After moving into our new house last week, my husband and I were treated to a visit from the neighbours. Unfortunately, these neighbours were not welcome - they were raccoons. What appeared to be a mother, father and baby raccoon tromped right up on our deck one night and scratched at our french door. We were on the other side of the door eating dinner and we think the coons wanted to join us!
I've heard that raccoons are a big problem in my area (central Toronto). We are probably facing a larger issue, because our home backs onto Mount Pleasant Cemetery, a great place to hang out if you are a wild animal. Does anyone out there have suggestions for how we might repel these critters? My home's previous owner left a product called "Critter Ridder" in the garden shed, but I thought this forum might have some other suggestions. (Critter Ridder isn't poison, but appears to be some kind of spicy pepper that small animals don't like.)
Thanks in advance for your help
Tamara
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We had a problem with a skunk making a home under our front porch. I phoned our city for info and they linked me to a website. The suggestion they made is to get dog hair and spread it around where the animals are living...they feel threatened and will hopefully find a new spot to hang out!
We have been dealing with the same thing as we have a ravine property. They often sleep in the huge walnut trees behind us. They have stopped bothering us as we have learned to keep all garbage in our house, altho they climb over our cars to get to the neighbours yard where they must be finding snacks. There are a lot of babies this year. Our mom raccoon has 5 babies who must eat and travel with her...so maybe they are just testing you right now. They are quite smart and as long as they never find anything to eat at your place, they will move on. I don't know of any other way of dealing with them. Altho the babies are cute, the larger ones are not. Try banging some pot lids together to give them a scare if they show up for dinner again.
You can call your local SPCA or animal shelter and they may have suggestions for you. We have some but they are not scratching at the doors yet. They come close at night to the house and odd time see them running along the wood fence. We have a dog so maybe that deters them some too.