johnnycake's garden pics as promised

[johnnycakes]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: goldilocks</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I've got a woodchuck living under my front step....is that bad? </div></div>

Well that all depends on whether or not you have a garden which contains things they like to eat. They do dig a good sized tunnel/hole to live in.
They are very shy so you needn't fear them coming at you.
They are in the rodent family and do not get rabies.
As I said, you can eat them and there are recipes in Joy of Cooking for game including woodchucks.

They look to weigh around 25-30 pounds when fully grown and that bulk should produce quite a bit of good stewing meat.if you don't mind killing them.

[johnnycakes]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MGee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i've got one too. and i think it lives under the deck but craps on top of it. well, its either the groundhog (what i call them) or raccoons. </div></div>

MGee,

I don't think the raccoons crap on decks or they would have done so on mine by now.
I've had raccoons come up the stairs to my deck and clean out the grease cup under the barbeque grill on several occasions necessitating a soap and water wash off of their greasy footprints and we chase a baby woodchuck off the deck once or twice but the squirrels are the only things that poop there and that's usually on the railing.

I would imagine that raccoon or groundhog feces would be of good size given the size of the animals. Raccoons eat both meat and vegetables but groundhogs are strictly vegetarians which should also help to identify the origin of your deck scat.

The internet has everything on it and I'll bet you can search under raccoon or woodchuck poop/scat/ crap/ s#it and find pictures.
Then you'll know .

[Tulip]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

At first I used to be afraid of woodchucks. You're right they break out fleeing faster than I was running from them.

Then a few months ago, I got raccoons. Since my dog was smaller than them, I had some serious concerns. I find them to be a bit aggressive.

I was researching what to do (even started a thread here), but it appears someone else in my neighborhood took care of the problem. I was looking for a humane way, but honestly, I'm just glad they don't come around anymore.

[johnnycakes]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

Tulip,
A boar raccoon (big male) is a match for most dogs and if they can't handle the dog or dogs, they can climb trees like a squirrel .

A small dog will have sense enough not to challenge a big raccoon.

They do get rabies, get hit by cars and usually don't live to a ripe old age.

I feed the local raccoons with any meat scraps, grease, bread anything that doesn't go well in the compost heap. They're no problem and like the woodchucks take off when humans show up.

A month or so ago I was out after dark ( when the raccoons come out) and was scraping out the scraps into the pot i use for the raccoons and there was one peeking at me from behind a tree about ten twelve feet away.

He/she stayed there until I finished and after I went back into the house looked out and he/she was fishing stuff out of the pot with its hands/paws as raccoons will do.

That's rare behaviour.

Last year I had a chipmunk eating sunflower seeds out of my hand but I sure wouldn't hand feed a raccoon.with those needle sharp teeth.

i wish i could have taken a picture of that chipmunk. he/she came up to my hand which I had palm up on the deck stood on my fingers and put its front paws up on my thumb and looked into my eyes briefly making sure I wasn't a threat before taking some more sunflower seeds and running back to its burrow.

Priceless, although I suspect a similar experience would leave many rodent fearing people with nightmares.

[Tulip]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

I'm not a fan of rodents, but i would not have been left with nightmares because I would not have put my hand out there in the first place. It does sound like it would have made a nice pic or short video though.

I have fed squirrels peanuts before but that's about it and not by hand but by scattering. The squirrels in my yard are buck wild like they are mixed with Rocky the way they fly from one spot to the next. They are not used to interaction with humans like say the squirrels in the park.

[mountaingal]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

I feed the local raccoons with any meat scraps, grease, bread anything that doesn't go well in the compost heap.


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omg. such heresy. raccoons are such pests. at night i hear them in my backyard fighting with each other. they've turned behind my shed into their latrine. ugh.

[johnnycakes]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MGee</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

I feed the local raccoons with any meat scraps, grease, bread anything that doesn't go well in the compost heap.


</div></div>

omg. such heresy. raccoons are such pests. at night i hear them in my backyard fighting with each other. they've turned behind my shed into their latrine. ugh. </div></div>


MGee,

My raccoons come into the yard, eat what I give them and leave quietly.
No poop problems, no fighting .
Yours act like real animals.

A good meal can have a really civilizing effect.
That said, they never do drink the wine I choose .

[mountaingal]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

feh. raccoons in Toronto are big public health problem as well as a nuisance due to their numbers, so there is a tacit war against them. although some poor sucker was arrested the other day for trying to kill raccoon babies in his yard. his neighbours ratted him out (i probably would have too, come to think of it).

my mother lives in a rural-ish area and raccoons have done damage to their home trying to get into their screened porch.

at the riding school my daughter once attended, the raccoons had their babies inside the walls, and their screeching was so disturbing the school had to put up a notice explaining what all that was.

a co-worker told me her husband had to take down their koi pool because the raccoons would come at night and eat the fish, and nothing seemed to deter them.

civilizing a raccoon? stop leaving food for them and see how civilized they actually would be in response.

[johnnycakes]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

MGee,
funny you should mention that.

My wife and I went away for a couple of weeks during which the house/cat sitters did not feed the raccoons the kitchen scraps .

A few day s after we got back the nearest neighbors a few hundred yards up the street asked if we knew what would be tearing into their garbage and strewing it all around .
They said they never had that problem before.

Of course we laughed and explained that the only reason they had not been raccoon vandalized before is because they were usually too full from eating in our yard to waddle up the street to see what they had to offer.

For whatever the reason, our raccoons are perfect ladies and gentlemen.

I can't say the same for the woodchucks or the deer.

[mountaingal]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">MGee,
funny you should mention that.

My wife and I went away for a couple of weeks during which the house/cat sitters did not feed the raccoons the kitchen scraps .

A few day s after we got back the nearest neighbors a few hundred yards up the street asked if we knew what would be tearing into their garbage and strewing it all around .
They said they never had that problem before.

Of course we laughed and explained that the only reason they had not been raccoon vandalized before is because they were usually too full from eating in our yard to waddle up the street to see what they had to offer.

For whatever the reason, <span style="font-weight: bold">our raccoons are perfect ladies and gentlemen</span>.

I can't say the same for the woodchucks or the deer.





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anthropomorphism is a sin against animals. they are animals, for god's sake.

i think u r misinterpreting the situation above. ur raccoon friends are the furthest things from ladies and gentlemen if they are start tossing thru the neighbrous trash because they're not getting ur buffet. no doubt though, u are doing ur neighbourhood a service by feeding the animals.

[johnnycakes]

Re: johnnycake's garden pics as promised pt#2

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MGee</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">MGee,
funny you should mention that.

My wife and I went away for a couple of weeks during which the house/cat sitters did not feed the raccoons the kitchen scraps .

A few day s after we got back the nearest neighbors a few hundred yards up the street asked if we knew what would be tearing into their garbage and strewing it all around .
They said they never had that problem before.

Of course we laughed and explained that the only reason they had not been raccoon vandalized before is because they were usually too full from eating in our yard to waddle up the street to see what they had to offer.

For whatever the reason, <span style="font-weight: bold">our raccoons are perfect ladies and gentlemen</span>.

I can't say the same for the woodchucks or the deer.





</div></div>

anthropomorphism is a sin against animals. they are animals, for god's sake.

i think u r misinterpreting the situation above. ur raccoon friends are the furthest things from ladies and gentlemen if they are start tossing thru the neighbrous trash because they're not getting ur buffet. no doubt though, u are doing ur neighbourhood a service by feeding the animals. </div></div>


MGee,

I am not one to ever anthropomorphize but the raccoons that frequent our yard are really no problem at all.

My wife is a big one for that and I have to keep reminding her that they are animals and when the big Red Tailed hawk carries off a chipmunk that it is nature's way

Once in a while one will come up the stairs to the deck and we hear our cat try to bash it through the screen and the wooden bars we need to contain him and we run the raccoon off.

We live at the end of a private road on three acres of mostly woods with preserved wetland on either side and no immediate neighbors so what we do with the wildlife rarely affects any one else.

To me every living thing is a wonder and something precious especially when I consider the vast emptiness of the universe; the rarity of life of any sort anywhere close except here on Earth. Any bugs, spiders, mice caught in the house are captured and put outside unharmed. That's just the way I am.

(The mosquitoes and any other of those precious things that attack me personally are excepted from those warm feelings)