Racoons tearing apart garbage - Village contact to get rid of them?
 

Our neighborhood has several racoons (caught on Security Cam) that come out at night when the garbage is put out and tear it apart leaving a mess. This has been happening for several months and is really getting old. Garbage cans would solve the problem but aren't allowed in The Villages. We have tried double and triple bagging, ammonia, mint, black extra strong bags, putting garbage out in the early morning and nothing works.

Is there any group in The Villages that has the responsibility for wildlife removal we could contact?

I buy scented garbage bags, and when next door renter puts garbage out with food I spray their bag with Lysol, or cleaning vinegar. No food smell means no birds or creatures. Garbage cans would mean noise, diesel truck emptying and crushing like in the city… yuk.

Which area are you in? Haven't seen any problems near Hillsborough .... yet.

Garbage is not meant to be left out overnight but should be put out the morning of collection. This can be tricky as collection is not always at the same time (or may be very early in your area) but realistically there is no way of eliminating wild animals in an area with so many preserves and golf courses.

I've tried scented mint bag, spraying with Ammonia and triple bagging. Which hasn't worked against Racoons !

One neighbor puts out their garbage at about 5AM and the racoons still get into it. Our collection is before 6AM and not many are willing to get up before this and put out garbage especially since one neighbor does and it doesn't stop the racoons.

Do you live in a city or in the county..............that is who you contact.

No raccons but our garbage is usually picked up by 6 30 and who is going to get out that early to put it out?

We put it out in the morning. We are up before 6:30

Garbage is not meant to be put out before 5PM of the evening before it is picked up. For me, this means leaving out overnight. As others have posted, not many are likely to get up before 6:30AM to beat the truck.

Call Animal Control for whatever county you’re in and see if they’ll come out and set some traps and relocate the critters.

True. I usually put ours out by about 9:00 PM or so the night before.

We freeze waste items that could cause problems if the scent gets out (meat and fat scraps, bones, cantaloupe rinds, banana peels, etc.), and double-bag the lot just before I put out the garbage. It stays frozen at least to the point where it doesn't begin to smell by morning. We've only had a couple of issues (crows) and that was some time back.

Per DistrictGov it is "not before 9pm".

We put all of our vegetal waste in our composter and double-bag any animal waste (meat, bones etc.) in the plastic "Daily Sun" bags. We back onto a preserve where there are raccoons, bobcats, possums and coyotes (and the occasional feral hog) and have never had our trash bag ripped open.

Here’s mine:
From the Curbside Residential Collection Information: Bags must be placed for collection before 6AM on your collection day or the night before (no sooner than 5PM)

From my District Rules: The day before scheduled pickup shall mean garbage/trash shall not be placed curbside earlier than 5:00 p.m.

Now you show me yours

Seems understandable.....................Village Community Development Districts


All household waste should be placed in a sealed
tall kitchen trash bag or a 20-30 gallon trash bag
(any color). All materials can be placed in the
same bag, no need to sort! The trash bags should
be placed together at the end of your driveway,
no garbage cans/bins are allowed (they will be
disposed of with household waste). Each bag
should weigh no more than forty (40) pounds. Bags
must be placed for collection before 6AM on your
collection day or the night before (no sooner than
5PM) Collection times may vary. Deed Restrictions
do not permit leaving trash out on undesignated
days. Wrap broken glass or other sharp objects in
newspaper and place them where they cannot cause
injury. For a list of holidays that may affect your
normal collection day, please visit DistrictGov.org.

Figured there was an early riser out there somewhere. Luckily for us in our neighborhood there seems to be no hungry raccoons

Critters
 

I'd make book on it that if a raccoon is trapped, that it will not be relocated - it must be killed. Smart, but destructive little buggers who carry with it all kinds of diseases including rabies.

Garbage/Racoons
 

Put your garbage out in the morning like the rest of us and your problem is solved!

Pellet rifle

I live around the corner from you.

Oopos maybe we are uphill and the little critters do not want to run uphill.:undecided:

Try vinegar instead of ammonia. Ammonia may be attracting animals.

Everybody is asleep by 9, especially if you want to be able to put your garbage out before the truck comes !

More than happy to, Bill:

https://www.districtgov.org/communit...pdf?v=20220225

"What time can I put out the garbage?
Garbage bags must be placed at the curb no sooner than 9 p.m. the day before your scheduled pick up and no later than 6:00 a.m. the day of pickup."

Why can some people here absolutely not have any reading comprehension then bloviate erroneously? See example above... in response to this extremely clear OP message

Yep, that's an issue. Seems that site has an inconsistency.

Here are the External Deed restrictions for District 12 effective October 1, 2021. Under Garbage/Trash:

The day before scheduled pickup shall mean garbage/trash shall not be placed curbside earlier than 5:00 p.m.

My thinking is that any time after it gets dark(ish) should be fine - don't want the neighborhood looking unsightly, but have to take into account that a lot of we oldies go to bed quite early.

I'm sure the critter in our neighborhood had white fur and a bushy tail

Now, I'm not saying that it's Arctic Fox getting into the trash, but...

Varmint control officers
 

long term rates available they eat what they shoot .

A scurrilous accusation, Mr Dawg - just for that I'm sending my friends the raccoons over to you this evening :icon_wink:

Same problem, call animal control. $500 to trap and remove one racoon.. LOL
:bigbow:

I don't usually go to bed until after 10 or 11. Always up between 4:15 and 5 every day. Our trash pickup is around 7 Monday and Thursday, soooo when I go out to get my paper I always take my trash out then. NOOO issues in 8 years...
:bowdown::bowdown:

Anyone want to rent a bb gun for a day or two?

Garbage cans don't work unless you tie the lids down, than the garbagemen complain, it takes too much time.

We agree. Not using garbage cans is seriously unsanitary and dangerous. We have 1 in the garage but aren't allowed to put it out. This is strange for a supposed upscale community.

Raccoons are nasty and carry rabies. They will bite and the Villages is just attracting them. It's not the animals fault.

Raccoons are nocturnal. Not everyone is up at 5. Am.

Btw. I have seen crows too ripping open bags.

Don't Blame the Raccoons!
 

Not sure how many times you’ll need to be told before it’ll sink in but our trash doesn’t go to a landfill. It’s incinerated. As far as trash cans go, with twice a week collection there would always be cans in the street. Lids all over the place. No thanks. I’ll deal with the occasional critter getting into someone’s bag.

Incineration is Also a Problem!