Help me catch Houdini Coon

s219 · Jul 11, 2017

At this point I think you ought to catch him alive and see if that savvy mind can be put to good use. This guy clearly has some smarts.

Leejohn · Jul 11, 2017

Get a auto door and put it on a timer.

Spiros · Jul 12, 2017

I use a tin of sardines for bait. It seems coons cannot resist them. Wire the tin to the trigger and it's a guaranteed catch.
When I was working, I would take them into the big city and release them there.

GLyford · Jul 18, 2017

Do you run a dusk-to-dawn light? We found using one kept the skunks out of the yard, I wonder if it would be enough to unsettle a coon...

tallyho8 · Jul 22, 2017

I have a light aimed right at my traps all night. It doesn't faze the coon.

I just got back from a trip last night. I had the traps off while I was gone and am about to go check the game cam to see what the coon did while I was gone.

tallyho8 · Jul 27, 2017

The coon managed to get through chain link fencing in my coop and eat one of my chickens night before last. That was the last straw. I had wanted to catch the coon in my live trap instead of using a painful leg trap but now that he is eating my chickens he had to go one way or the other.

Well, I finally, sort of, caught the coon last night at last. I got a leg trap like wagne223 mentioned in post #3 and set it with a marshmallow, a few pieces of cat food and a little piece of tuna fish inside. My game cam caught the coon sneaking around my traps for a few minutes but it missed catching the coon getting caught.

When I went to check the trap this morning the only thing I found was the broken snap bolt clip in the attached photo that was used to hold the trap to the cage to keep the coon from running off with the trap. It took a lot of power for the coon to break that clip but Houdini did it.

Now either he will die of infection, get hung up somewhere and die of starvation or come back again as a three legged coon.

EddieWalker · Jul 27, 2017

I feel your pain. Coons have caused me more damage then any other predator!!!

Ford850 · Jul 27, 2017

I'm betting he stole the trap to sell on Craigslist. Or maybe he'll hang it in his man cave to show his buddies when they come over.

rekees4300 · Jul 27, 2017

tallyho8 said:
When I went to check the trap this morning the only thing I found was the broken snap bolt clip in the attached photo that was used to hold the trap to the cage to keep the coon from running off with the trap. It took a lot of power for the coon to break that clip but Houdini did it.

WOW are you sure it wasn't a Grizzly?! :bear:

Billy Bee · Jul 28, 2017

Got 9 of them in the garden so far this year. I have at least one smart one that figured out how to reach in the live trap and get the marshmallows. Trap is sprung, marshmallows gone. About 30% of my sweet corn is ruined. In Michigan you can dispatch them if they "are doing or about to do damage". Heck, if they are here, they are about to do damage. Houdini has many relatives, this is not the end of the saga. Good Luck!
Bill