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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2009-07-10          163957

The other day I was putting a new lawn for a client. He told me a story about when he laid his own sod at another home.

The morning after he laid it he awoke to find each roll neatly rolled up. He figured the guys from work were playing a joke on him.

He unrolled it.

Next morning...same thing.

Around 2 AM he spotted about 30 raccoons--sometimes two at a roll--rolling up the sod and snatching grubs laying in the dirt below! (in our sod we have what we call June bugs that have beefy grubs)

I once heard of an entire front yard of sod being stolen, but this takes the cake...errr...the grubs.


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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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greg_g
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1816 Western Kentucky
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2009-07-10          163958

That's a classic !! I had a 'coon problem a while back, they discovered the feed bin in my barn. Bought a box of moth balls and set individual crystals at intervals in every access point to the feed room. They didn't go past them, and haven't been back since. Kept the squirrels out too. It's considered a pesticide, so I guess you'd simply have to make sure using it won't violate any local code.

//greg// ....

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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2009-07-11          163972

Hadn't heard of that, but have seen it done by a family of skunks! ....

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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2009-07-11          163976

Auer you saw skunks rolling up sod?

Now if I could just figure out a way to get them to lay it to begin with, I'd have it made! ....

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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2009-07-12          163983

Sweetcorn season is getting started here in Iowa, so all the Raccoons have an annual migration I think even some from foreigh countries show up here to destroy every sweetcorn patch.
After trying everything from newspapers on the ground, raidos playing all night, etc., etc. we've given up.
I have a friend who raises it commercially that we get corn from, he just has so amny acres of it that even the coons can't eat it all. ....

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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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cutter
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 1307 The South Shore of Lake Ontario, New York
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2009-07-12          163992

Mmmmmmm corn fed coon. ....

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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2009-07-13          163997

Quote:
Originally Posted by cutter | view 163992
Mmmmmmm corn fed coon.


Yep, that will keep the numbers under control. :)

Saw a comment I think elsewhere about problem with deer eating their crops and said it proved they were an improvment over the cows they had been raising. Lower vet cost and other cost and the meat was great. ....

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Raccoons -- ever hear of them doing this

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2009-07-13          164002

Jeff, it's actually a pretty common occurrence over here.

Raccoons aren't dumb, they know where the easy/free meals are and learn pretty fast about new ones.

We have a similar situation when we harvest our turf crops, they must be able to smell the fresh earth and grubs and move into the fields in large numbers.

We used to only harvest in the evening and into the overnight so the trucks could go out first thing in the morning (and so it was cooler to work) but it got to be such a problem the little buggers would try climbing onto the back of the harvester at the back where the rolls get stacked on pallets. We (and most other producers in our area) took to instead irrigating the field to be harvested in the evening, and begin harvesting at dawn for daytime deliveries.

That way the sod isn't left exposed to the little buggers overnight.

The easy way to keep them off the new turf is to keep a misting-type sprinkler going all night on the area, the water masks the smell of the grubs and helps to keep the raccoons from smelling them.

Best of luck. ....

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