Raccoons

What is digging holes in my lawn? The holes aren't deep but it's making a muddy mess. Skunks and raccoons will dig for grubs this time of year. Usually holes are so widely scattered and shallow that they aren't noticed. Occasionally, it looks like a roto tiller went through. Overall, the numbers of Japanese beetles are down this year, but irrigated lawns do attract them when they need to lay their eggs and this can result in high grub populations. You can try laying chicken-wire or bird or deer netting over the most damaged areas.

For the first year in more than a decade, no rabies vaccine baits will be placed in Anne Arundel, after the county was cut from the federal program, according to county health officials. The project used a county police helicopter and volunteers to immunize thousands of raccoons and other small wild animals in an effort to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, dropping baits to be eaten by the animals in late summer and fall. The number of reported rabies cases has plummeted since the county began using the edible vaccine baits, starting with a small area in 1998.

I was thumbing through one of those outdoorsy magazines for tree huggers recently when I came upon this gooey piece about raccoons.Apparently, the person who wrote it had just had part of his brain removed. Because in the article, raccoons were described as gentle, friendly and inquisitive -- and probably brave, trustworthy and good to their mothers, too, if I'd gone deeper into the text.All in all, it was enough to make you throw up, which I couldn't do because we were sitting in the orthodontist's office at the time.

A mother and daughter from Middle River have pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation for their involvement in an incident in 2010 in which a dead raccoon was hung by a noose from an African family's Middle River porch, prosecutors said Tuesday. Dena Whedlee, 42, and her daughter Brittany Whedlee, 20, admitted to encouraging their co-conspirators - including Billy Ray Pratt, 24, of Halethorpe, and Joshua Wall, 20, of Essex - to hang the raccoon from the family's porch after a boy in the family got into a fight with Dena Whedlee's son, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.

There's nothing like taking your family on a camping trip -- getting away from civilization, sleeping under the open sky, looking up into the heavens and gazing upon an awe-inspiring vista of millions and millions of ... what are those things? Bats? Very large mosquitoes? Oh NO! They've taken little Ashley! So perhaps it's better not to sleep under the open sky. But you should still go camping, because it's the best way to get close to nature, with "nature" defined as "anything you would kill if it got in your house."

Anne Arundel County Health Department officials are counting on a fishy-smelling bait laced with rabies vaccine to help slow the spread of the disease among raccoons.The vaccine, disguised in a reeking raccoon delicacy, will be scattered through wooded and bushy areas on the Annapolis peninsula in October in a test that, if successful in reducing rabies cases -- and the resultant threat to people -- could be expanded to other areas.Last year, Anne Arundel County had the most animal rabies cases of any county in Maryland, with 97 animals, mostly raccoons, found to be infected.

If you come across a brown cube on the ground -- it'll be about the size of an engagement ring box -- leave it be. It is probably a vaccine for the county's raccoons. The Anne Arundel County Health Department distributed more than 81,000 vaccination-laced pellets throughout the Broadneck Peninsula this week. Each cube smells of fish and has the Health Department's phone number stamped on the side. "Rabies is a public health threat," said Elin Jones, a Health Department spokeswoman. "It is a fatal viral infection.

Rabies continues to be a health concern in Carroll County, where there have been 12 reported cases this year, county health officials said."We still have an ongoing rabies problem," said Charles Zeleski, the county Health Department's assistant director of environmental health. "We can become complacent if we don't keep in mind the disease is still out there."Mr. Zeleski said 11 of the rabid animals were raccoons and the 12th was a fox.Wild animals are submitted for rabies testing only when they've had some contact with humans or domestic animals, such as dogs, cats, horses or cows.

In a rare outbreak of rabies in the city, health officials confirmed yesterday at least two recent cases involving infected raccoons, and residents reported a third rabid raccoon in Northeast Baltimore.Dr. Peter Beilenson, city health commissioner, said last night that one of the cases involved a man who raised a raccoon. No other details were immediately available. Reached at home, Jerome Ferguson, chief of the city's division for environmental health, would not comment.Records from the Municipal Animal Shelter show that a rabid raccoon was found March 12 in a residential back yard in tTC Lauraville, behind Morgan State University in Northeast Baltimore.

Good news for humankind: We're not entirely to blame for Chesapeake Bay pollution. So says Virginia Tech biologist George M. Simmons, a former Antarctic explorer who now roams the tidal creeks of his state's Eastern Shore armed with a pooper scooper.Simmons' surprising conclusion: Humans aren't always the source of the fecal coliform bacteria that contaminates some bay waters, forcing Maryland and Virginia officials to close thousands of acres of clam and oyster beds each year. Neither are geese and ducks, which often get blamed for fouling creeks and ponds.

Federal prosecutors have announced that a second suspect has pleaded guilty to hanging a dead raccoon from a porch of a family from Africa who live in Middle River in order to frighten them. Authorities said Billy Ray Pratt, 24, of Halethorpe, faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Aug. 17. A co-conspirator, Joshua Wall, 20, of Essex, is to be sentenced the same day and faces the same penalty. Both suspects pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deprive a citizen of their civil rights.

From The Sun's John Fritze: An Essex man pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges for hanging a dead raccoon on the porch of a black family in Middle River two years ago, according to a plea agreement released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday. Joshua Wall, 20, hanged the raccoon by a noose on the family's porch in April 2010 after a fight between a child who lived with Wall and the son of the victims' family, according to the agreement.

An Essex man pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges for hanging a dead raccoon on the porch of a black family in Middle River two years ago, according to a plea agreement released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday. Joshua Wall, 20, hanged the raccoon by a noose on the family's porch in April 2010 after a fight between a child who lived with Wall and the son of the victims' family, according to the agreement. Wall conspired with four unnamed people, but he was the only one charged in the incident.

What is digging holes in my lawn? The holes aren't deep but it's making a muddy mess. Skunks and raccoons will dig for grubs this time of year. Usually holes are so widely scattered and shallow that they aren't noticed. Occasionally, it looks like a roto tiller went through. Overall, the numbers of Japanese beetles are down this year, but irrigated lawns do attract them when they need to lay their eggs and this can result in high grub populations. You can try laying chicken-wire or bird or deer netting over the most damaged areas.

Raccoons digging in your trash might seem a relatively minor nuisance, but close interaction with the critters — the No. 1 carriers of rabies in the United States — could prove dangerous to you and your pets. To combat the potential risk, the Anne Arundel County Health Department began Wednesday its annual rabies vaccination project, with the goal of immunizing more than 70,000 raccoons. Thirty-three teams consisting of workers from the county and state health departments, county animal control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services plan to distribute the oral vaccine, a brick-shaped object made of fishmeal and polymers, over the next four weeks in wooded areas around the county.

Raccoon rabies vaccination project The county Health Department will conduct its annual raccoon oral rabies vaccination project Sept. 8-30. Approximately 70,000 edible baits for raccoons will be distributed throughout the county. Department of Health personnel will place baits by hand in densely populated residential areas. With no serious health effects to humans or pets, each bait is marked with a 1-800 number for people who come in contact with the bait and have questions.

Anne Arundel County Health Department officials are counting on a fishy-smelling bait laced with rabies vaccine to help slow the spread of the disease among raccoons.The vaccine disguised in a reeking raccoon delicacy will be scattered through wooded and bushy areas on the Annapolis peninsula in October in a test that, if successful in reducing rabies cases -- and the resultant threat to people -- could be expanded to other parts of the county.Most casesLast year, Anne Arundel County had the most animal rabies cases of any county in Maryland, with 97 animals, mostly raccoons, found to be infected.

NEW YORK -- The diamondback terrapin dug herself a hole in the middle of a sandy trail at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge along the south shore of Queens and went right to work, apparently oblivious to the biologist crouching 20 feet away and trying not to breathe. In just a few minutes, she laid a dozen inchlong eggs in the hole, filled it in, danced her wide-webbed back feet on the sand to tamp it flat and ambled back toward the water. Before the turtle, a sturdy specimen with black spots on her face and a barnacle on her back, could get far, the biologist, Professor Russell L. Burke of Hofstra University, scooped her up and set her in a bucket with two others.

Baltimore County police are investigating a possible hate crime involving a dead raccoon that was found dead, hanging from a noose in front of a Middle River family's home Friday morning. The family, in the 1500 block of Becklow Ave., found the dead animal hanging from their porch Friday morning, said Lt. Robert McCullough. While a motive is unknown, McCullough said the act is being investigated as a Racial, Religion and Ethnic bias incident, as well as fourth-degree burglary.