What Animal Is Pooping In My Garden

Asked May 03, 2021, 3:56 PM EDT

Hi! Get-go 4 days agone, there has been a clump of animal poop in my raised garden beds in the morning. It is rather large - like the size from a medium domestic dog and very nighttime brownish-blackness. The outset 3 incidents the poop was very soft like pudding then it had no shape. In that location was a long, unmoving worm in the get-go poop (pale tan-gray, near the diameter of an uncooked spaghetti noodle). After giving the poop half a mean solar day to business firm upwards a flake, I donned a KN95 mask, gloves and, using a long trenching shovel, scooped the poop into a thick plastic bag (managing to get the mulch underneath so very trivial if any got on the shovel), secured information technology and put it in the trash. The second and third poop piles were also pudding-like but no worms or undigested matter were visible. The 4th poop was firm, appeared in 3 segments, was dark dark-brown-blackness in color with a pointed tip on ane of the stools. I should've taken a photograph of that one but was so distressed with the procedure I forgot! My question is whether this might be raccoon or possum poop? I moved to Eugene from Hawaii in 2019 and we don't have these critters there! Nosotros read online about the dangers of vermin poop and wondered if you lot have any other suggestions for how to handle this - deterrents, ongoing clean upward and also, whether it is unsafe to swallow anything produced this leap in these beds? There are strawberry plants and huckleberry bushes in both the beds the brute used (it alternated between the two) and pooped in the aforementioned place both times. Nosotros read online that cayenne pepper and ammonia are deterrents so last night sprinkled cayenne pepper liberally in and around the beds and squirted some ammonia for proficient measure. I accept yet to go out this morn to check on the effect. I imagine this is a common occurrence in Oregon (and the US in general)? We did run across a large possum running through the neighborhood a several blocks abroad yesterday in broad daylight which we thought unusual! Super grateful for any communication and glad you have this site as a source for the community! Thanks

Lane County Oregon

Expert Response

Every bit a follow up, I only went outside to check the beds and another pile of poop is in the same spot in 1 of the beds, just moved deeper in where in that location was less pepper sprinkled. So the cayenne and ammonia didn't work! This fourth dimension I did take a photo though.....

First try to identify which yous have. Your method of make clean-up is expert. *Raccoon poop can cause health problems. It may contain a roundworm that can infect humans and pets. They are carriers of Leptospirosis. Opossums aren't the bad guys they're made out to be. They rarely behave rabies, they probably weren't the critters who knocked over your trash cans, and that hissing is just a bluff. They scare away hands, and they'll even eat some of the insects and pests in your garden. Still, it'southward understandable if y'all don't desire them around.

*Source WebHealth Dr..

Raccoon and possum scat are a trouble, more with the raccoon pathogens than from the possum. Raccoons leave "handprints" small on the front end and larger on the back. The babies are born in April and May. Raccoon feces volition often look quite similar to dog poop, with adequately long cylinders that are usually quite dry and blunt end, and the feces will often have visible pieces of berry. They like to apply the same location ever.

Opossum poop is fairly big, like domestic dog poo. Averages 3/4 inch in diameter. The sides are usually smooth, and the ends are usually tapered. Information technology tends to be more curly than straight. Opossum tracks are highly recognizable, equally each pes has five toes and the rear tracks resemble those of an infant kid. The inner toe of each hind foot is opposable and looks like a human being pollex. Forepart prints are around two inches in bore while back prints are slightly larger.

Possible deterrents: Some accept had success with rags soaked in kerosene or turpentine. Others swear by Mixing a minor bottle of cayenne pepper with a bottle of hot sauce, then add together both to a gallon of water and shake well. Spray this pepper solution around your plants, bushes, and other garden greenery. Both especially dislike the smell of ammonia. Ammonia should not be sprayed on the plants as it will burn them. The unplanted area around the latrine can, still, be sprayed with ammonia. Best results are to apply the deterrent at dusk.

Live Raccoon traps will capture both animals but it is illegal to relocate them. Cheque with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife for guidelines.

Thanks very much for all the data! Will try the suggestions of cayenne pepper + hot sauce also as the ammonia.

Our entire back yard is either heavily mulched with bark or leaves (in and around the raised beds) or is lawn, so unfortunately, there aren't any tracks. Based on the photo of the poop that I posted, could you say whether it looks like raccoon or possum? Or is there any other way of identifying what we've got? For the potential associated health bug, I'k more than concerned if information technology is a raccoon. Also, if it is a raccoon, whatever advice on the safety of eating the strawberries and blueberries from these beds this spring? Is the business organization mainly with eating raw nutrient from plants in the area of the latrine or does cooking kill the pathogens? Spoke with i of our neighbors a few doors downward yesterday and she said raccoons have been pooping in her raised asparagus bed for years. She withal eats the asparagus because she said the tops are tall and loftier off the ground, unlike strawberries.

Proficient to know that it is illegal to relocate the animals....I practice appreciate that we as humans have encroached on the habitat for the wild animals in this area so would like to piece of work out some way to coexist with them safely - for all concerned.

If you look at the pictures, you'll notice the blunt end. Nearly likely raccoon. Ask to the condom of the food, information technology is e'er expert to presume that food in contact with the soil may well carry things like e-coli or other pathogens, esp. if you apply manures in the garden. To prevent contamination, before the low-growing foods set fruit mulch with forest chips or filbert shells or place low barriers around them to forestall active contagion. The pathogens do not go through the roots to the fruits etc. At that place has to be direct contact with the foliage eaten or fruit. Also, at that place are products for washing the produce which are effective. Patently, some things are easier to decontaminate than others. Cooking will kill virtually of these problems. If the edible parts are above the soil, no problem. Be sure to wash up well afterward being in the garden and do not eat in the garden, if your hands were in the soil. Wearing light gloves is corking as you can do your digging and weeding and then strip them off and browse in your garden, my favorite pastime. I promise this was helpful.

Thank you very much for the suggestions and data! Very helpful. I'k glad to hear in that location are nevertheless condom means to consume the fruit from these beds. My partner had a kidney transplant last twelvemonth and is on immunosuppressants so we need to be extra careful. I don't use any fresh manure in the beds except purchased finished compost or compost that nosotros make ourselves which does not comprise whatsoever beast products. At most I use worm castings. We've got a pile of extra wood fries from mulching the front yard so tin apply them in these beds!

I am not sure if it was y'all or another person who made the suggestion for the hot sauce + cayenne + H20 spray but it actually worked! After one (rather heavy) application no poop for the past 2 nights. Didn't even have to use the ammonia. So thank you for that tip! The first dark after applying the hot sauce mixture to the beds at dusk, several mulched areas in the chiliad were dug upwards pretty heavily so I remember that is confirmation that this is probably raccoon.

I'm nevertheless a novice gardener, but the garden is actually my favorite place to exist for both piece of work and relaxation since we moved to Eugene!