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Well I head down to the boat and find Racoon prints all over the boat. Now I still have the old side panels with the openings towards the stern for storage. I keep the wash down hose etc in there. For those of you that are familiar with that opening, when you look up under the gunnel you will see a small space right above the support for the side panel.

Well, believe it or not, a Racoon can fit in that hole.

So pick up one of the deck hatches and there he is staring back at me. I drop the hatch and stand on it. Now the little guy runs to the stern area of the bilge and wedges himself in the outboard section against the hull. When I pick up the stern hatch all I can see is his tail..It is getting dark so I figure go get some mothballs and put them down into the bilge and since it is getting dark he will leave.

Well 3 box's of moth balls the little guy is not moving out.

The next move is to get a plastic cup and fill it about half way with ammonia. Then I get ready and if you do this at home be careful because this is dangerous. I poor bleach in the cup with the ammonia. I now have chlorine gas. Quickly dump that down the bilge.

I move off the boat and in about a minute my wife and I can hear the Racoon snorting then we hear all this noise as he is trying to scramble out of the bilge. Nest thing I know, there he is, the little SOB puts his paws up on the gunnel and then his snout and gives us one of those Killroy was hear looks. Then he scrambles and runs off the boat and never looks back.

Next morning made a trip to the store for Hardware cloth. Stuffed it up in the open space.

Over the winter I need to redo the non skid, so the side panels will be redone without those open spaces.

So if anyone has still has those open storage compartments be careful. Racoons love the bilge are of the boat. Oh, and the dam cabin smells like mothballs.

Tony,

What a mess; I dont know about racoons but I had a mouse a couple of years ago, I suspect he went in the bilge through the gunnel air vents. I hope racoons dont create the havoc that mice do.
Good luck with the mothballs (which even if you leave in there, they will self evaporate, wont they?).

Yannis

Thanks I think I got lucky. He did have enough time to do anything. I think I caught him on the day he moved in. Left no mess and for now I am hoping he can not get in until I redo the panels.

Raccoons can create a whole lotta mess.
One had a family in a buds boat. Ripped up all the cushions used it to make their nest behind his fridge.
The bad part was they chomped up all the wiring...

Thats the bad part about putting a boat away Labor day then uncovering it Memorial Day without checking it during that time.

Glad you got him out...watch though, they like to get back in and boy they eat, rip, tear there way in when they want to.

Tony, glad it wasn't worse. A few years back I lowered my 24' Everglades from the lift and took my first boat outing of the season. I thought my golden retriever was acting funny during the 45-minute ride over bumpy seas as he kept sniffing under the gunwales. When I throttled back about 12 miles from the inlet and opened the forward anchor hatch I found myself face-to-face with a very angry raccoon. I guess 45 minutes of getting beat up by the anchor rode was more than he could stand, and my dog thought he wanted some action with the intruder. Knowing not to have a three-way brawl with me, my dog and a coon 12 miles at sea, I did like you and slammed the hatch down. I went back to port and left the boat tied up at the marina floating dock overnight, and he was long gone the next morning. I'm just glad he stayed below deck until i was able to get off.

The folks at NC Wildlife says their # 1 call from boat owners in the spring is that a coon or coons have taken up residence in their boat over the winter. They stated that once a raccoon has been disturbed by human interaction it knows that it's lodge is no longer secure and it (they) will move on.

Tony, what is this recipe again? Ammonia and chlorine?

In other words, chlorine that you get in the s/m as a fabric whitener, plus Ajax that contains ammonia??

Golden Malrin fly bait mixed in a little Coke in a cup will take care of them! Don't get caught using it though! Be sure to put it where other animals cannot get to it.

https://www.amazon.com/FLY-BAIT-1LB-GOL ... B000XTESBA

Rawleigh
I wouldn't mind trying that for all the Iguanas in my new backyard. They shit on the dock constantly. They are an invasive species. Pellet gun is legal, but I am certain my nosey new neighbors won't take kindly to the new guy on the block whipping out a rifle in the hood. However, can't let any pets drink that stuff.

Yannis wrote:Tony, what is this recipe again? Ammonia and chlorine?

In other words, chlorine that you get in the s/m as a fabric whitener, plus Ajax that contains ammonia??

Yannis

Ammonia when mixed with bleach gives you chlorine gas. Very dangerous, you do not want to inhale it.


Tommy

When my father was alive, he used to fish one day a week on a friend of his boat. they used to take turns fishing on each others boats. One day they are heading out and Barnegat Inlet was pretty churned up. My father said all of sudden a Racoon pops up on deck. He said the Racoon looked sea sick.

Next thing there are 4 guys and a racoon chasing each other around the deck of a 25 foot boat. They somehow got a Fluke net over him and quickly tossed him over the side. As the Racoon was swimming for the jetty, another boat coming in yells over to them, "Dont worry I will save your dog."

They just yelled at the guy to leave him alone and they took off as fast as they could.

Racoons can do some damage to the boat and a person or a dog.

Rawleigh wrote:Golden Malrin fly bait mixed in a little Coke in a cup will take care of them! Don't get caught using it though! Be sure to put it where other animals cannot get to it.

https://www.amazon.com/FLY-BAIT-1LB-GOL ... B000XTESBA

Rawleigh

Never heard of the stuff. What is in it that makes it so bad?

They die within sight of the cup! Very fast. I don't know what is in it, but farmers used to use it a lot. It may have been reformulated, like so much is these days, but it is worth a try! Just be careful of pets and non-target species with it!

The neckbeards in Florida would just burn the boat to get rid of the Raccoon.

Bruce wrote:The neckbeards in Florida would just burn the boat to get rid of the Raccoon.

If UVwas around he would have said take it out with a 22 and then make a rue.

Reminds me of a guy I know that had two coons drop through his false ceiling into his shower at 2 am. He ran in with his shotgun and used it. I guess he figured he had limited options. Not sure if his wife got the house in the divorce or not.....

MarkS wrote:Reminds me of a guy I know that had two coons drop through his false ceiling into his shower at 2 am. He ran in with his shotgun and used it. I guess he figured he had limited options. Not sure if his wife got the house in the divorce or not.....

Many years ago before his wife got the house, my cousin owned a second home in the Hamptons. One winter racoons moved in and destroyed everything in the house. Pest removal companies had no luck getting them out and the town told him he had to trap them or done how force them out. No physical harm to the raccoon.

Well a week later and a few 22 spent shells resolved his problem. He got them in the house.

He sat in a chair in the middle of his living room and took them on one by one as they came out.

If anyone is concerned about noise use this Colibri, http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/aguila- ... ammunition on non supressed 22. No semi, it won't cycle the action. Bolt rifle or revolver.

I turned a few of you northerners on to it where ducks and geese would use pools as ponds.

I had one visit Alchemy years ago. Thankfully no damage but a lot of paw prints in the v-berth. I boxed up all the food I liked to leave on the boat, and took it off and it seemed to have made the trip out to the boat no longer worth the effort.

Now, Kerri wants to know what the general consensus is for getting rid of clothes eating moths. I have not been allowed to move to the shotgun option...despite it being really tempting.

Dug

For clothes mithsho to EPest Supply. They sell an product that hangs in the closet. Sorry. It I can not copy the link on this notepad.

Tony, thanks. And I am glad your coon didn't do any lasting damage to the boat!!!!!

We have all sorts of crap hanging in the closets right now, from lavender, to cedar, to some fancy pest strips called Nuvan. Its gotten crazy, as she has lost a bunch of sweaters and is getting pretty pissed at me. How dare I own a house with moths... but to be fair, it does suck. Unless you are a moth...

Dug

The key is if she is not going to use it for a while, dry clean it and bag it. When I worked for the bank I had to wear a suit every day. Never a problem. Once I stopped wearing them every day I lost one to moths. Dry cleaned them all and now it seams all is well.

Now if I wear a suit it is probably for a few hours for a funeral. I have a small clothes steam cleaner I was given by someone who no longer wanted it. When I do wear the suit for a couple of hours I steam it before putting it away on a suit bag. So far so good.

Give Epest supply a try.

Dug
For clothes mithsho to EPest Supply.

I love when Tony gets tangled up with liquid refreshment and I need a Ouiji board to translate his posts! ;)

MarkS wrote:
Dug
For clothes mithsho to EPest Supply.

I love when Tony gets tangled up with liquid refreshment and I need a Ouiji board to translate his posts! ;)[/quote]

I wish it was the refreshments. It is this dam notepad I use when away from home. It seems to want to change everything I type.

Now fgtredu Mark. Lol

Tony,

If your letter "M" is right next to your delete button, then each time you type M you run the risk to mistakenly type delete.
Then, the text becomes...incomprehensible.
Especially if your fingers are not what we would call "pianist fingers" !!

Now fgtredu Mark.

Exactly what the wife told me just this morning!

Hahahaha!!!!

Tony, will do!

Yannis wrote:Tony,

If your letter "M" is right next to your delete button, then each time you type M you run the risk to mistakenly type delete.
Then, the text becomes...incomprehensible.
Especially if your fingers are not what we would call "pianist fingers" !!

Yannis

You mean fat fingers.

Wish I drank the way Mark thinks I do. For some reason a bottle of Southern Comfort did me in
, in college and now some 50 years latter the thought of Southern Comfort makes me sick. For others I went to school with it was the 99 cent Boone's Farm Apple wine that cured them.

I stick more to wine now and only drink it with a group. Got tired of my dates when I was younger and now my wife only drinking a glass and then I just had to finish the bottle.

I some how screwed up the rules, the date was supposed to finish the bottle and I was supposed to only have a glass.

What can I say.

Tony,

Im sure you know that you can put back the cork on a wine bottle if you didnt finish it...!!
By the way, there is this EXCELLENT cork with pump that removes the air from the bottle so you can keep the remaining wine indefinitely, by VacuVin. Look it up.
Also, for us overseas fellas, what is this fgtredu?

Yannishave one of those. But if I don't finish the bottle Mark would not be able to pick on me.

He'll find someone else to pick. Im an easy target, I propose myself instead !

Still, whats this fgredu stuff?

Yannis wrote:He'll find someone else to pick. Im an easy target, I propose myself instead !

Still, whats this fgredu stuff?

That was just in jest and you can make it anything you want.

fgtredu, isn't that Polish Ouzo?

Sounds more like Nigerian Vodka !

MarkS wrote:fgtredu, isn't that Polish Ouzo?

Mark

if your wife uses that word when addressing you it is any thng but Polish Ouzo. In fact I bet if you hear that word from her you are sleeping outside with the dogs. No wait the dogs are now inside and you are outside.

Hysterical.

Peter

How are you feeling?

Good question Tony.