coon after cat food

   / coon after cat food #11  
Yep, I think my next move is to cover the plastic garbage cans with poultry wire and hook to neon sign transformer. How high can a racoon jump anyway ?
Ben
 
   / coon after cat food #12  
Don't relocate this problem, end it.
Use your live trap, then cover it and your lawnmower with a tarp. The carbon monoxide will kill it quietly and painlessly.
We have way too many 'coons. Not many hunt or trap them anymore. Fur prices are too low. When the numbers get high, so does the incidence of disease. My rule on the farm is if they are within 100 yrds of the house or barn they are shot on sight. The ones that came up on the porch at night, to guzzle humingbird sugar water, had my dogs loosed on 'em, treed, then shot. The coons in my woods or down at the pond, doing racoon stuff, are left alone or merely watched through field glasses or scope.
I like to hunt, not kill...but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
 
   / coon after cat food #13  
edski,
I agree with you, it is just hard to stay up all night watching for the theiving little suckers.
Ben
 
   / coon after cat food #14  
slowrev,
Theiving is an apt description.
Many moons ago I lived in an apt where one of the residents had a pet racoon. It could turn the door knob on the laundry room door and enter when it pleased. A bit unnerving. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Like you, I haven't time to wait up for 'em, but when opportunity strikes...it's good to have dogs and a shotgun handy. BTW, these were tough dogs that had handled many ground hogs and coons on their own, without a scratch.
The ones I've taken near the house/barn where out during the day. Makes it easy to justify that they must be "sick" for that sort of behavior.
About ten tears ago some *** dumped kittens off at our farm ("oh, the nice country folk will take care of them"). So I fed 'em in the barn but soon after the coons would steal their food. One time when my wife and I went down to feed the kittens, we came upon 3 coons in the bottom of this bank barn. She knows I carry, but was appalled by the blood, screams, and carnage that insued. Mostly she was appalled by me.
NOTE: I just deleted a paragraph so this post is not mistaken for "bragging", I assure you all that this scene bottered me, but for different reasons than it did her.

Bottom line, live trap and gassing is fairly humane, and is more considerate than dumping ones problem on another. I think I'll get off my soapbox and onto the tractor now.
 
   / coon after cat food #15  
I do the live trap, and then the 'shot' to the head is easier and less carnage. Not what I deem as a pleasant or enjoyable task, but 'gotta' do it, IMO.

One year, I trapped 34 and the next year 35. A couple years I didn't trap, but last year it was 18 (and I didn't bait the trap, just set it). Once last year there were two coons in the trap, and never quite figured out how they both managed that.
I don't look at tellin as braggin. It's information that others can take in case they just 'need to know' someday. Not everyone grows up knowing these things (some may not want to know and for them, I apologize).

If a live trap is used, plan to put it in a place where they can't get under it (if I use bait, I put it under the trap, not in it), a big rock on top so they cannot tip it over, and where the crap and scratching won't bother (once I put the trap on a flat roof, and the trapped coon scratched it up pretty bad). They make a mess when in the trap (suspect they don't care for it).
I tried gassing, but after an hour with the car exhaust running under the tarp, the coon was only a bit groggy. I felt sorry for it and used a .22 bullet. If the right time of year, I give the hides to a trapper (actually he skins it himself, so he takes the carcass too).
 
   / coon after cat food #16  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I tried gassing, but after an hour with the car exhaust running under the tarp, the coon was only a bit groggy)</font>

Many I know put a rope on the trap and sink trap/varmint into a creek or pond. Let set a few minutes then pull it out with the rope. No blood or other mess.
 
   / coon after cat food #17  
No creek nearby, but I use that method for chipmunks and ground squirrels that get into a smaller trap that fits in a 5 gal plastic pail, if and when they start becomming a problem. It appears to be very quick with very little struggle after they take a 'breath' of water. I don't like the thought of drowning, but think it is probably less painful than a mis-placed shot (that brain on a coon is pretty small target).
 
   / coon after cat food #18  
Dropping the trap and coon in an extra stock tank with a foot of water works good to.
 
   / coon after cat food #19  
Thanks for the idea. I do have a spare 55gal drum that will hold water. And the hide will be much cleaner for the trapper. Thanks. I don't care for the blood, although I think it attracts more coons to come into the set trap to investigate ('curiosity killed the cat'- type thing).
 
   / coon after cat food #20  
You are offending my animal loving nature. Too bad I can't tell you what I really think of you! Relocating to an animal preserve is an excellent idea. Putting out anifreze and indisciminately poisoning animals is no only in humane but in human and illegal in all states......I understand that anitfreeze taste good why don't you try some?
 

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