Dear JOAN: I am trying to figure out what is pooping on my back backyard. Information technology has been going on for the past two years.

I don't have any pets and our yard is completely fenced in. I do have a fish pond, but all the fish disappear every bit presently every bit I stock it with goldfish.

I have seen cats, raccoons and opossums coming to get a drink of water at nighttime. I have eliminated the cats because they usually coffin theirs and I have a lot of soft soil for them to exercise that. One I saw recently did wait like it belonged to cats. It was cherry-red and a very sparse coil. The rest were ordinary brown.

I have narrowed it down to the raccoon and opossum. The deposits are about the size of a minor dog.

I would similar to discourage this behavior. Would a repellent sprayed around the perimeter work or but exist a waste matter of fourth dimension? I did utilise i of those flashing red lights for a few years, but it has worn out.

Do you have any suggestions?

Gloria Lambert, Santa Clara

DEAR GLORIA: Playing "who pooped this" is a popular game among my readers. Information technology's an unsavory topic, simply it's important to know what animals are visiting your backyard so you tin stave off problem.

Commencement of all, not all cats bury their waste material, and when cats are contesting over territory, they leave their excrement exposed as a smelly sign declaring this area as belonging to them.

To know what beast is leaving their droppings, you need to accept a good wait at the scat. When yous say it'south the size of a small dog, I promise y'all're referring to the size of the poop a small dog might exit. Poop the actual size of a small-scale dog would bespeak you take dinosaurs in your backyard.

A raccoon's feces are 2 to 3 inches long, tubular in shape and, when fresh, nighttime brown. You should be able to see bits of undigested food in the stool. Raccoons likewise tend to create latrines, pooping in the same general place every time.

Opossum debris are surprising large, with smooth sides and tapered ends. The scat also can be a bit curly.

Information technology also could exist from a fox or coyote. Their droppings are like to each other — and to dogs' poo — although the coyote's is larger. In both cases, the poo will comprise a lot of things that weren't digested, such equally vegetable and fruit seeds, and fur or hair from any prey they've eaten.

My best guess, based on your clarification and the fact that your fish keep disappearing, is that the phantom pooper is a raccoon. Chemic deterrents practise assist, although when you have a big area to cover, they are not equally effective. Physical barricades are useful, simply expensive and involve lots of labor. I'd replace the cerise lite device and consider draining the swimming for a while.

Honey JOAN: We have a single hummingbird feeder, and I oftentimes see 1 hummingbird kickoff drinking, and so immediately a second hummingbird bird arrives and scares away the starting time. Are they being territorial? Are they from different competing flocks? Or is information technology a mating ritual?

Roger, Bay Area

DEAR ROGER: It's not mating flavor and hummingbirds don't form flocks. It is all about territory.

Yous can try adding some other feeder. If there's plenty of food, hummers don't tend to fight virtually it. Sometimes, all the same, some bully hummers just won't share.