On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:52:55 EST, "JB" wrote:

Sorry to hear about your raccoons. Once they discover a reliable food supply
they will continue to return unless...........

It's not too terribly awful, in fact we're kind of having fun chasing them
off, as my son and I run to the slider when we hear them. ;-)

I have a Wild Bills Electric Squirrel Free Bird Feeder

Now this sounds interesting, I'll have to google it. I've seen the feeder
in a cage and like that too. So far the raccoons haven't manage to remove
the feeders from the hooks we have them on. I have an upside down finch
feeder and a squirrel proof feeder that shuts the opening if too much
weight is put upon it, using springs. That works pretty good, but sometimes
sticks shut so even the birds can't use it till I unstick it. Since the
squirrels have their own feeders they don't mess with the others that much.

I have a neighbor a 1/2 mile or so away that traps his raccoons and carries
them off

Not legal here. We can trap them, but not carry them off, thus something
lethal has be to done. I'd rather out smart them.

You probably don't want to hear my raccoon solution.

LOL! Probably also illegal here. Though I did run this story on my local
e-mail ponding list about this lady and her raccoon problems. It was well
written and amusing... at first, but I didn't read it all the way thru when
I sent it out in 3 installments. Unfortunately in Part 3 she had decided to
trap them and when she actually caught them, she didn't know what to do....
so she toss them trap and all into her pond!!!! Then she suffered guilt and
remorse. I felt I still needed to send Part 3 out as I felt it had a good
message. That being, if you decide to do something permanent be prepared
for the feelings you might have after the fact. Needless to say I had 2
complaints about that story where they wanted to be dropped from the list.
After I explained my predicament and that from now on I'd read a story all
the way thru before starting to send it out, they decided to stay.

I know myself, after the skunk in the (empty) filter and thinking if I
filled it with water it could swim out didn't work. I could never
intentionally hurt anything. Now if it was attacking my dog, cat or child,
that would probably be another story..... ~ jan
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Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us