones I have recharge from the sun so there’s nothing I have to remember to do and they weren’t very expensive, certainly not in comparison to the cost of replacing bee hives.

  3. While I absolutely sympathize with the havok they are wreaking on your garden, I have to say, racoons frolicking to banjo music just totally made my day!

  4. We use bamboo skewers, especially around seedlings. They’re cheap, and its easy enough to make a little forest of them without disturbing the plants – they’re also easy to remove and re-use after the plants are bigger. Its enough to make it difficult for them to frolic…

  5. Pingback: Our Disastrous Summer Garden | Root Simple

Comments are closed.