Will grape vines attract raccoons?

Moozillion

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I am considering growing a muscadine grape vine over Elsa's night house for the leaves to feed her. But I know we have raccoons in the area, and occasionally see 1 or 2. Do raccoons like muscadine grapes?
 

ZEROPILOT

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I've never seen any here. And I don't suppose you have wild parrots, so you should be good.
I imagine your Muscadines will grow larger than mine, here. I transfered some from south Carolina that grow well, but have very small grapes. marble sized.
I never saw any raccoons there, either. Just deer. Deer love them.
 

Yvonne G

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Do you have a dog? I occasionally see dead raccoons on the street in front of my house, so I know they're here, but I feel the smell of my dog keeps them from coming onto the property. I had a bad experience a few months ago when something was eating my box turtles. I lost one a night for 3 nights before I set the Hav-a-hart trap. I used the dead shells as bait and caught a very pregnant raccoon. Once she was moved out further into the country, the box turtle raiding stopped. Hot wire might work to repel them too.

Almost any kind of food will attract garbage-loving vermin. Plant your grapes and be alert.
 

ZEROPILOT

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I thought I'd toss this out there again.
If you're looking to get rid of Raccoons. Place an apple in the trap.
A stray cat or passer-by opossum won't wind up in your trap. It'll be racoon after raccoon
 

Moozillion

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I thought I'd toss this out there again.
If you're looking to get rid of Raccoons. Place an apple in the trap.
A stray cat or passer-by opossum won't wind up in your trap. It'll be racoon after raccoon
Thanks, Ed- I didn't know that!;)
 

Tom

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We have raccoons-a-plenty here, and I never have any problems with them around the grapes. Birds will sometimes come eat them, but not raccoons. I had a raccoon digging around in my leopard tortoise pen last year. I thought it was a cat digging at first, using the loose dirt as a litter box, but no tootsie rolls were ever left behind. Then one day I saw the finger marks in the dirt very near a recently laid nest. Unmistakable.

That raccoon went to raccoon heaven. Or maybe raccoon hell, if it was a bad raccoon. I don't really know.
 

daniellenc

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I have a 6 ft privacy fence but all raccoons go to raccoon purgatory.
They got the Darwin pass from above and will survive on whatever lol. Raccoon diet consists of whats there for sure but if have a covered enclosure or garning area you should be safe
 

Clawem

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I had a problem with raccoons and my chickens. Trapped one with one of the dead chickens and left it in the cage for a couple of days with the chickens screaming at it, I then released it right were I caught it and never had a problem again, i think it learned it's lesson lol and hopefully taught it's young not to go near that house. I live in a rural area and we have everything running around so may be just be lucky.
 

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I had a problem with raccoons and my chickens. Trapped one with one of the dead chickens and left it in the cage for a couple of days with the chickens screaming at it, I then released it right were I caught it and never had a problem again, i think it learned it's lesson lol and hopefully taught it's young not to go near that house. I live in a rural area and we have everything running around so may be just be lucky.
It seems like about once a year I re-tell my story of my being nice to raccoons.
Long story short. Raccoons where getting into my attic (crawl space). I removed them and let them loose about a mile away or so. Then I cut down all tree branches near my house and reinforced the side exhaust vents for my roof.
Fast forward 48 hours. My wife and I hear some familiar scratching noise coming from the attic. It's about 1 AM. I get a flashlight and go outside and DO NOT believe what I see!! Asphalt roofing shingles everywhere and tar paper dangling from one corner. Then I noticed a great big section of 1/2" thick plywood has been yanked up and partially cracked in half.
Popping my head into the roof hatch in my garage showed what I already knew. Raccoons where back.
I trapped and shot them. Then set other traps and did this until I had gotten rid of five individuals. I had my roof repaired. The whole roof. I also needed to have a crew come in and repair my dislodged A/C vents and remove a bunch of Raccoon crap and flea infested material.
Lucky me. I've never seen another raccoon where I live now. Probably thanks to my neighborhood having a lot of dogs?
Raccoons do not play nice.
Now, neither do I.
I am an animal lover. I wish you the best.
 

Moozillion

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It seems like about once a year I re-tell my story of my being nice to raccoons.
Long story short. Raccoons where getting into my attic (crawl space). I removed them and let them loose about a mile away or so. Then I cut down all tree branches near my house and reinforced the side exhaust vents for my roof.
Fast forward 48 hours. My wife and I hear some familiar scratching noise coming from the attic. It's about 1 AM. I get a flashlight and go outside and DO NOT believe what I see!! Asphalt roofing shingles everywhere and tar paper dangling from one corner. Then I noticed a great big section of 1/2" thick plywood has been yanked up and partially cracked in half.
Popping my head into the roof hatch in my garage showed what I already knew. Raccoons where back.
I trapped and shot them. Then set other traps and did this until I had gotten rid of five individuals. I had my roof repaired. The whole roof. I also needed to have a crew come in and repair my dislodged A/C vents and remove a bunch of Raccoon crap and flea infested material.
Lucky me. I've never seen another raccoon where I live now. Probably thanks to my neighborhood having a lot of dogs?
Raccoons do not play nice.
Now, neither do I.
I am an animal lover. I wish you the best.
I am an animal lover too, but I know raccoons and tortoises are mortal enemies, with the tortoises always getting the worse on the deal.
I've read that raccoons are "super-predators" because of their tenacity, ability to figure things out, agility of their hands, ability to swim, etc etc.
I may admire an animal, but we all have to decide what our priorities are. Raccoons seem to be plentiful everywhere, and adapt wonderfully to human habitation. While I hate to kill an animal, if it's between them or Elsa, then they are gonna LOSE!!!!!
 

Tom

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I am an animal lover too, but I know raccoons and tortoises are mortal enemies, with the tortoises always getting the worse on the deal.
I've read that raccoons are "super-predators" because of their tenacity, ability to figure things out, agility of their hands, ability to swim, etc etc.
I may admire an animal, but we all have to decide what our priorities are. Raccoons seem to be plentiful everywhere, and adapt wonderfully to human habitation. While I hate to kill an animal, if it's between them or Elsa, then they are gonna LOSE!!!!!

I came to the same conclusion. I like raccoons. They are cute, smart and fun. But they can't have my tortoises. They can have the whole world and come and go as they please out in the wild, but my tortoise enclosures are off limits.
 

SaraP

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The Trash Bandits should leave your grapes alone, especially if there are much more attractive things to raid like chicken coops or trash bins. If you live near fresh water like a creek or pond, it could be hard to keep them away since they love washing their food and paws. You'd think the smell of dogs would keep them away but that's not been my experience with them. Same thing with skunks--they're marauders and don't seem to care about anything but raiding all of the available food supplies.
 

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