In the News - May 2009
Adaptable raccoons irk city dwellers
JACKSONVILLE, Ark. - Catherine Canfield was startled look up from a game of
bridge to see a masked bandit looking in the window of her Jacksonville kitchen.
She tapped on the window in hopes of scaring the creature away, but it scarcely
even flinched.
"I don’t like them," she says of the raccoons. "They’re mean little things.
They scare me to death. You know, they can get in your attic and everywhere. And
they are not afraid at all of people."
Canfield’s neighbor, Ron Sawyer, worries that the raccoons around their homes
will provoke a fight with Snoopy, his Boston terrier. The pesky creatures do
know where the food sources around the neighborhood are, so the Sawyers are
careful to pick up any food they might leave out for Snoopy before the sun goes
down and the raccoons come out to prowl.
"We learned the hard way that if we left food out, they would be here, for
sure, to collect it," says Sawyer.
He tried putting 4 x 4 boards on top of his trash cans to keep the varmints
from making a mess on his lawn, but that causes problems with the way trash is
collected, so he keeps the cans in his garage overnight and moving it to the
curb on the morning of pickup.
Sawyer and Canfield aren’t suffering alone. Raccoons steal pet food, ransack
trash cans and wreak general havoc in various parts of the state.
"We don’t have data to support how many homes have problems with raccoons and
opossums," says Dr. Becky McPeake, wildlife specialist with the University of
Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. "I suspect the
problem is substantial. Problem-encounters with deer and black bears in urban
areas are more likely to grab headlines."
Raccoons are adaptable creatures she says, and they have adjusted well to
living around our homes.
Lamar James, communications specialist with the Cooperative Extension
Service, has had his share of trouble with raccoons.
"My neighborhood in Jacksonville has tons of varmints that tear open trash
bags and eat cat food I leave out. They wash their grubby little paws in their
water dish," says James.
The state’s nuisance wildlife code says property owners may use live traps
for the removal of nuisance wildlife, such as raccoons and opossums, provided
trapping is done according to ordinances and statutes established by their
municipalities. Captured wildlife, according to the code, is to be released
alive and unharmed outside their municipalities’ boundaries within 24 hours of
their capture. Traps must bear the name and address, vehicle operator’s license
number or vehicle license number of the people setting them.
James caught and relocated three raccoons and a possum in a trap he bought at
a local farm store, but there are plenty more he fears. One neighbor had an
urban wildlife trapper take care of the raccoons around her house.
"The trapper told me to use vanilla wafers as bait to keep from trapping one
of my cats," says James. "Cats aren’t attracted to cookies."
McPeake says extension service personnel were also very successful at
trapping raccoons at the 4-H Center in Ferndale several years ago using vanilla
wafers. Trapping in that area was geared at educating participants at the 4-H
Forestry and Wildlife Camp.
"The traps which were more successful were those closest to the garbage bin,"
she says. "Here at the state office, we have had raccoons get stuck in our
garbage bins in back of the building and just recently, one got stuck on a
rooftop. We propped tree limbs for them to climb out of their situation."
Aside from trapping and relocating raccoons, people can follow Sawyer’s lead
and learn to peacefully co-exist with them by keeping pet food out of their
reach and securing the lids of garbage cans, says McPeake.
Sawyer, who has had little luck with trapping raccoons, says he hasn’t
spotted any lately, probably because he has removed the temptations that bring
them to his home - but he knows they’re out there.
"They’re just smarter than I am with the traps," he says. "You don’t see
them, but you can hear them sometimes at night. They’re not causing a problem
right now. You kind of adapt to their being here. They live here, too."
For more information about Arkansas wildlife, visit the extension's Web site,
www.uaex.edu, or contact your county extension agent. The Cooperative Extension
Service is part of the U of A Division of Agriculture.
May 22, 2009
By Kimberly Dishongh
For the Cooperative Extension Service
Media Contact: Elizabeth Fortune
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2120
efortune@uaex.edu
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