welcome to part 26 of my diy backyard project if you have missed the previous progress on how
i built the deck by myself yes one person you may want to check them out in the description
because it was very exciting for many of you plan to build a deck by yourself
or even hiring a contractor i hope you will find this helpful because there's
a lot of technical tips i shared with you my goal is to inspire more people into diy
this time we are talking about raccoon problem in your backyard how to prevent
these wild creatures from pooping and peeing on your patio furniture is what i want to focus on
if you google for a solution i am pretty sure you have seen some of this before indeed i spent so
much money and tried all of them and i can tell you none of them worked i bought five pounds of
cayenne pepper from amazon such a waste of money now i don't know what to do with that they said
coffee grind can get rid of raccoon so i had so many cups of coffee nope it did not work hot
pepper sauce didn't work either animal repellent granules from home depot is a joke save your money
i thought going a bit high-tech would solve the problem i bought the led predator eyes and
ultrasonic animal control from amazon and install it under the bridge here we have a cute rabbit
then we have the raccoon well it did not work
next there is a product called animal deterrent mat which is made out of plastic with some spikes
i bought two rolls of these and put them on the loveseat on top of that i wrapped the
whole furniture with garden netting before putting the cover on that's where the raccoon called home
there was a youtube video out there telling you to install the aluminum wire on top of the fence
so i bought a roll of wire but before i installed that
one of my backyard neighbors actually saw that video and installed it on his fence
i can tell you it didn't work at all i saw all kinds of animals running across
many people said coyote urine would work so i spent 150 canadian to buy two types of coyote
urine first one is granules it stings you just spread it around your garden
because i was so desperate i also bought the real coyote urine
this stuff is expensive i have high expectation on this i wish it worked
the problem is that the raccoons were born in the city they may have never seen a coyote in
their life the raccoon is claiming victory don't waste your money on coyote urine
remember i have this set of patio furniture from ikea if you like it check out part 14
of this diy deck project i will post the link in the description to protect it from the snow
in winter time i moved all the cushions indoor and puts the pink foam boards on the chair so the
snow can slide off by itself it worked flawlessly until springtime when i open it look is a disaster
raccoon made a mess and destroyed the foam board of course there are poop and pee
something i want to share with you raccoon feces is extremely deadly most people don't
know anything about this there is a parasite called baylisascaris procyonis this also known as
raccoon roundworm if it gets into your body ninety percent of the chance you will die
google it yourself the proper way to deal with it is to burn the feces that's the usual way i do it
there is another way to kill the eggs inside the feces is boiling water
i cannot do it on the patio furniture the only option i have is pressure washer
now the biggest question is what will work
after three years of testing i can tell you bird spike does work if you put it on top
of the fence but it's a little bit ugly i also built a mobile motion activated water
sprinkler i will make a separate video on that project it was very exciting you don't
want to miss it remember to subscribe i will post that video in the near future
using chicken wire to seal the bottom of the fence does help yes raccoon can climb but it eliminates
half of the lazy one who don't want to climb to protect the patio furnitures we are making
spike boards using stainless steel brad nails do not use regular nails or screws is way too sharp
and it can hurt the animals we don't want to do that for me i am using the leftover Azen fascia
boards from a diy deck project all you need is a brad nail gun is very easy
there you go i put around 8 nails per foot for good quality work you want to make sure all the
nails are flush with the board adjust the nails so they are pointing to different directions randomly
put it in front of the chair use releasable zip ties to secure it to the legs
for this chair i don't need to do it on the sides or at the back
brad nails are not that sharp it doesn't cut into my skin if i put my hands over on top do
not use regular screws on nails you don't want the animals to get hurt if you just put it on top of
the deck is not good we need to work on drainage and have some airflow to keep the bottom dry
that's pretty much self-explanatory and this is the finished product now water can drain
properly notice that i filed the screws to make them flat so it doesn't hurt the animals
one is finished several more to go but it's pretty easy
for the loveseat and the ottoman there are some low entry points to protect i had to
do it this way to wrap around it i recommend when you shop for patio furnitures don't buy
the ottoman i have tested this for three years this is proven to work raccoons still came to
my backyard but they didn't sleep on my patio furniture anymore besides what i showed you
there is one last option is to install electric fence it's very popular to use it in the farm
but i don't want to do that next time we are building a project that will drive all the
raccoons away from the yard it's mobile and you can move it around i am pretty sure you don't want
to miss that if you find some good information in this video give this a thumbs up my goal is to
inspire more people into diy you may also want to check out other videos on my channel i am pretty
sure you will love them remember to subscribe thanks for watching and see you next time