Raccoons are a way of life here. Anything that I plant in spring must be protected or it will be laying on top of the ground in the morning. They love fish fertilizer I can only apply in between roses further away from the bush. More than that they love eating worms and grubs. If you water your plants in this attracts insects and worms. The coons come in at night and dig your plant out. Then enjoy a midnight treat.

Like Jackie said chicken wire or a tomato cage until the roots start to grow. Annoying as once they start this habit they don't stop.

They are digging up grubs and worms. They are meat eaters. They go nuts for fish emulsion and any organic fertilizer made from any kind of animal matter. If you lay sod and it is carefully rolled up the next morning, it was done by an adult. If it is shredded to pieces, it was done by young ones. Don't use organics when and where these critters are an issue. Cage and protect what you plant or they WILL pull them up in their search for "meat".

Can you trap them and drop them at a far away church? They can dig all they want over there......,,if I could catch the bad rabbits in my yard, that's the place I'd drop them, churches can replace plants without any pain-good cash flow.

I'm not sure it will work for raccoons, but I'll say that squirrels and cats here must find the smell of Milorganite to be disgusting enough to avoid walking where I put it -- at least for a while. Something else you could try is getting some dried hot peppers and pureeing them with just enough water to get the blender going, then pour that over the soil around the roses. Maybe that will make for a deterrent.

:-)

~Christopher

A sufficiently hot pepper application may repel the raccoons...or not. As long as they can smell "meat", whether it's grubs, worms, blood/bone meal, fish emulsion, etc., they are going to dig. That smell means "food" and digging (or fishing) for their food is what they do.

Thanks everyone! I think the racoon was digging up the rose tone .l also water my roses with fish emulsion sometimes .l geuss l have to stop for a while .Maybe l will try trapping them up and releasing them far away but unfortunately a neighbor told me he saw a family of raccoons in our neighborhood.

Make sure to check your State laws on transporting wildlife. Here its illegal to do it. Also rabies is rampant in raccoons and you don't wanna mess with transporting a live one and chance getting bit. We live trap them here only if they are a major problem. We have options to either call Fish and Game to take them or shoot and dispose of them properly according to State Laws.

We get raccoons digging in roses once in a while. Its usually after I use fish fertilizer. They love it! The real problems I get with them is when they chew through 3/4 plywood and tear through the roof of the chicken coops. Seems to happen every few years. Those are the ones that get whacked lol. I started putting roll roofing or tin over the roofs and that has cut down on the chewing but they still do it. They are tenacious creatures and can be vicious. If you see any out in the daytime stay far away from them.

In the mean time, in order to save your roses. Surround them with something so that they are not dug up again. For what it's worth raccoons are omnivores.

I was using fish emulsion/ fertilizer all summer with no problems. Now suddenly this month the raccoons discovered us .l geuss l will just stop using it .

My dogs love to dig up the yard when I use either rose tone or Milorganite. They love the smell and like to roll around in it and eat it (gross). I have to keep them away for at least a week or two once I apply so maybe its the same story with the Raccoons. I'd try that chicken wire thing and maybe sprinkle some hot sauce or cayenne pepper on top of it all just to be safe. I would stay away from ammonia or vinegar. If they spill it near your roses you're in for some dead roses and no replanting in the area for years.

And yes, raccoons are huge rabies risks, so don't mess with them unless you want to get lots and lots of painful shots directly to your stomach. Ouch!

SoFl

Thanks ! I know about rabies ,my son was bitten by a horse he was riding and had to get 21 shots in his stomach over 3 or weeks . He was in a riding lesson and l geuss the horse was not up to it .

Wow, yeah its not fun. Your poor son.

Sometimes the squirrels here dig up my recently planted annuals and stuff. they are looking for grubs and worms. Its an easy meal, once i do all the heavy digging.

Sorry to hear your son went through that. I know some horses can be difficult. I rode one a long time ago, he didn't like the idea I was riding him, he refused to run, and took me off the path through the bushes in the woods, good thing it was a group ride, or I'd be lost in the woods with a difficult horse.

Can you hunt raccoons in your area? I bought a raccoon coat from a hunter's wife, it has Japanese Kimono style sleeves, at least 2 raccoons on each sleeve, I use it as a blanket for cold winter days, it's very warm.

Summers

My son has a scar .the bite was on his stomach .Thank God it was not deep .the horse just moved his head backward and bit my son who was riding it .

Good thing you escaped the bad horse yourself.

I would be scared of wearing that raccoon coat ! I dont really know if we can hunt them or not ,l was just thinking of trapping them but sultry said moving wild life in Florida may not be legal .

Are you sure it's a raccoon? My rat-catcher out-doors cat loves to use my rose beds as a bathroom. To make matters worst, my dogs love cat waste. The cat starts the hole and the dogs make it bigger. I like the chicken wire idea. I usually put pots and other yard decor around the affected area until the cat goes elsewhere.

BTW - You just scared the *&^% out of me. I don't think I'll be horse ridding any time soon :-O

-Adrian.

Kublakan

That horse was frisky ! He bit suddenly without warrning but Maybe a mild tempered horse wouldn't do that .

I did not see the raccoon but some neighbors did see a family of raccoons. Might be a dog or a cat .but the holes were pretty wide and derp .l think l may use the chicken wire until the rose is settled a bit .

Adrian, one life to live, you got to ride a horse!!! :-) Just pick the smaller horse. The horse I got was too big for me, I couldn't get on/off by myself, had to have a helper. :-)

When I lived in Port St. Lucie, we had raccoons all over the place. I tried using just chicken wire but they learned how to pull it up and get it out of the way. I cured that problem. I know raccoons have a good memory. Right after sun down I took a motorcycle battery, using my jumper cables, hooked up the hot line to the chicken wire and the ground to a metal poll I put in the ground. I sat out on the back porch with a good flash light and waited. Sure enough around 11 or so, two big boys showed up. When's the last time you saw a raccoon jump 8' straight up. The 2nd one started to sniff the chicken wire and touched it with his nose. The second night they came back but were very mad that the chicken wire was still there and tried to throw dirt and leaf's on the chicken wire. "ZAP!!!" You could hear them squalling and chattering half way down the road. Now every year there would be new raccoons in the neighborhood. Just one or two little "zaps" and no more raccoons. Worked like a charm for me. At night, you could watch the raccoons walking in the neighborhood and walk right past my house.

Wow ken a genius idea ! But l dont think l can ever dare to do that .

Love the "zap" treatment Ken. I can totally see that scenario in my mind. I trapped a raccoon once because the were eating the fish out of my pond and boy, he was mad as heck in that cage/trap. I also saw some of his family members over the courtyard wall peeking over at him before I went outside. I just didn't have the heart to relocate him as I imagined it was the rest of his family there watching... I wound up just releasing him and not replacing the fish.

I am getting 2 Aspectek - Yard Sentinel Electronic Pest Repellent-Ultrasonic Rodent Animal Pest Control Repellers for rabbits. If they work on rabbits, they should work on Raccoons too. Will report back.