We have had a lot of wildlife around us, cosidering that we live right in town, and have enjoyed feeding squirrels, birds, and raccoons over the years. The little masked bandits would come up on our deck and look in the family room sliding door, driving the dog nuts, but on the whole, quite entertaining.

No more! One or more of the little #@$%*@s have torn a hole in our roof, over the soffit. Our repair guy patched the hole, but said it wouldn't do much good until we got rid of the beast. I borrowed a live trap, and began trying to catch it. I have set the trap nine times, and the total catch is one gray cat. Bait has been stolen but the trap not tripped, the trap has been tripped, but the bait still intact, etc..

Well, the contractor was busy for a couple of weeks, but he said the damage was already done, and there wasn't any need to hurry with the repairs. Last night and this morning we had a strong thunderstorm, and when I went down to my man cave in the basement, I had about a gallon of water on the floor. Some empty shotshell boxes got wet, but there was no other damage (except inside the wall, I imagine). Well, we are now to the top of his list, and he will be here first thing on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, strong storms are forecast for tonight!

Raccoons are now an endangered species at my house.

It's a bad thing to feed raccoons. Around here they get rabies. Don

__________________
"Don't worry be happy"

Try mixing penut butter and marshmellows together for bait. I use it in populated areas so I don't catch cats. Good luck with the storms. We just had some roll thru my neck of the woods.


snakeman

is the trap in the attic, too? put the trap where the prey is.

Evening,

We live in a mountainous and forested area, and we have NEVER fed the animals, period! It's just an invitation to trouble, and that can be very bad, indeed. Plus, it gets animals used to being fed by humans, which is a sure way to get them killed, too. Other folks, who are not so warm and cuddly, can and so shoot them on sight. So, please don't feed the animals. They are wild, and know very well how to feed themselves. But, the are also opportunists, and if you "invite" them to come to your house for food, they don't understand that it's on your terms, and not theirs! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

Our local wildlife help themselves to the Tuesday night buffet.

Raccoons get sudden lead poisoning around here. Possums do too!

Hate to find THAT in my attic!

__________________
Misty

I have raccoon problems as well. However, they stay on the ground. I have caught many in the steel trap using peanut butter. I discovered the trick is to have the coon go completely inside the cage by having the bait hanging from a chain, slightly past the foot pad. He has to go deeper and snatch it with movement because it is swinging, causes the door to slam close behind him. He's then driven to the country and a bullet is gladly placed in his head by me. I hate 'em. If you elect to release it, I'm told it must be at least 5 miles from the pick up point. They can find their way back. If in your attic, I believe you need a professional varmint catcher. You need wire mess, poison and special trapping techniques. Good luck.

We had a racoon in our lake place attic. The game warden said three things are needed to get them out: bright light-noise-moth balls. I put a spotlight aimed at their corner, a radio on a talk show, and scattered moth balls all over the insulation. Within two days, they were gone. Patched the facia and they have never come back. remember, the game warden said it takes all three to work. Good luck.

In Ohio it is not legal to trap raccoons as well as other nuiscance animals and release them in the wild, you must destroy them Nuisance Species: How to deal with them

__________________
NRA Life 1969
OGCA

I've trapped raccoons for many years. Use sardines or peanut butter as previously suggested, but place it UNDER the rear of the trap (if it has a wire bottom) with some smeared on the trip lever.

Cass knows how to trap coons.

Which talk show was it, because there are a few that would drive me out too.

I fellow I knew that had trapped a bunch on the ground SWORE by pink marshmellows. A trail on the ground leading to the trap. Then a few on the pan. He was ADAMANT about it.

Barb,

Ha Ha Very good!!!

Try Criter Control if they do business where you are. They know what they are doing and can properly dispose of any captured animals.

Friday night my neighbor up the road shot a rabbid coon with his .22. With 2 shoots and just stund it. Hearing the shoots armed with my wifes M642CT
I put it out of his misery. You dont want to mess with them when there Rabbid esp. with a .22 I guess? My frist shot dazed him them the second one did the trick. The Crimson Trace was excellent. The buzzard's had a good breackfest.

Saturday afternoon 2 rabbid coons were found dead up the road.

My neighbor called the Animal control guy on Friday night before he shot it and he said in so many words that he couldnt be brothered in comeing out to trap it??

I was amazed that it took 2 .22's and 2 .38spl.'s to kill it. 3 shoot's were in his chest and one to the shoulder.

__________________
De Oppresso Liber Μολὼν λαβέ

10 years ago, I had one climb down one of my chimneys, get the damper open, open the fireplace doors, and come into the house the night after Christmas. We captured him in a box in my music studio where he had gone to sleep after dining on the cats food. Not knowing much about them at the time, we let him loose outside only a few hundred feet away. He promptly went home and told all his relatives. For the next month before I could get the chimneys screened, they would come down the chimneys about 5:00 AM to go to sleep.

We captured a total of 5 raccoons, 1 skunk, 1 possum and a couple of feral cats over the next 5 weeks in a live trap using a can of sardines, peanut butter, and an empty soda can as bait. The chimneys that were unscreened for 110 years were screened as soon as we were sure that there were no raccoons inside. The raccoons were deported to the DeKalb area. Hopefully yours wasn't trained by the DeKalb bunch!

Yep, this is how you do it.............coons are clever and will figure a way to get the bait and escape otherwise. You have to make it hard for them.

Don

__________________
Laus Deo! <><

stewed coon an dumplins...my grandma's dish....

I never knowingly fed raccoons, but sometimes they would come around to clean up whatever sunflower seeds the birds had spilled during the day. I thought they were harmless until they cleaned out my koi pond. Brutes! They don't even eat all of a fish they kill -- just take a couple of bites out of it and then go back for another one.

What amazed me was that they figured out how to get the wire mesh off the top of the pond. I had been obliged to install that in order to keep the hawks from going after the fish. We have ospreys around here that go after fish in tidepools, but I'm a couple of miles inland. I never knew that red-shoulder hawks were water hunters until I saw one hit my pond and take off with one of my fish.

I waited up with my quietest .22 a couple of nights to see i they were dumb enough to come back to an empty pond, but nope. They knew when they had picked up everything there was to pick, and they moved on.

Still ticked off. Those fish were my friends.

__________________
David Wilson