ARVADA —Residents in one Arvada neighborhood say their yards have been overtaken by raccoons in recent years, with the pesky critters destroying gardens and becoming increasingly aggressive.
Sitting directly north of the , some residents in the Alta Vista neighborhood speculate work done on the creek the last few years altered the raccoon’s native habitat, pushing the creatures into the residential neighborhood.
“They’re extremely destructive,” said resident Charley Ault, who last month had 11 raccoons trapped and relocated from his yard. “They eat the corn, destroy the grapes and ruin all the flowers. It’s getting to the point where we do not want to go outside.”
Last week, Ault watched as Kyle Lohoefener of KLO Pest Control set even more traps in his backyard. He estimated there’s still half-a-dozen or so of the bushy-tailed bandits frequenting his backyard.
“They get used to eating pet food and garden vegetables,” Lohoefener said. “I think it could be the really, really wet spring we’ve had that is pushing them into the neighborhood.”
Ault isn’t the only one whose gardens and quality of life have been disrupted; other neighbors say they’ve also noticed the raccoons have become more aggressive and sightings more frequent.
Joan-Marie Dyer said she and her husband, Stan, spent a couple hundred bucks last year trying to keep the raccoons away from their corn.
A motion detector with lights?
“Didn’t phase them,” Dyer said.
A motion detector that emits a sonar blast?
“Didn’t do anything,” Dyer said.
Likewise, common recommendations — including ammonia-soaked rags around the garden and a garden hose rigged with a motion detector set to deliver a blast of cold water — didn’t deter the creatures.
“I can say from experience that these raccoons are not afraid of people at all, and they are smart,” wrote her husband on a neighborhood blog.
This summer, they’ve seen fewer of the animals but only because they quit growing corn.
In an e-mail, resident John Kiljan wrote that a foreclosed house on his block became infested with raccoons last year.
“The raccoons moved in like crazy, denning in the deep weeds in the backyard,” Kiljan wrote. “My neighbors took me over to show me all the they had left in his backyard.”
Wildlife pros agree that development and a wet spring has probably helped draw the animals into the neighborhood.
“I would agree that the raccoons have probably always been in that area, but habitat modification can cause them to change their behavior or move their habitats,” said Jefferson County Extension horticulture research associate Curtis Utley.
Arvada animal management officer Jenny Whittle said the city generally does not relocate nuisance animals
“There will always be wildlife in Arvada and in Colorado, so their paths and our paths will always be crossing,” Whittle said.
For raccoons, she said modifying the yard to alter behavior is key. Removing sources of food — especially pet food — and covering trash cans, keeping grass mowed and capping chimneys are all recommendations. Utley said a two-wire electric fence around garden areas can also keep raccoons at bay.
As a last resort, she added, “they’re fur-bearing but classified as a pest species, so having a qualified trapper trap them is allowed if they’re causing property damage.”
Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abriggs
