If you have a raccoon problem you would likely wind up with little corn left over for you. Raccoons eat only about a quarter of the ear of corn before moving to another ear. So each night I would lose about 4 dozen ears - maybe more.

I've since solved my raccoon problem with an inexpensive electric fence. The complete setup was $40 about 10 years ago for wire, charger and insulators. I already had posts. My guess is it would likely cost about $50 to $60 today. I recently replaced my fence charger for about $25 (I purchased it at Lowes).

My fence is not permanent. The posts with insulators can easily be removed and the fence wire taken up on an electric cord spool for tiller access.

This post was edited by grandad on Tue, Mar 12, 13 at 8:54

A dish of dry dog food and rat poison from a big box store. happy harvesting.

Usually they eat two and leave me one. So if I need 25 corns I plant 75. Also I got very lucky two of my neighbors started big beautiful gardens Looks like the neighborhood guests are busy with the delicious stuff my neighbors has in their gardens because my neighbors complained to me about the damage. Sometimes I use a PP gun especially on the squirrels. Last year the squirrels ate, injured every peach I had on my tree.

Perhaps its time to grow some castor beans?

I've given up on corn, I was only feedng the squirrels. And there's no way you can fence out squirrels unless you roof the whole area.

I hadn't considered the squirrel factor when it comes to corn... though I guess having watched them eating corn at my fathers' squirrel feeder often enough I should know better. My corn fears come from my parents garden when I was a kid... age old story... you wait that one last day for the corn to be absolutely perfect and the next day the crop has been entirely decimated by raccoons. Truth be told, it makes me ill to think of my hard work being eaten up by pests... but I thought I'd maybe give it a shot this year. Edymnion- What is your suggestion concerning the castor beans? And grandad- How would the electric fence be strung? A single low strand that will zap short critters? Or several strands that they can't squeeze through? The way I've seen gardeners utilize electric fence, they already have a barrier fence in place and they add an electric strand that will zap anyone climbing the fence...

Squirrels will not go through a chicken wire fence with hot wires two inches from the fence, on the outside. If you only have gray squirrels, for some reason they don't go through chain link fence, although I think they could. In that case, chainlink with a hot wire will stop them.

Raccoons can be frustrating as can robins on raspberries. Both harvest a day before proper maturity. I had an old raccoon who picked 5 or 6 ears and carried them to behind a shed and fully ate every grain. Young raccoons tend to eat part of one ear and pull down a slew of other ears.

An electric fence with a quality charger and wires properly placed can work for raccoons.

I agree with the others that a properly installed electric fence is completely effective against raccoons. Also use corn varieties with tight full husks to reduce the attraction for birds and squirrels. For example Kandy Korn is a poor choice since its ears poke out of the husks at maturity.

Creativeguy - I put the wires at 6 and 12 inches above ground. To control squirrels the options are to either lower the bottom wire to 3 inches above ground or to add a 3 inch border material below the 6 inch wire. The plastic flower bed materials which come is 25 ft spools work well as do other types of borders.

For birds eating on corn ears...I slip footies over the ears.

none raccoons and squirrels do not share

glib - yes, I wasn't considering the zap approach

Okay... these answers have been damned helpful. I appreciate the info you've all shared. I think the most important takeaway for me is the reminder that you get out of gardening what you put into it. I wanted to simply throw some seeds in the ground and enjoy a great harvest... even though I know better. I get a bountiful harvest from all of the rest of my gardens because I've put in the work... I need to stick with what works in this case as well. Thanks for the kick in the pants!

"There is only one Lord of the Ringtails, And he does not share corn!"