When I was inquiring at a gun shop about the best ways to euthanize humanely a trapped raccoon, a 20 gauge shotgun was mentioned as the best choice. These are not as widely available as 10 ga shot guns, but I gather the smaller caliber means that there would be less damage to the trap and surrounding objects.
At the same time I inquired about using a cross bow to deter the critters. The gun shop was not too wild about that idea, relating a story of how a group of hunters once shot with a cross bow a raccoon that had reared up and challenged them. Apparently they hit him in the eye. They said the raccoon screamed, then tore the arrow out of itself and ran away. Tough critters. The gun shop was of the opinion that it would not be good public relations to have a wounded raccoon wandering the neighborhood with an arrow sticking out of it, so I was dissuaded in my enterprise.
You are wise to be careful around their scat. It's been a problem here, as the original owner put in corrugated fiberglass roofing that connects fences to larger buildings, as well as trellises etc. So raccoons and possums are able to walk from one end of the property to the other over roofs and trellises and pergolas. They make a terrible racket on some of the thinner sections of corrugated fiberglass; I finally removed one section of roofing to eliminate one of their major elevated highways. I routinely have to clean out the scat from other flat sections, and there is one section that I simply cannot get to without tearing it down from below. Which I just might do someday - wearing a biohazard type suit!
We don't get cottonmouths or copperheads here in California, but I've seen my share of rattlers on hikes here and there. Fortunately my house is surrounded by development for at least a mile in all directions, so we don't get any snakes. I did see a shed lizard skin in the back yard though last spring (commonly called the "fence lizard"). Sometimes though I wonder when the California mountain lion will become numerous enough to start to invade even urban areas. That would be more than a little scary.
At the same time I inquired about using a cross bow to deter the critters. The gun shop was not too wild about that idea, relating a story of how a group of hunters once shot with a cross bow a raccoon that had reared up and challenged them. Apparently they hit him in the eye. They said the raccoon screamed, then tore the arrow out of itself and ran away. Tough critters. The gun shop was of the opinion that it would not be good public relations to have a wounded raccoon wandering the neighborhood with an arrow sticking out of it, so I was dissuaded in my enterprise.
You are wise to be careful around their scat. It's been a problem here, as the original owner put in corrugated fiberglass roofing that connects fences to larger buildings, as well as trellises etc. So raccoons and possums are able to walk from one end of the property to the other over roofs and trellises and pergolas. They make a terrible racket on some of the thinner sections of corrugated fiberglass; I finally removed one section of roofing to eliminate one of their major elevated highways. I routinely have to clean out the scat from other flat sections, and there is one section that I simply cannot get to without tearing it down from below. Which I just might do someday - wearing a biohazard type suit!
We don't get cottonmouths or copperheads here in California, but I've seen my share of rattlers on hikes here and there. Fortunately my house is surrounded by development for at least a mile in all directions, so we don't get any snakes. I did see a shed lizard skin in the back yard though last spring (commonly called the "fence lizard"). Sometimes though I wonder when the California mountain lion will become numerous enough to start to invade even urban areas. That would be more than a little scary.
