Dear Editor:
Re: Raccoons feast on her grubby lawn, Burnaby NOW, Oct. 8. I can fully understand Linda Cappelletti's aggravation on the raccoons tearing up her lawn in Burnaby. My mom and I live on Kitchener Street in North Burnaby, and our backyard has been constantly dug up for the past three years by the raccoons.
This year has been the worst ever. As my mom uses a walker to check out her garden at the side of the house, she can no longer go out onto what is supposed to be a beautiful flat green grass lawn as it is all lumpy from trying to roll back the grass that has been dug up.
Right now, I have just come in from attempting to roll the grass back but have decided to stop doing this and will have to get someone in to pull up the grass and expose the dirt, hopefully killing off the chafer worm that the raccoons go after and then hopefully the raccoons will get the idea that there is no food for them in our backyard.
I have been given numerous suggestions to try to discourage the raccoons from coming into the yard - nematode applications, flashers, dollar store pinwheels, lights and netting, but the raccoons that love our backyard ignore all.
Our backyard has always been admired by the HandiDart drivers that assist my mom to the backyard, by taxi drivers who have also assisted her, and now anyone coming into our backyard is shocked at what was once a beautiful flat backyard lawn is now all torn up.
The City of Burnaby is not interested in helping out any homeowner with this problem, and as they have banned any form of chemicals to put down on lawns this problem is only going to get worse.
They have suggested calling pest control companies, which I did contact, and if we want to pay upwards of $500-plus to catch the raccoon (no guarantee that they won't come back - skunks included), I am now at my wits' end in knowing what to do.
If anyone has any suggestions as to whom I can contact to pull up the grass that has been rolled back by the raccoons, I would love to get a company name!
Any other recommendations to get rid of the raccoons would also be appreciated.
By the way, last night I looked out the basement window and saw a raccoon. I opened the door, yelled at it, sprayed it with water from the hose - and it just looked at me as though to say "Ha, ha, ha, don't disturb me, I am eating!"
Nadyne Beattie, Burnaby
