I thought you were ready to go on the attack with that power washer!!! I'd suggest getting a dog and keeping it in the back yard as a deterrent, but if you have that many raccoons around, I gotta think the dog will bark at them all night and you'll just compound your problems. I still vote for the sniper option.
That thought did cross my mind honestly but I'd have to stay up through the night with hopes that one will even come around. As for the sniper option pretty much the same thing. No dogs that phase in my life has turned over to admiring from a distance.
Not sure Dawn will help but would hate it getting into animals' eyes by mistake. and You might make money with a youtube of pressure washing coons after an explanation of the problem so no one gets upset at you being cruel to 'the cute little things'.
Our new dogs got rid of our raccoon; we haven't seen it since we got this two. Foxy thinks she is bigger than she is so she bluffed it away. I still hear some in the woods now and then. We try to keep the woods natural for the few wildlife left, except for a couple trails.
It's funny, there are likely plenty of raccoons in the woods around me, yet I have only seen them once in the 12 years I've been here. The first 5 years I kept my trash in a large can by my kitchen door, along with recyclables (cans, bottles, etc.) I only started putting it in the garage because of bears. The raccoons never got into it. I guess there's plenty to eat in the woods. The one time they were at the house, they certainly weren't shy.
Like people, there are urban raccoons, who could probably no longer survive in the wild, and then there are the ones that do great on their own. Our camp is a couple of miles from the nearest house, and we're certainly not there often enough to provide food for them, yet the raccoons that show up on my camera in the woods are fat and happy. I watched a documentary about urban raccoons once, where they had RIFD-tagged a bunch of raccoons and the urban raccoons didn't even enter a large wooded park that was in the area in which they lived. Instead, they stuck to people's yards, abandoned buildings, and alleys.
That's pretty interesting. I would see the occasional raccoon in my northern suburban yard, but the routine garbage pests there were the possums.
I have a raccoon in my yard every night, pretty much, but the only problem they've been causing is that they'll eat whatever they want from the bird/squirrel food bowl, dump the rest out, and crap on the fire escape balcony beneath the bowl. Of course, they'll eat any cat food that might be left but since I quit putting new food down in the late afternoon or at night, there isn't usually any of that left. As long as I'm seeing only one coming around at night, I don't mind, but when the numbers increase, then it's time to get the live traps out.
If you get it on your hands and then wipe your face, I would think it would get in the eyes. Pressure washer is a training technique.
How about mixing something that raccoons don't like the smell of, in the water you spray? Internet "experts" recommend: .hot pepper, onion, garlic, peppermint oil or Epsom salts. (I didn't think Epsom salts had an odor ). Or maybe a gallon of cheap perfume?