Coons got my sweet corn!

[patrickg]

LarryC, Yes I had heard of the hair trimmings as well as the cat's used litter material (cat/predator scent), purchased coyote urine, marking your territory ala Jack Nicholson playing a werewolf in a movie, and so forth. Each method has adherents and there is a basis for scientific plausibility of each. Infrared motion detector based water sprinklers and or ultrasonics can be effective on a multitude of species although I have personally only used them on dogs and cats, so far.

Just imagine in the years to come, pattern recognition software running in affordable appliances that would ID a critter by its moving video image and administer a negative reinforcement to train it to not enter the protected area. There are various humane negative reinforcements from which to select. IR laser intense enough to be plenty uncomfortable but not cause tissue damage would be a possibility but might draw fire from PETA. No reason this unit couldn't ID larger insect pests like buteflies and others of species that are of economic concern to gardeners and give then a damaging shot of focused IR.

Patrick

 

[Chuck52]

Was it "2001, a Space Odyssey" where laser beams zapped anything moving in the wiring tunnel? I WANT IT FOR MY GARDEN!

Chuck

 

[jtn]

I heard a radio works well. Put it under a large pan or in a bag to keep it dry and let it play all night (preferably the Valcries).

On a lighter note, I read about a guy near me who set his cannon to go off at random times during the night to scare the coons off. It was not loaded with anything but powder but still made a hell of a noise. Can you believe his neighbors complained? What is the world coming to!

JT

 

[Molerj]

Illiniwek,
We had the same problem with coons. The only thing that worked for us is an electric
fence. I know you still want to get in the garden with the tractor. I usually wait until the
corn is just starting to make ears. I run the tiller thru all the rows first to clean everything
up, then use 3/8 rebar, cut into 30" sections spaced about 6-8' apart. I then attach the
insulators Then I run two strands around the garden, one about 6" high & the other
about 12". It takes less than an hour to put it around my 30'X100' garden. It is the only
thing that I found will work. After a couple weeks, I've found that It doesn't even need to
be on. After a few shocks it seems they had enough.

 

[Metrologist]

I dump a bag of chicken scratch grains behind a tree on the edge of the woods behind my house to feed deer. We have a doe coming pretty regularly right now. The grain also attracts coons. I had a problem last year of them getting into my trash cans. I put out a hav-a-hart trap and got 9 last year. The last time I trapped one, I got two in the trap. It was before I had to leave for work, so I put them in the shade of the woods to deal with when I returned. unfortunately, this was July in MO, hot and humid. During the day one of the coons died.

The other one ate the dead one.

Nothing left of it but an eyeball and some bones and fur.

That was the last time I trapped coons. Now I just pester them with a pellet gun when I see them. But last night, one bent the pole of a bird feeder to the ground and destroyed the feeder. Time to get the trap back out. But only on the weekends when I can deal with them promptly.

 

[fishnhunt365]

Down here we just put an electric "hot wire" around the garden along with the barb wire. 2 on the outside bottom (one about 6" up from the ground and the other about 12" up from the first) and one along the tops of the post. No 'coon problems! I know this works because the power was left off one night and sure enough the 'coons got about 4 rows of corn. By the way we have about a 3 acre garden and this was the only thing we could do to protect the whole garden. We do not have deer near here so they are not an issue