What does the average person know and /or should know about racoons?

They are resourceful and tenacious. They were raiding the small boats in one of the harbors here, ripping up the canvas covers to loot the provisions inside. If you have them in your attic, you need to have them trapped and removed far away. That’s about what I know.

These might be some of the boat pirates. I found them alongside the bike path one night near the water while I was riding home. You can see they aren’t shy.

“Avast and ahoy, whar be the treasure!”
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If you find a nest of baby raccoons, there are two things to know. (1) Leave them alone, and don’t attempt to move or feed them. Their mother’s out-and-about, finding food, and she’ll return very soon. (2) Baby raccoons are cute little furballs, adorable beyond belief.

Raccoons in my area are likely to carry diseases including Rabies. Call a professional to remove mom and kits.

If you feed animals outside, take care not to leave stray kibble (or whatever yummies they might like) out there.

Raccoons may look cute, but they are not ideal as pets. They can cause you trouble in your home setting.

I have seen a raccoon play basketball, stuffing a ball in a toy 1-foot tall basket. True story.

They can be rabbid and aggressive. They are typically nocturnal, but I had one that was coming out in the daylight. Freaked me out! I was afraid it might be rabbid. That or have some sort of insomnia I guess. I asked a Q about it. I think it was someone on fluther who told me new mama raccoons sometimes come out in the daytime. Damned if my husband didn’t notice the raccoons teats looked swollen.

Diseases they carry as wild animals: http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/agricult/pdf/raccoons.pdf

They are extremely curious and dexterous.
Their paw prints look like little hand prints in the snow.
They climb trees and fiddle with my stealth cameras.
They play with and occasionally remove the solar powered lights around my pond.
They give the illusion of being neat eaters by washing their paws before eating, Note I said “illusion” since they are actually slobs and leave their mess all over the place.

The fox family in my neighborhood is neat. They take away everything and do not leave a crumb behind.

Beside the obvious camera evidence, I can always tell who got to the food first.

Yes, to all of the above and, if you have a pet door be sure to lock it at night. I once forgot to lock the cat door and woke to noises in my kitchen at 3 a.m. to find a mama coon and her 3 youngsters devouring a lemon bundt cake on my kitchen table. haha
They managed to lift the cake dome and man, what-a-mess! When I walked out into the kitchen they didn’t even move, just started at me while stuffing their faces with cake.

I got a broom and swooshed it around and mama and 2 babies ran back out the cat door, the 3rd baby ran behind my couch. It took some work to flush him/her out and sweep them back out the door.

Raccoons are generally pretty harmless and cute, but there are two main dangers:

Unless rabid, raccoons won’t attack people or animals… unless they are cornered. You don’t want you or your dog/cat to be attacked by a raccoon, as they are smart, quick, and have very sharp teeth and claws.

Some raccoons can carry a roundworm that can cause Baylisascaris in humans, a disease whose symptoms aren’t fully described in the link above, which can include a not-fully-treatable potentially-coma-inducing brain infection . It’s a low risk but a bad one – if you find a raccoon nest on your property, you may want to consult CDC about how to thoroughly clean it up.

Thank you, all.
Also whatever you used to remove their droppings with (gloves etc .,) just throw them out.

Decades ago we had a family of cats living in our barn. I set up hay bales as a shelter and ran a small heater to keep things reasonably warm for them.
I fed them tins of cat food that looked like tuna fish cans with a pull top. One morning I came out and there were cans everywhere. About half were open and half of those were partially eaten!
The racoon was sitting up on a rafter watching me clean up the mess.