First, let me say right off....when my corn gets knee high to a 2 year old, I don't weed the rows. My feeling is that more damage comes from trying to turn your body, bend your body and walk your body between the rows than to let all the weeds grow. Having said that, I only wish some of the weeds would conceal this delicious veggie from all the hungry critters that roam the night.
I really had been expecting this because in all the years I've grown a garden we've had corn once. Once! The squirrels or skunks or raccoons would somehow know just when I plan on picking the corn and beat me to the buffet. I thought this year would be different though. I had taken time on animal proofing my garden and I have a fresh composter! Which to me would seem more tempting than having to really work for your dinner. No such luck. I'd studied everyday out the window, is it today they get my corn? Once, when I saw a bent stalk I ran out only to find a bent stalk. I thought free and clear.
Can you see the footprint in my onions? Yes, they even harassed my onions, onions! 
Stalks as big as my thumb sawed off like a twig, every one of them and all but one ear of corn was eaten all the way around the cob!! Terrible way to walk to your garden and look up only after you've opened the gate. What the!?!
We read some solutions on the Internet to solving a raccoon problem. Things like human hair....I have plenty from my "Elvis" like son, soap-we have reviewed them all except one. A motion detector attached to a sprinkler. Well, just in case my coons believe they can have a shave and a bath while feasting we will be doing the radio thingy too! 
And the corn stands alone, and the corn stands alone, hi, ho, the dairy oh. The corn stands alone. IN THE GARDEN 
Good morning all!
ReplyDeleteVery frustrating Dawn. To work so hard and have the critters eat all of your corn would drive me nuts! Ha on the shower and shave for them though, they may just hang around for that special treatment and I have to smile at the thought.
Oh what a great post, Dawn! Funny, informative, great photos, loved it. Your corn dilemma is like ours with the strawberries. We have a gazillion growing, and just when the day arrives of ripe perfection, they are gone of each has a bite taken out of it. For the corn, I have heard that a line of human urine is a deterrent, but it has to be applied regularly. Maybe Elvis could help out there, a little more difficult for us females to mark our territory! HA
ReplyDeleteFrances
LOL, Dawn...love the last lines!! I've tried growing corn twice in the last 12 years..not worth the effort! Those raccoons are worse than deer!
ReplyDeleteOh no ! That is truly a pain in the keester .. to work that hard and this happens .. I do have one idea but I don't think you guys get this stuff .. I buy a BIG container of Montreal Steak Spice ... and it WORKS .. where you dust it will smell like garlic , pepper and all the great spices for meat seasoning .. but cats and raccoons won't go near it .
ReplyDeleteJoy
I got a bit of a start seeing your header. Coon means something quite different here.
ReplyDeleteI heard just this last weekend of a man who has coyotes come into his yard and attack his cats. He reckoned the remedy was human hair spread around. And you mentioned that as well. Hope you find a solution. Critters have to eat too, but they need to learn to share. ;)
Oh no! These sneaky raccoons!
ReplyDeleteCameron
I am so, so sorry! I have similar problems with critters so know a little of what you are feeling. One year we didn't get a single tomato from our plants.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are supplying some pretty good groceries.
ReplyDeleteOMG! That pile of cobs is ghastly! I can't believe they bother the onions, I thought they were immune. So sorry to see you lose the corn.
ReplyDeleteThe UT extension would recommend using an electric fence at just the right height with a bait like peanut butter on foil. The animal tastes the peanut butter gets the shock and doesn't come back. I don't know how effective it is as with two small kids we won't be going with electric fences around here anytime soon!
ReplyDeleteGood morning guys!
ReplyDeleteTina, we HAD to be funny about this, nothing else we could do!
Frances, I have two stander uppers! Maybe I can convince them to help out but I doubt it! I hadn't heard that!
Lynn's garden, I considered giving up on corn (and did) many years ago when I thought this was squirrels, I may again, corn can be pretty inexpensive this time of year.
Joy, thanks for the idea, I hadn't heard of that one either. Sounds like a good thing to try with the soap and hair.
Foxy moron, whoops! I forgot about regional language! Sad about the cats, I worry about that with my Maine coon (coon again) cat. He's sweet but not that smart or fast,and we have coy dogs.
Cameron, who'd thought those little hands could climb and eat so well!
Thanks Barbee, We DO have tomatoes, and I'm grateful for that, no blight!
Janet, They should be paying todays prices!
Lzyjo, I was surprised also! But they did.
Dave, that's what I want with razor wire, (can ya tell I was upset) but you can't buy razor wire anymore, I may still try the electric, my kids are older, just have to watch the dog! He's just like a little kid!
Dawn, So sorry about your corn, but I'm glad you still have your sense of humor. I think I mentioned before my father-in-law using a radio, but I don't think I mentioned he also sat outside some evenings with a shotgun as well:) I'm not sure I'd recommend that remedy:)
ReplyDeleteHi Dawn, That's too bad about your corn. Raccoons can be pretty destructive. If I were you I'd try the electric wire. Friends have a pond and the raccoons kept eating their fish. Electric fence keep them out really well. Your dog will learn after the first little zap to stay away. Just make sure the coons can't get over or under the hot wires.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
I've heard that corn was not the easiest crop to get to harvest! Good luck with the rascally raccoons! Marnie's idea of an electric fence might be the answer. gail
ReplyDeleteThose raccoons can be such a pain. They leave our veggies alone, but like to make a big mess of our pond and knock everything in and eat the plants. They will even take plant pots out of the pond. I haven't been able to find a way to deter them, although I've read about mothballs. I haven't tried them because I didn't want our dog to eat them.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at your description of them having a shave and a bath :)
Hope you can find a way to get rid of them.
What a great ending about losing your corn. I lost mine also, but I guess everyone and everthing has to eat.
ReplyDeleteHi guys,
ReplyDeleteRose, I thought about hunting, eek! I figured though, where there is one family, there will be another.
Marnie, I'm thinking the fence will be best and the dog will learn also. I'm just not to keen about shutting off the motion detector all the time. They have a spread of a eye not a line around and what if I forget!?
Gail, the corn ranks with the tomatoes as far as I'm concerned. A crop you nurse along for your best veggie.
Catherine, they are awful! I might of thought they were afraid of water! Goodness! I had visions of a party when my hubby threw the radio idea out there. Thank goodness none of the corn was fermented (if there's such a thing for corn) I'd had a bunch of drunk bandits in my yard!
Crappy little coons! I bet you were ticked, big time. How about a big electric fence?
ReplyDeleteI would also try the hot pepper sauce, would that work? Putting it on a couple ears? But now it's too late for that.
Rosey
Ah, the fun of living with the surrounding wildlife. Raccoon, deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc. There is not end to the havoc they wreak in a garden. I hang dial soap around our little fence and thus far, it seems to work as nothing but bugs have gotten into my little garden…
ReplyDeleteIn the South, they shoot raccoons. Being as Southern as I am, I could never bring myself to shoot even a pesky critter such as a raccoon. They are such rascals and I see them often at night under our bird feeders eating the fallen seed.
Rosey, Too late for this crop but I'll keep it in mind for next year. I'm still not convinced the squirrels didn't help, a electric fence won't work for them.
ReplyDeleteHi Skeeter, Don't some southerners have a platform attached to the front of their trucks for the beagle dogs that hunt? Up here they are just annoying and a big fear of a rabies carrier. I'm glad they don't seem to bother with my cats though, although the theory behind the Maine coon cat is just that! Queen Elizabethan time, her escapees from aboard the ship!
Oh my Dawn. I'm so sorry that you lost most of your corn. I know you were disheartened.Maybe next yr. you will have better luck.
ReplyDeleteThose pesky raccoons! They wiped out a friend's corn in her garden as well. For some reason, we've lucked out, and I can only assume it's because of three things: our dogs. Well, thinking about it, that hasn't really stopped the possums... Maybe the raccoons just haven't found the garden.
ReplyDeleteYep, they still have coon hunts down here in GA. One fall night I was in bed with the window open and heard what I assumed to be a hunt going on near us. The dogs were howling like mad and I heard men talking out loud as if following them. Geesh, you would think they would be more in a rural area as some people do sleep at night ya know…
ReplyDeleteThis makes me rethink my ambition of trying to grow corn again. I've had squirrels eat mine, and there are plenty of squirrels here, who help themselves to the sunflower heads before they are finished being pretty.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you had such destruction.