Question
I have a small 35 gallon pond in my front yard next to my porch. Every night the neigborhood raccoons play in the pond. They create a mess on my porch, kill the fish and kick over the pump bell so that the pond drains and stomp all over my plants, most times killing the plants. I need to have access to the pond for maintenance so I cannot block the area. How can I deter the raccoons from the pond? I am a fan of wildlife so I don't want to hurt the fish or frogs or the tadpoles in the pond. I also have alot of lizards on the yard that I don't want to hurt either. The birds like to drink out of the pond as well. I am not a fan of pesticides at all. I live in Florida witin city limits in an harbour city, so we have alot of trees for the raccoon's to live in and they are not very afraid of humans. I do not have any food or garabage laying around to attract them except for the pond. I know raccoons love to play in water but I really want to keep my pond. I hope you are able to help me.  

Answer
That is a pretty tall order. I get the sense that you won't agree to raccoon population control methods, so I will give the only option left given your setting, namely electric fencing. You will have to find out if it is legal to use in the city.

Using electric fencing is very effective and easy to set up. You can encircle the pond and make it so that you can easily create an openning. Putting a timer on the fence will allow you to have it off during daylight hours.

Before we go further here, check to see if it is legal. If it is, then we can go into more details.

You can also visit http://icwdm.org