Raccoons are tearing up my new lawn!
Almost any gardener who has installed a new sod lawn has cursed the raccoons that return every few nights, lifting up the corners of the new grass and tossing carefully laid chunks of sod aside as they look for grubs and earthworms. Each nighttime visit leaves the new lawn in shambles, and it takes considerable time for a human gardener to repair the damage. "It's so easy to control this!" says Nancy Callahan, a friend of urban raccoons and a volunteer with the California Wildlife Care Network.
Chicken wire, or even lightweight bird netting, can be pinned down over fresh sod, she says, and the raccoons stop their digging act right away. "There really isn't much for them to eat beneath new sod, and the raccoons know that," said Callahan. It is the smell of damp earth that they are attracted to, she says. "They lift the sod just because it's easy and it smells good."
Sand pails and toy shovels
Distracting a band of curious raccoons is often as effective as setting up elaborate barriers, according to Callahan. She has a friend whose lawn was repeatedly dug up by raccoons until one night when she accidentally left out some childrens' toys. "The animals just played with the toys," she says. "The raccoons dragged some off into the garden, and they threw toys around everywhere, but then they wandered off to the next stop on their rounds." They did not tear up the new lawn that night, or any other night when toys or other diversions were left around. Since then, several of Callahan's friends have tried the technique with success.
Installing a temporary net over your lawn
If you don't want to leave toys around the backyard at night, there are plenty of other raccoon deterrents. New sod is easily protected, as noted earlier, with light chicken wire or, better, with bird netting. The bird netting is very awkward to handle at first, but it works just as well as chicken wire and it looks far better. It can be cut with scissors or garden shears, and if you attach it tightly enough you can leave it on permanently, below the reach of lawnmower blades. Most nurseries sell bird netting. The best way to attach the nets to the ground is with horseshoe shaped wire spikes called soil staples sold in hardware store nursery departments and at irrigation supply shops. Bird netting may look like a flimsy defense, but the raccoons rarely bother digging through the stuff. Too much work, when they'd rather play.
Scare them off!
There is an ingenious product called Scarecrow that combines a motion detector with a sprinkler to send a starling three-second blast of water into an area whenever raccoons, deer, or any other largish mammals approach. These devices have been around for a couple of years now, and most people find that they work very well. They cost about $75 online. Independent nurseries are just beginning to carry them. Most nurseries sell a product called Shake Away, made from fox urine. Shake-Away gets mixed reviews from gardeners and nurserymen. "Most of the perfume products work against rabbits and squirrels, but they just don't work on raccoons" says Matt Buckmaster of Island Seed and Feed in Goleta, California. Other nursery people agree that the odor-based repellants are short-lived at best.
Don't entice them
It is particularly important to not encourage raccoons to set up housekeeping in your yard. There have been some frightening cases of children badly injured, and even blinded, after becoming infected with a microorganism in raccoon feces. The most serious injuries occurred when the animals regularly used a sandy playground for a latrine. Vigilance and good housekeeping are the keys to safety.
Raccoons love the smell of damp soil. "They will go way out of their way to investigate the source of that smell," says Callahan. "Watering your lawn late in the day is like a siren call for them." Another thing that they like is pet food. If you don't leave it out, they will busy themselves with eating snails, rats and grasshoppers instead.
