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#1
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Raccoons in the sweet corn
Our garden is about 20 feet from a small woody place, which is just because
that's the only place it can go. Every year we have awesome sweet corn development until it's almost ready to pick, and suddenly all the ears are gone. I figure it's raccoons, as none of the stalks were bothered except for one year, so it's probably not deer. Last year we got our entire back yard enclosed with split rail fence with a wire liner too small for raccoons, and that had little effect on the disappearance of corn. I've tried tying the ears inside of school lunch bags and that is of some limited help. I've thought of making a big cage out of chicken wire and PVC pipe. Short of that, is there anything you've seen that has a proven ability to protect the corn? Follow-up question: this year we should have strawberries. Do raccoons like to pilfer these too? |
#2
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Raccoons in the sweet corn
Having raised a baby raccoon, I can attest to the fact that they love
berries, especially because they are sweet. Our raccoon used to be served homemade jam on toast for breakfast. Spoiled and VERY smart animal. My personal experience with a raccoon tells me that you should use the chicken wire around the garden and also string an electric fence around that. We're not trying to kill him, just let him know that this area is off limits to him. The shock should send him to other areas. I would definitely put more than 1 wire around because they will find a way to overcome 1 strand. Like I said, they are very intelligent animals and can be very innovative in their pursuits. Raccoons can climb almost anything, they can also squeeze through small spaces (ours looked like a skinny squirrel when his fur was wet). Any type of fencing without electricity will be easily climbed by a raccoon. Sweet corn is also one of their favorites, along with raw chicken eggs, berries, veggies, nuts and fish. Our raccoon would lay on a limb up high in a tree while we picked quarts of blackberries every August and wait until we filled several baskets. Before we knew it, he would be in the baskets scooping them into his mouth. He was so cute and sweet, we'd let him get away with some every time. In case you're wondering, we didn't take him from his environment just to have a pet raccoon. We found him starving on a dirt road on the way to a local fishing spot in upstate NY and his mother lay dead near him. His little eyes weren't open yet. We took him home and fed him with a baby bottle and he became an instant member of our family on a large farm with lots of cats, dogs, pigs, cows and horses. He slept and played with our cats and dogs and shared food dishes with them. O.K. enough reminiscing. I hope this helps save your corn and berries. Good luck, Penny Zone 7b- North Carolina "Tim B" wrote in message . .. Our garden is about 20 feet from a small woody place, which is just because that's the only place it can go. Every year we have awesome sweet corn development until it's almost ready to pick, and suddenly all the ears are gone. I figure it's raccoons, as none of the stalks were bothered except for one year, so it's probably not deer. Last year we got our entire back yard enclosed with split rail fence with a wire liner too small for raccoons, and that had little effect on the disappearance of corn. I've tried tying the ears inside of school lunch bags and that is of some limited help. I've thought of making a big cage out of chicken wire and PVC pipe. Short of that, is there anything you've seen that has a proven ability to protect the corn? Follow-up question: this year we should have strawberries. Do raccoons like to pilfer these too? |
#3
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Raccoons in the sweet corn
Electric fence is the only thing that works. Get a good charger, set a
proper ground rod, and put two wires, one at around 3" and one at 9". "Tim B" wrote in message . .. Our garden is about 20 feet from a small woody place, which is just because that's the only place it can go. Every year we have awesome sweet corn development until it's almost ready to pick, and suddenly all the ears are gone. I figure it's raccoons, as none of the stalks were bothered except for one year, so it's probably not deer. Last year we got our entire back yard enclosed with split rail fence with a wire liner too small for raccoons, and that had little effect on the disappearance of corn. I've tried tying the ears inside of school lunch bags and that is of some limited help. I've thought of making a big cage out of chicken wire and PVC pipe. Short of that, is there anything you've seen that has a proven ability to protect the corn? Follow-up question: this year we should have strawberries. Do raccoons like to pilfer these too? |
#4
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Raccoons in the sweet corn
Tim B said:
I've tried tying the ears inside of school lunch bags and that is of some limited help. I've thought of making a big cage out of chicken wire and PVC pipe. Short of that, is there anything you've seen that has a proven ability to protect the corn? I plant my corn in 4' x 4' blocks. Before we built the strong wire fence and topped it with 2 strands of electric (to stop the groundhogs), we protected the corn from racoons (quite successfully) with temporary fencing. The fence consisted of 8' 'panels.' These were made of 1x2 boards with 4' chicken wire stapled to them, with the wire running past the end of the boards a foot or so. Four of these 'panels' could be tied together with wire running out from the patch at the bottom and flopping out from the top. Pounding in a short fence stake at each corner of the patch helped with the installation. (Old shoelaces made great ties.) Follow-up question: this year we should have strawberries. Do raccoons like to pilfer these too? Not as much as corn. When I grew strawberries, plastic bird netting draped over a frame of plastic pipe was enought to protect them. Racoons can go right through plastic netting if they really want to. -- Pat in Plymouth MI Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (attributed to Don Marti) |
#5
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Raccoons in the sweet corn
On Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:50:09 GMT, "Tim B"
wrote: Our garden is about 20 feet from a small woody place, which is just because that's the only place it can go. Every year we have awesome sweet corn development until it's almost ready to pick, and suddenly all the ears are gone. I figure it's raccoons, as none of the stalks were bothered except for one year, so it's probably not deer. Last year we got our entire back yard enclosed with split rail fence with a wire liner too small for raccoons, and that had little effect on the disappearance of corn. No wonder, they'd just climb it. I imagine it does keep out rabbits though, that's a good thing. I've tried tying the ears inside of school lunch bags and that is of some limited help. I've thought of making a big cage out of chicken wire and PVC pipe. Short of that, is there anything you've seen that has a proven ability to protect the corn? We have two large dogs. Our garden is in the middle of the dogs' fenced yard - in other words, the dogs can run all around the garden. The garden itself has a small (3') chicken wire fence - mainly to keep the dogs from trampling on young plants, also to keep rabbits out. Even though our dogs sleep in the house at night, the whole area must be impregnated with 'dog smell' and so far that has kept everything away (except rabbits, which the little chicken wire fence eliminates): raccoons, deer, ground hogs - they've all left our garden strictly alone. There are a lot of all these critters around too. Pat -- Pat Meadows CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY United States: http://www.stopthehunger.com/ International: http://www.thehungersite.com/ |
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