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Raccoons

I love them too although, admittedly, they are no longer a problem for us since we moved to a condo.

At our Riverdale homestead, our garage roof was a communal raccoon toilet.

How would we get rid of them without poisoning squirrels, cats and the odd dog. Poison, I presume, would also affect birds.

Unleash coyotes?
 
They knock over my locked green bin and garbage cans (3 times this week) and shred the contents all over my patio. They use the fence in my neighbourhood like a highway making my dog go nuts at all hours of the night. They pull apart facia and climb into people's homes crapping in their attics. There are way too many of them in the city.

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I had a bit of a surprise when I took out the garbage out at 7 AM last week. I bungee my bin to keep the beasts out ... and when I opened it to put one more bag in before taking it out to the sidewalk, a raccoon popped out. I don't think he'd just crawled in either ... could have been there for days, after having pried open the lid, which then snapped closed once he was in.

Previously I've had to rescue the things from the blue bin, which is huge, and they've climbed in when it was empty, and then realised they can't get out again.

Really I don't find the things are that much of a problem with garbage if I make sure I've got the garbage bungeed, and I've added a strap to the green bin. And I don't put my garbage out before 7 AM.

What's interesting is that no one on my street seems to put out the green bin before 7 (and when they do, it's often tipped ... happens everytime someone new moves in) ... but on the main artery next to me, everyone seems to put their green bins out early, and they don't get tipped. Not sure I see why - it's very quiet in the middle of the night.
 
It's not foolproof, but putting your green bin very close to your garbage/recycling bin makes it harder for the buggers to tip it over.
 
Toronto weighing plan for bigger, raccoon-resistant green bins


From The Globe and Mail, at this link:

Raccoons, beware.

When Toronto’s public works and infrastructure committee meets this Thursday, they will discuss buying new, “rodent resistant†green bins that are more than twice the size of the current ones.

According to a city staff report, the city’s current 46-litre green bins – used for household organic waste – are nearing the end of their 10-year lifespan. As a result, the city put out a request for proposal, and have since decided on a design by Los Angeles-based Rehrig Pacific Company.

The design features larger wheels “for easier mobility,†a 100-litre capacity and an external handle to allow users to open their bins with just one hand.

And perhaps most importantly, the new design will allegedly address one of the city’s most persistent problems: raccoons.

In the lead-up to the new design, city staff conducted a survey of 501 residents asking about their experience with green bins. According to the report, “respondents mentioned that rodent resistant is the most important feature of their green bins†– with 67 per cent calling it the most important feature. Only 15 per cent of respondents said they were “extremely satisfied†with the current design’s ability to stave off raccoons, with many complaining about their current bins getting knocked over by animals.

As a result, city staff consulted with animal behavioural specialists in choosing the next design, which features a “raccoon resistant†latch.

The new bins will cost the city approximately $31-million. If approved by council, households could begin seeing the new bins by late 2015 or early 2016.

the-new-bin-on-the-left-and-a-comparison-with-the-old-bins-on-the-right.jpg
 

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