When I pulled into my driveway tonight I saw 2 raccoon's drop out from the engine bay and when I popped the lid I found a pile of berries on the intake manifold. I'm worried they will eat the wiring. Anyone got suggestions on how to keep them away without killing them? I have no garage so the car is stuck outside.
Raccoons are pretty crafty.. Can you move the car to another spot? Or turn the car around every couple of days? I think once they feel the car isnt "safe" for them they'll just leave..
------------------ Tim and Lynn 1987 Fastback GT in restore mode..
Go to a grocery store and purchase some of those disposable cooking pans, the ones that are basically stamped thick aluminum foil. Also buy a gallon bottle of ammonia. Place a couple pans underneath the car with a 1/2"-1" of ammonia in them.
When I pulled into my driveway tonight I saw 2 raccoon's drop out from the engine bay and when I popped the lid I found a pile of berries on the intake manifold.
The raccoons in your neck of the woods must be awfully small. The big fat ones that occasionally sleep in my cedar trees would never fit in there.
Having said that, I've had the same issue with critters in my engine bay... but it's rodents, as can be determined by the mouse turds deposited on the duke's rocker cover.
[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 07-24-2014).]
i would get some subsonic .22 rounds. they dont make any noise at all. if you dont wanna kill em just scare em with a bb gun or something thatll sting em. they wont come back... just dont hit the car
I like the way you think. Ad frinkin cats to the list
Nice. So it's OK to blast away at things you don't like just because....well, I don't like ignorant people so that means....
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Originally posted by Lambo nut: And some of us prefer not to live in such places. Kevin
Dryer sheets should do it and you can try leaving the lid open for a few nights. Once they don't have a roof over their heads I suspect they will move on.
I shoot raccoon s and groundhogs because they raid my garden and cause damage to the foundations to the outbuildings. If they stay off the property I don't bother them. I have outdoor cats to control rodents. Life in the country requires damage control. Sorry if it bothers some of you city folks.
I shoot raccoon s and groundhogs because they raid my garden and cause damage to the foundations to the outbuildings. If they stay off the property I don't bother them. I have outdoor cats to control rodents. Life in the country requires damage control. Sorry if it bothers some of you city folks.
Funny raccoon story: 10 years ago we were living in a 2 story house in a small North Central Fl. town. We had just moved in and it was a fixer upper. I was sealing off openings on the gable ends to keep squirrels out. One night about 11 pm my wife went upstairs to what was going to be our master bedroom to get something. I heard a scream and then a door slam. She came running downstairs and told me there was a huge raccoon up there! I called a cop and he came to the house and said there was nothing he could do, told me to call an animal trapper. I decided to try taking off a piece of the wood from the gable end so I got up on the side porch roof with a ladder and was able to take the piece of wood I had just put on off. We laid in bed downstairs unable to sleep and then about 1:30am we heard a loud plop from the side porch roof, which was the raccoon leaving the attic. I guess she was looking for a place to make a nest and when I closed off the gable end she went thru the bedroom ceiling looking for a way back out.
Funny this came up. Last 2 days I found cans, tools and stuff on the floor in the shop in the mornings. Didnt think that much of it till I noticed the cable to my RV had tooth marks and the protective loom I put on was chewed up. My cats been growling and whinning at the garage door at nite, apparently knowing what I didnt. So last nite Im watching tv on the couch right by the door to the garage and I hear some noises and figured it was the cat playing. Found him sleeping in another room. I open the garage door and on top of my paint cabinet Im looking eye to eye at a large possum. He just stared. Well my Ruger 380 is sitting on a shelf right by the door, locked and loaded of course. Without taking my eyes off his, I reached for it and shot it in the face twice. Picked it up with pliers and threw it in a box I doused with thinner and lit it in the middle of the parking lot....just in case he was playing dead. Got up this morning and everythings where it was, cat didnt growl and problem solved.
It's about experience. After you see a fox kill hundreds of chickens without eating one, your experience gives you a different viewpoint. When my food supply and livelihood is threatened, I lose patience with wild animals. Otherwise, live and let live. I live in the city now, but am a country boy.
The opossums are no joke. They are worse than a bobcat, but not as bad as a badger (especially a honey badger). Still, opossums die easy. I went to get wood one day, and had a pair of them come after me. Oh, I don't like the idea of potential rabies shots in the belly, either. Anyway, I dispatched the opossums with a piece of firewood.
Since I've been in the city, I've killed 7 or 8 opossums. The 8th one may have been killed by the neighbor. I thought I killed it, but hadn't disposed of it. The guy freaked out and started stomping on the poor thing, until I pulled him off. Such a shame when adults can't control themselves.
I went to look at a Fiero last year. The guy claimed it had only been parked for a bit, but all the wiring in the engine compartment had been gnawed away. Sprk plug wires, coil wire, harnesses--everything. Somehow, pics supposedly taken 2 weeks previously of a beautiful black Fiero with a running v8 turned into a car with broken quarter windows, something wrong with the rear end, half the engine apart, the gas tank out, rust everywhere, just one thing after another. The car was for sale for $6,500, and listed as complete, running, low-mileage '86 with a professionally-installed v8 in show-quality condition. As I was leaving, the guy remarked about tire kickers. Funny. I came, money in hand.
Anyway, racoons around people is bad. Went camping 2 summers ago (you know, when it was so dry we had to forego any fire & have bring ready-to-eat food). At night, a racoon got into a cooler through the side. He didn't open it. He made a hole in the side. I ran him off. He just knocked over a container with some dishes and got part of a loaf of bread.
The thing I really can't abide is red wasps. I killed about 3,200 of them, one year. Apparently, they didn't like the lawn mower. The following year, I mowed in peace--then we moved.
I live out in the burbs and can understand killing pest animals but only as a last resort. Personally I have and will use a have-a-hart trap to catch and relocate problem critters like raccoons and squirrels instead of just shooting them. My previous comment was in response to shooting cats. That's incredibly cruel as it's most likely someone's pet and not "coming for you".
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Originally posted by tshark: Oh, I don't like the idea of potential rabies shots in the belly, either.
And FYI, they don't do that anymore, it's in your hip/butt and arms. Not to mention that it's extremely rare for opossums to get rabies.
I went to look at a Fiero last year. The guy claimed it had only been parked for a bit, but all the wiring in the engine compartment had been gnawed away. Sprk plug wires, coil wire, harnesses--everything. Somehow, pics supposedly taken 2 weeks previously of a beautiful black Fiero with a running v8 turned into a car with broken quarter windows, something wrong with the rear end, half the engine apart, the gas tank out, rust everywhere, just one thing after another. The car was for sale for $6,500, and listed as complete, running, low-mileage '86 with a professionally-installed v8 in show-quality condition. As I was leaving, the guy remarked about tire kickers. Funny. I came, money in hand.
Sorry for the hijacked thread..
It seems like it was a "bait -n- switch" sorta like a dating site. They post a picture from 15 years ago and when you get there to start the date YOU DONT EVEN RECOGINIZE THEM! I hate it when that happens. The guy remarked about tire kicker? Wow.. Makes me wonder how much he thinks his "insert POS here"( I dont know what kinda car he drives) is worth then? You should have quoted from his ad. Every person that has come out to see our resto says, "Wow, this is the first time the ad reflects the car." Too bad everyone wants a $1000 restored car right now. I wish we could sell it for a thousand.
------------------ Tim and Lynn 1987 Fastback GT in restore mode..
Just to be clear. I don't like needles at all. In the '80s, apparently that's where rabies shots went.
If something comes at me, they can test the body. I don't make a habit of carrying traps around with me.
Our cars are certainly suffering from age, lack of (knowledge/time/parts/experience) care, and critters. 2-legged, 4-legged, 6-legged, and 8-legged. I looked at a red Fiero yesterday that was infested with wasps. The guy also had a Volvo SUV in which a racoom had somehow gotten through the firewall into the cabin. I looked at a black Fiero Thursday that has full of spiders. Someone had broken the windshield and removed the radio supposedly the night before...only the spiderwebs had had time to cover most of the interior.
Other than the 2-legged variety of varmints, there must be a way to keep the critters out.
Don't know if it will work with racoons, but I had a skunk problem a few years back. Nobody would come out and get them but the DNR told me to use moth balls. Skunks can't stand the smell of them. It worked.
My previous comment was in response to shooting cats. That's incredibly cruel as it's most likely someone's pet and not "coming for you".
I live in the city, and I have raccoons and squirrels and birds and wasps and spiders in my yard... and also cats. Usually stray cats that last one year before they disappear over winter.
I have a love/hate relationship with cats, as I'm more of a "dog" person, and I'm also highly allergic to cats. But I would never hurt a cat. Most of the strays won't get near me (or to anyone else), but there's one that's turned up this year that's very friendly. (Walks right up to me while I'm under the car to say "Hi".) It spends hours in my yard while I'm working on my Fiero(s). It's hunting mice. I've watched it catch them. So now what I've been doing is feeding this cat just enough to entice it to come back to my yard on a regular basis, and it in return is keeping the rodent population down. It's a win-win situation!
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Originally posted by Patrick:
I've had the same issue with critters in my engine bay... but it's rodents, as can be determined by the mouse turds deposited on the duke's rocker cover.
[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 07-26-2014).]
I tried being nice and scare them away. Now there using the insulation under the hood of my rx-8 for nests and I drive it daily. Now that damage is being done I will be getting a bb gun and shooting any animals near my vehicles along with using the other non lethal ideas to.
Where I live you are allowed to take care of them by sending them on a one way trip to see God. Besides they make great Buzzard Food here in Hinckley, home of the Buzzard. I backed the DGP out for the 1st time this year on Wednesday and when I looked back in the Barn the floor was covered in Corn that I use to feed the Deer and Turkeys. It splashed out when I backed the car out. Just got through trapping 4 mice and apparently they were putting corn somewhere in the car. I figured it was a wheel or up under the rockers. Luckily no damage to the car. Rick B
The big fat ones that occasionally sleep in my cedar trees would never fit in there. 
I wish we could sell it for a thousand. 
