Any birders out there have raccoon problems?

[redstateblues]

They are much smarter and stronger than squirrels and they are defiant as well. I have been reduced to bringing in the feeders at night.

[Walleye]

1. I had them get on my second floor deck and eat the suet cake

They don’t scare away very easily. I don’t like them they creep me out

[NotANeocon]

2. Hang the feeder

using a very well lubricated single wire

[Yonnie3]

3. Yes

The racoon was soon followed by a big old smelly black bear. I know it was smelly because I walked out the back door early one morning and found myself five feet away from it.

I then brought the feeders in at night.

[magicarpet]

4. Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies has the answer,...

.... raccoon stew,.. I am sure the recipe can be located on the web.

[Frustratedlady]

5. I've lost 5 or more feeders (all new) to coons. They didn't bother to take the food...

they took the feeders, too and worked on them "at home" to get to the contents. The biggest prize for them were the peanut feeders. They were bright red, so I may find them some day.

We've resorted to locking the feeders with electrical straps, or whatever you call them. One other successful method I found was wrapping the chain/wires the feeders hung from with Saran wrap...a long strip of it around and around tightly...and they left them alone. You have to replace it every couple of months if the wrap loosens, but they can't unwrap the wrap and get frustrated.

Feeding birds is expensive when you also lose the feeders.

[StClone]

7. Frustrated Lady natures best stand up comedian

Your battles with masked marauders borders on legend. Charmingly, and humorlessly you take on those rascals. Thanks for the blow-by-blow, it made my night!

[Frustratedlady]

10. Ah, but I'm afraid my red stream of English when they steal my feeders

would disqualify me for that title.

Thanks anyway.

[locks]

6. We have loads of raccoons

apparently all around Boulder that live in the pipes, ditches, and eat everything but have not had them in my condo complex until last week one appeared on my back porch, A dog chased it into a tree and it stayed around for a couple weeks. Apparently had a damaged leg. Got in the big garbage tins but didn't come to my bird feeders. Our mgr says if we call animal control and they come they have to euthanize raccoons. We live with a lot of wildlife, foxes, prairie dogs, coyotes, opossums. Mountain lions, bears, deer, elk, moose and bobcats come down sometimes but our great park rangers always get them back safely to the mountains. But I've been told that raccoons are vicious, can and will kill dogs and cats, build nests on your house and roof and many of them are rabid. If our raccoon comes back I will have him taken away.

[csziggy]

8. Yeah, they destroyed several of our feeders

I pretty much have to bring the feeders in at night anyway - otherwise the deer will empty them. I am not feeding six or seven deer fifty pounds of bird seed every night! Both the deer and the raccoons will come right up to the house to eat out of the feeders.

We used to have the feeders right next to the walkway on one side of the house, about six feet from the house. Those scavengers would come right next to the house. I could open a window and yell at the deer and they would only pause eating.

Because that location put the feeders right next to some crepe myrtles, which let the squirrels get to them easily, we're moving the feeders farther away from the house and completely away from and bushes or trees that the squirrels can jump from. With added squirrel baffles, we should have to buy much less seed for the squirrels and other critters.

[Dave in VA]

9. Yeppers!

We had to stop putting seed into the feeders for a couple of weeks. I restarted putting seed into the feeders after that and they seem to have moved on. Haven't seen any or had any missing seed and/or feeders for about a month now.