Raccoon problems

[ejp626]

Maybe I should title this - Raccoon problems?  Advice???

The raccoons in the Riverdale neighborhood have definitely gotten out of hand.  I have seen them up on the upper deck, and in fact trying to figure out the screen door.  They seem to have no fear of humans, and will just look at me for a bit and saunter away.

What kills me is that we are more careful than anyone else on the block about the food scrap bin.  (We actually store everything in a downstairs fridge and take it out 30 minutes before the garbage men come in the morning.  It's a total pain and means scrambling in the morning.  On the positive side, we have had almost no bins knocked over.)

However, it appears that the raccoons have made a nest under my lower deck and use that as a launching pad for forays into other yards for food.  I'm totally sick of it.  Raccoons are so out of hand in Toronto that City pest control won't respond at all, usually not even to reports of a rabid raccoons!  You are on your own to pay for private pest control, but apparently the humane laws here say you can't remove a raccoon more than 1 km from where it was picked up.  That makes no sense to me, since you can't just drop it in someone else's yard.  We do have some train tracks nearby though...

If I could get away with it, I would definitely poison them, since the ones in my yard are huge and have lost whatever fear of humans they had or should have.  I actually don't feel safe, and I thought they were going to come up after me, as I was out painting the upper deck this evening.

What I will do is tear down the lower deck and cover the backyard with paving stones.  Most likely they will move on after that.

I still might need more pest control in the meantime, so any advice is welcome.

[GA Russell]

Crock Pot
https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1851974

*****

Barbecue
http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/264/Barbecue_Raccoon9749.shtml

*****

Mississippi Coon Stew
http://www.backwoodsbound.com/zracoon10.html

*****

helpful list
http://www.backwoodsbound.com/zracoon.html

*****

As an alternative, the fans can throw a raccoon onto the field when the Argos score, like the Detroit fans throw an octopus.  Just a thought.

[Jazzmoose]

We need a sports team that uses armadillos like that.  Of course, it might be a bit tough to sell the lower seats...

[JSngry]

Coyote urine.

http://www.bernardandagnes.com/journal/raccoon.shtml

[ejp626]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Coyote urine.

http://www.bernardandagnes.com/journal/raccoon.shtml

Well, perhaps, though there are a large number of people who think that citified raccoons are a breed apart from their country cousins, and city raccoons do not appear to be much bothered by coyotes.

[sidewinder]

Wooden decks are always a real problem when it comes to vermin hiding underneath them. 

I remember that raccoon infestation problem in Toronto very well. The whole of the metro area seemed to have it.