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?

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?

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?

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)

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/