No longer animal friendly
Yet again, a visiting raccoon on my balcony. Those things can fit through some tight places, and probably I need to chicken wire a little bit of the balcony, because though I don’t mind the cat visitors, raccoons are a little too much. Especially the ones living here, which are impossible to scare away. I get somewhat worried that they will open my screen door and come inside while I am sleeping.
I also have all sorts of visiting and biting bugs. Ugh.
May 10th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Secure the chicken wire really, really well or they’ll just pull it off. Raccoons, I know them well. We kept them from rolling up our new grass sod every night for six months by shining bright lights in their eyes. It worked, mostly. And we had to nail a piece of wood across an opening under our house because they could pry out the screws on the ventilation panel.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
These raccoons can climb up the side of a brick building. It’s impressive. For me here they just climb the stairs, but still.
I hate chicken wire, so I’m really looking for a nicer, happier solution.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
This makes me hope that the animal (or animals) crawling around the walls of my and others’ rooms in this house is the squirrel we suspect it is rather than a raccoon. I think I’ve told a story about raccoons getting into my parents’ house in comments here already, so I’ll just reiterate that raccoons aren’t fun to deal with.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
You could try the bright lights. We bought cheap, ugly outside lights and deployed them at ground level, aimed in the direction the beasts were coming from. Not so good for your carbon budget, though.