raccoon attack on baby squirrels

[MapleRidgesquirrel]

This morning I noticed a nest box had leaves hanging out and found half of a squirrel tail under the tree. Last night right before dark I observed two 8 month old squirrels go inside of the box. I happen to have a video camera over this area so I viewed it this morning and noticed last night a raccoon invaded the nest box for about 15 minutes. I finally found the two squirrels that were attacked and both of their tails are half gone with the red vein showing. We took the squirrel box down and put a new predator guard in it because it appeared the old one was chewed off. Is there anything I can do for these babies? Thanks

[MyBushyTail]

So sorry to hear this - it is a very terrible situation. Have had this happen many times with my squirrels getting killed by raccoons. Raccoons don't give up. Hate to say it but they will be back especially since they know there are squirrels in the nest box. Nest boxes are easy meals for raccoons. Even the best nest boxes with the best predator guards will not keep the squirrels safe from raccoons. Most times what the raccoons do overnight in the pitch black is jump on top of the boxes, hover over the boxes etc. which startles the sleeping squirrels and as the squirrels try to escape/exit the nest box in the dark the raccoons grab and kill them. I used to love nest boxes until I saw how many squirrels the raccoons were killing in my yard overnight. I have taken almost all of my nest boxes down due to the raccoons being able to so very easily kill the occupied squirrels (squirrels of all ages). If possible I would trap and relocate the raccoons and get rid of the nest boxes. Good luck, raccoons are very hard to deter once they find an easy food source - at least that's how it was in my yard.

[TubeDriver]

At the very least, armor up the nestboxs with hardware cloth. But I agree with Bushytail, get a hav-a-hart trap, bait it below the tree and place it there at sunset, catch and relocate these raccoons.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-TmzSdHn/0/f849a97e/L/i-TmzSdHn-L.jpg (https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-4gqtWV/i-TmzSdHn/A)

[MapleRidgesquirrel]

The two babies are in their tree tonight in a nest. We will take down the house again tomorrow and add an outer predator guard and I will start trapping the raccoons also. Does anyone know how the tails heal after a raccoon bite? Thanks for your help.

[Spanky]

It will take a while for the tails to heal up.

Any tree that I place a nest box also gets its trunk wrapped with at least 18" - 20" of aluminum flashing. If you double up the flashing (using say 12" wide flashing), wrap the upper piece over the lower one so there is not a "foothold" in the seam of the flashing. Trees with nest boxes should be adjacent to other trees that allow the squirrels to get to the nest box tree via the branches ("treeway freeway").. they prefer not to go up and down the base of their nest tree anyways, to avoid leaving scent trails. And racoons and such are too heavy for the treeway freeway (at least if nest box tree is planned out well).

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[MyBushyTail]

That aluminum flashing looks like a very good idea to deter the raccoons. I have seen differently with the squirrels that live in my trees, my immediate neighbors trees, etc. They all climb the base of their nesting tree to get to their leaf nests or nest boxes. Also if on the ground at their nesting tree when in danger from predators they dart right up their nesting trees to escape - I would think that the aluminum would make it more difficult - making it a bad idea as the squirrel would not be able to get up the tree - an easier chance of being predator taken (especially the very young or just out of nest). Other than that like I said the aluminum flashing looks like a very good idea to deter the raccoons.