North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Raccoons are beautiful, intelligent animals.  To a fruit grower they are also vermin.  They are opportunists of humanity who use us to expand their population beyond anything that would occur in wilderness.  They have feces that if accidentally rubbed in the eyes can cause blindness (ask your veterinarian).  I love hate these animals but they don't affect my harvest.

 

I can staple aluminum flashing in tubes around the trunks of my trees and they can't climb them but at some point my property becomes like a raccoon stockyard with all the critters feeding on my drops.  On a warm day the odor of their waste is the cologne of my rustic abode.  On my little 3 acres I have trapped over 30 in a single season (like I said, "unnatural"). 

 

I used to trap and move them but I believe this to be irresponsible and in my state know it to be illegal.  You can't release them somewhere that a population isn't already established.  It is not a situation that will end at all well for your trapped animal which will probably be hounded to starvation.  Kinder I'm afraid to play the role of assassin as difficult as that may be.

 

After trapping them in the mistakenly titled have a heart the best thing to do is to shoot them about an inch above the point directly between the eyes with an appropriate weapon.  I use a German target pellet gun capable of propelling a pellet 1000 fps.

 

We have destroyed their natural predators and we provide them with unlimited food through our waste and pet food.  If anyone has a better solution I'd appreciate it as I really don't like killing such beautiful creatures.