On 5/22/2016 9:51 AM, songbird wrote:
Ecnerwal wrote:
...
Gardening in or near the woods, you'll likely need a more substantial
fence than a single hot wire 6" off the ground, though some
electrification certainly helps - but coons are not stupid, so you have
to try and be smarter than they are; and you might as well get the thing
up on a permanent basis; you'll need it, the critters are out there.

we don't have an electric fence on the main garden
area where most of the veggies are planted but it is
tall enough to keep the deer out. this seems to deter
the raccoons enough too (as long as they can't smell
anything edible in there).

what they don't know is that i bury about 150,000
worms in there each spring when i plant. they have
never got in them at all (i hope they can't read ).


songbird

Raccoons are tasty critters if you get all the glands out before cooking
plus the skins make nice gloves, caps, etc. My extended family always
had a mess of coon dogs and we went nearly every weekend in the winter,
at night, to run coons. Was one way to keep them from decimating the
corn crop and other crops and was a lot of fun for a batch of young boys.

When we were young marrieds I planted two acres of corn. Raccoons got
most of it by hitting every night. I tried the electric fence and it
worked for a bit. Found the best way was to put the hound out there on a
long rope and he could keep them down to a minimum.

All of that may be the reason I don't care much for corn on the cob
anymore. G