Well it seems to me that we should have 4 acts to this saga, as we have 4 raccoons. However I’m only leaving the camera up tonight as the last night. Tonight will mark a full week and 3 nights of surveillance, and although it’s been fun, it will be nice to have a dark yard again, and my wife will rejoice at being able to look out the back window at the sink again.
I hope you enjoy Act II in my war on the enemy. It looks like it should keep them from getting to the feeder. As it turns out, this will most likely be the last Raccoon video. When I wrote a draft of this post last night, I promised my wife that I would turn off the lights and take down the camera today. Either as a result of the hard rain, or the fence, our little prowling terrorists didn’t have the guts to show their faces last night.
This is NOT happening…. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!!!! What are we going to do for our morning entertainment???? PLEASE don’t take the camera down!!!!
For now it has to. We’re burning 300 watts continuously to light the feeder up. Which also impacts our bedroom window being lit up like a Christmas tree.
I’m planning to search for a better software solution for motion recording which might enable me to use a camera that requires significantly less light.
What about just putting a motion sensing light on the back of the house? Then there’s no burned electricity when you aren’t recording :-)
got act two also saw tree
Mike,
I read your battles against the raccoons with great interest. I can sympathize with your disgust, lack of sleep, and joy of winning one over them only to be foiled the following evening. Shortly after my wife and I moved into our new home 3 years ago, our travails with this dreaded beast began.
Thanks to some lousy neighbors, these dreaded beasts have grapes to feast on, an unenclosed deck to live under, and a taller-than-code fence to climb up and jump onto our roof. The beasts take a dump next to our chimney, and then proceed to practice gymnastics directly above our heads for variable amounts of time each evening.
Mike, I have tried every solution out there, except for the electric fence. We hired a service to trap and remove them, I trapped them myself, I poured my own urine on the roof to ward them off, used the Scarecrow motion detector water sprayer, hung moth cakes everywhere, and tried both kinds of the Critter Ridder. Nothing seems to work for more than a couple of nights. (the blood and gore of my own trapping did work for a month or two)
I would like to know… did the electric fence prove to be the best solution to discourage these beasts? As you described in one blog, the lack of REM sleep a few nights in a row is tough on one’s constitution! I cannot describe to you the sound that a 25-pound raccoon makes when it runs from one part of the roof, and jumps to a lower part right above your head, and wakes you from deep sleep. Can you sense my frustration!!?!? Please tell me there’s hope!
I would say with confidence the electric fence has helped. I no longer find broken suet feeders and an empty bird feeder in the morning. In fact, the conditioning (7k volts) means that he most of the summer I can take it off the feeder (for visitor’s safety) and reuse it on our garden to keep our veggies safe.
I’m not entirely sure though, how you might set up the fence to keep them of your roof, but I think you’ll find a way.
Good luck, the war on raccoons now depends on you!