Or just get a cheap insecticide sprayer. Lowes has them starting at $8. You can get a small (1/2 gallon) pump sprayer ($8), or one that you hook up to your hose and set the concentration/dilution level ($10), or even a battery operated sprayer ($9) with a supply tube you stick into a bucket of your liquid. Larger ones are well under $20. You can use these to spread the Dawn or to spread the things that Nancy mentioned (in a diluted form.) I'm reading that whatever you spread, a tsp of Dawn per gallon of liquid will help the solution stick.
I changed methods from putting Dawn on the tree to wrapping the tree. I'm going to post some photos of the areas that I felt would hinder or stop the raccoons from entering the backyard.
Here are some photos of areas I blocked that the raccoons gained entry into the backyard. I learned that raccoons can squeeze through openings as small as four inches high or low. This was just the beginning. The front fence The front gate The back fence The back gate The rear of the carriage house on the left The rear of the carriage house on the right And this is part of the problem. Early in the week and it gets worse.
Wow. What an ordeal. At this point I'm thinking poison or kill traps would be in order. The downside is the risk to other critters.
View attachment 55734 I'm beginning to think that too but not so much about other critters being at risk. They would be known as collateral damage.
There are ways, but I don't want to talk about them here, since folks have lots of feelings on these issues. I would bait the vacant property so as to target the enemy and not incur too much collateral damage.
Von, I hate to say it after all your hard work to cover the holes, but raccoons can climb wood fences.
The guy is retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). This is his new hobby. Look at how fat they all are from the hot dogs he feeds them!!! He has a ton of You Tube vids here. I did not post any because they are all 1/2 hour long. He calls himself the Raccoon Whisperer. (Hot dogs speak louder than words.) He's dead serious about this: Raccoon Whisperer™ is protected under trademark law & is owned/operated by James Blackwood IT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED TO FILM OR UPLOAD ANY VIDEO OF RACCOON WHISPERER™ WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT JAMES BLACKWOOD AKA RACCOON WHISPERER™ I just thought I'd throw this out there as an alternative to getting rid of them, Von. Your part of the country can get pretty cold, and winter's upon us. Imagine how warm they all must be...you could save on heating. I hear you get used to the smell after a while.
Someday they'll find "The Whisperer" dead of rabies and his corpse half devoured by hot-dog hunting raccoons.