What animal is pooping on my stuff???

[Bob_Skurka]

Something is pooping all over my property!!!

The lovely Mrs_Bob suspects coyote, I suspect either wild cats or some of the racoons that roam the area.

But we are finding piles of poop everywhere this summer. The poop has a lot of berries in it, and is generally black. About the amount a small dog might produce. But we find it everywhere. Around the pool. On the cement stairs by the pool house. On the limestone steps that go down the hill. On my daughter's play fort.

I dismiss the entire concept of the coyotes as the culprit becasue the play fort is 2 stories tall and there is poop on both levels of the fort. I don't see or smell any skunks. There are feral cats and lots of racoons. The piles are the size of a chipmonk, so I think it is safe to say they are not the culprits. I'm not sure there are other native creatures around that could get onto and into the place where we find this stuff that are large enough to produce it. But we never had a problem until this summer. And this summer it is everywhere!!!

Of course, it might be just the reason I need to justify a night scope?

 

[daedong]

Bob,
Sit up all night and get them with a pea shooter or sling shoot.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Vin, if I knew what animal it was, I would stay up all night to get them.

But I need help with identifying the offending creature first! I'm sure down there in upsidedown land, it would be a roo or a woloby or some other creature with a pouch that poops on your deck. But up here, where it is open season on crapping culprits, the first order of business is to figure out what it is. Once I know, the gun safety will be clicked "off" for sure.

 

[DannyD]

You have raccoons, none of the other animals you mentioned eat berries, and wild cats would be a predator to the coons.

We used to have a couple that were caught behind some bushes at my brothers. Sounds like what they left also.

 

[daedong]

Bob,
Why a shoot gun fixs all, Just can't eat it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Danny . . . I've never had this problem before. But then again my Akitas used to kill 2 or 3 each year. We have a new Akita and she's not allowed to play with the wildlife. Do you think we are having a population explosion that is causing them to drop their berry laden crap all over my stuff?

I've been here nearly 10 years and this is the first year we are having a problem. It has been 2 years that we are without a pair of agressive dogs that hunted the masked critters. Could there be a connection to the lack of my predator pets and the growth of the poop problem?

 

[DannyD]

May not be in your immediate area. What kind of building/housing projects are going on in the area? Coons travel miles, believe me, I have chased coon dogs all night, in a very large circle, on one coon. My guess is that their habitat has been destoryed, and they have moved to the next best thing, your place. Call animal control, they will trap them, and put them out in an area more suited to them and better for you also. They will also check them for disease before doing this. I would not recommend an untrained person doing this, if they are sick, and bite you, it could be worse for you than them.

They also may have young around, so if you can, look for trails. Besides being trouble with the feces, they are not going to hurt you unless you go at them.

If it were at my place, I would feed them and be glad to have them around. We used to have deer all the time, till someone tore up the woods to put in a house. I am going to put out salt again this winter in hopes of getting them back around here. My chestnuts are about to come in, and that usually helps too.

I dont want sick animals around, but I also see no need to kill them if there are other means to rid myself of them, and there are.

 

[thcri]

Racoons. Get your self a live trap. My dad had a live trap at his lake property. It worked great. Then dad would try to teach them to swim. To this date not one has learned how to swim in a live trap.

murph

 

[DannyD]

/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

takes a big guy to post such a big bad post like this.

 

[PineRidge]

Bob if it is raccoons and you are going to live trap them be extremely careful. Raccoons can and do carry rabies.

 

[DaveNay]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Racoons. Get your self a live trap. My dad had a live trap at his lake property. It worked great. Then dad would try to teach them to swim. To this date not one has learned how to swim in a live trap.

murph )</font>

Isn't this an oxymoron? I know I am guilty as charged. THe live trap just makes it easier to hit them in the head with the first shot of the .22. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Dave

 

[thcri]

Gee Danny, don't need to get to worked up. Dad actually for the most part moved them out in the country and then let them go. There was a couple that he thought had rabbies and he did kill them. There is a lot of young children in the area and he did not want one to get hurt from a rabbied racoon. It's nice to love animals but there is a time when you have to get rid of them.

As far as animals, I feed the raccoons, I feed deer and I have a whole mess of pheasants in my back yard. In fact I even have a few skunks once in a while. I even have a dog and a cat in the house.

murph

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Danny, if there is any construction within a mile or two of me I am not aware of it, even if something is being built it would only be a single house. But as far as I can see there is nothing in sight but fields and woods. As for feeding the critters, I prefer not to. We have herds of deer that come in and destroy everything they can eat or rub against. I never bother the animals until they become a nusience, at which point I try to discourage them, if that doesn't work, they are dispatched in a humane way. I see no reason to trap them, it simply terrifies them and then moves them into an area that makes them a pest to someone else. Nope, if they are are problem, then I will deal with them.

So my first question is, is there a way to discourage racoons?

 

[JerryG]

<font color="blue"> So my first question is, is there a way to discourage racoons? </font>

The only thing that I know you can do is to remove any type of food stuff that might attract them. From your description, it does sound like raccoons.

 

[Phred]

Bob,

Maybe this site well help out.
http://www.terrierman.com/scatanswers.htm

The good news is that they don't have a screen saver you can download /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Fred

 

[NSBound]

So my first question is, is there a way to discourage racoons?

<font color="blue"> </font>

<font color="black"> </font>

It IS coons - they do that to me too, in town in a neigbourhood where there are lots of big trees. They do it on my deck, right by my back door, and mostly beside my fish pond. Lots of berries - Mountain Ash berries right now /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I treat coons and skunks alike - leave a motion-sensing light on 24-7 trained on the area where they do their thing. (In winter, I also play LOUD reggae or hip-hop music, 24-7 - neighbours don't mind in winter when all their doors and windows are closed!!) In summer, just the lights generally keeps 'em away.

 

[Mrwurm]

Bob, racoons leave the same black tarry mess on my deck. I don't know why they choose my deck when there are so many other places to go. I started trapping them this summer, but quickly got tired of it. I could catch two per night on my deck and there was no sign of the supply slowing down.

 

[CountryJoe]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> Bob if it is raccoons and you are going to live trap them be extremely careful. Raccoons can and do carry rabies. </font> )</font>

Not to mention they can bite like heck... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Jerry, just out of curiosity, how many did you trap before you gave up? I have woods running through my property and on all the surrounding properties. I'm beginning to think that short of nuking the woods, I'm going to have to live with the poop.

Ian, I'm not really into hip-hop music, in fact, I think I'd rather invite the racoons to use my pool area as a potty training center for their offspring that have to listen to 24/7 hip-hop music!

 

[johnday]

Phred; Beautiful post /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Do you know of a site with more ID's?
I think I have a pile of bear poop in my yard upnorth and would like to ID it for sure. No, I'm not into scat at all!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif