Thanks for the facebook link, mrsD.

So.....if I use a motion activated sprinkler, I just might find a raccoon dancing around my yard?
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Back to the drawing board, I guess.

LOL.... I thought the raccoon in the video was very funny!

It just appeared in my FB today.

You could put a radio in the attic ...facing the wall where she is trying to get in. They can hear thru the walls. My cats can in this old house with stucco walls. I don't think she will try to get in when she hears human voices. So choose talk radio shows.

I don't know about raccoons but a while ago I had issues with a possum which used to eat the lemons on my tree (grrr...).

I sprayed the tree with a suspension of cayenne pepper (harmless to both the tree and the possum, but unpleasant for the latter).

The possum got the message.

Hi kiwi33, thanks for the suggestion!

Cayenne pepper was also mentioned in a link to a video provided by English Dave earlier in this thread. The narrator in the video said if you sprinkle spices like cinnamon, curry or cayenne pepper around flower beds or the bases of trees, it will keep away raccoons because they don’t like the odor and it irritates their paws.

I may try it. It’s good to know that it worked for you with a possum too.
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We use cayenne pepper when planting... but it tends to disappear with rain....

Raccoons are not the only animals that play in water...
This really cute video illustrates twin moose playing in a yard sprinkler.


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even hummingbirds!

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Your home and yard could become a veritable oasis!

Those are really cute videos, mrsD!

It makes me wonder about the effectiveness of a motion activated sprinkler. I went back to the link about this product, and this is what they say:

“Most animals don’t like to be sprayed suddenly with water and this is something they never get used to. It works every single time.”

Reading it again, it sounds more and more like another possibly unjustified advertising claim.

I suppose the difference may be whether or not animals are expecting to be sprayed. But even so, if they are thirsty, it seems to me they might return to the yard for another look, and get sprayed again, and then come back again, etc., etc.

So..... the sprinkler may actually attract rather than repel raccoons? Or maybe not.

I’m thinking I need to do a little more research about this.

My impressions are that raccoons like water and usually live near it.

So do moose.

We had a raccoon try to chew thru a corner of our back of the house near our bedroom--it was where a corner came down on the roof below. We were gone for the summer (like usual) so it was QUIET here. So she decided to try and move in.
With us here making noise, there has not been another attempt.

Hubby climbed up there and installed some hardware cloth, and she was foiled.

Raccoons carry diseases as do others. You do not want to be around them at all. And yes, they like to be near water. Just one site.


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Coonhound paralysis is something else.


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Our big German Shepherd (over 100 lbs.) was bitten by a buck coon that carried it. They are the ones who can carry it. The dog hadn't shown up for a couple of days. Finally, I was calling for him and heard a jingle in the corral. Low and behold there he was. We took him to the garage and did he ever drink water. He could not even lay upright. Off to the vet who didn't know what it was and thought he should be put down. But I got a second opinion at another vet who knew right now that it was coonhound paralysis. The dog had the bite marks on his nose and snout. So some good nutrition and kept him in the woodshed with screens on the door so no flies, etc. could get in. I had to turn him every four hours so that he wouldn't get pneumonia. The vet said that in about six weeks he would be up and normal.

Finally after a time he could lay upright and then he was able to sit up. And yes, around six weeks later he was walking and running like his old self. You would never have known. A good thing he was able to get to the corral from the slough. A smaller dog would have died right then.

So that's how that went and he went on to live a full life for a big dog.

Raccoons are nothing to fool with for any reason as other animals are not either. Never know what they may have.

What sweet videos...the sound of water from humming bird fountain is so soothing...I have to find one! Thanks Mrs D, you always post the best wildlife videos.
Happy July 4th weekend.
D.