Hit the predator nocturnal trifecta last nite

[TnAndy]

They've been prowling around my chicken coop for the last week or two, hitting the feeder 'breakfast bar'. Chickens are securely locked in coop with automatic door that closes at dusk, opens at dawn, so no losses there, but I was tired of feeding the neighborhood. Put a game camera out to see who was showing up, then set some Conibear 220's in bucket sets. Got one raccoon a few nights ago, but last night, the after hours crowd showed up in force....and didn't leave.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Good job, there seems to be an explosion of those pest around my place also. Possums get killed regular by my sister in laws German shepherd dog. So far raccoons seem to find automobiles there worse enemy.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

We're having the same problem here, although we don't have any chickens. I heard something going on outside a night or two ago, and finally spotted three half-grown raccoons trying to get past the baffle on the bird feeder. Sharn Jean flipped out later that morning when she discovered that the deer had been browsing her sweet potato vines and Purple Hull peas.

 

[EddieWalker]

Nicely done. I've been shooting racoons on a regular basis without any noticeable results in their numbers. Oddly, I just shot a possum on Friday that was out during the middle of the day, in the middle of a field that I was mowing. It didn't even care that I was there, it just ignored me as I got within 20 feet of it. Hope it wasn't rabid.

 

[oosik]

I quit feeding the dog outside years ago. Not because of the raccoons but I didn't want to start feeding a flock of turkeys. A neighbor started feeding the turkeys and eventually had her yard torn up as if by a rototiller when the "herd" got too big and she quit feeding them.

Wild turkeys can become a real problem if you are trying to keep a nice yard. This all started about 10-12 years ago.

I haven't seen a raccoon around here since I quit feeding the dog outside either.

 

[rswyan]

I've trapped and disposed of 4 raccoons so far this year ... and I got a very late start.

The most I've got in a single year was 7 ... and I really wasn't even all that consistent about keeping the trap baited and set that year.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Bobcats keep the raccoon population down around my place. We had half a dozen coming to the cat food last spring, but they are all gone now. It also limits the population of feral tomcats. They start howling cat fights in breeding season, and first thing you know there is a dead cat. I'm starting to get fond of bobcats. They even kill coyote pups.

 

[95XL883]

Nicely done. I've been shooting racoons on a regular basis without any noticeable results in their numbers. Oddly, I just shot a possum on Friday that was out during the middle of the day, in the middle of a field that I was mowing. It didn't even care that I was there, it just ignored me as I got within 20 feet of it. Hope it wasn't rabid.

TnAndy, good job on the trapping. I'm going to have to go after mine when the season opens here.

Eddie, while possible it is unlikely the possum was rabid. I had the same concern when I had a possum come towards me in the middle of the day. From what I could find, possums are diurnal, ie, they are not strictly nocturnal. Plus, their body temperature is so low that it is difficult for the rabies virus to survive in their systems.

 

[TnAndy]

I've trapped and disposed of 4 raccoons so far this year ... and I got a very late start.

The most I've got in a single year was 7 ... and I really wasn't even all that consistent about keeping the trap baited and set that year.

I got 12 year before last....that seemed to put enough of a dent in them I didn't have to do anything last year...then it started again this year.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I shot 12 coons year before last, 3 in one evening, in the yard no less. Not much sign of them this year... few possum... seen a few ferral cats, can't quite draw on them fast enough.

 

[jlgurr]

I've trapped and disposed of 4 raccoons so far this year ... and I got a very late start.

The most I've got in a single year was 7 ... and I really wasn't even all that consistent about keeping the trap baited and set that year.

While we were visiting dad a couple weeks ago he dispatched #22 and 23rd raccoon. His chicken and pheasant mortality rate is too high. I'd look for better means of keeping the birds safe, the varmints seem to reproduce too fast.

 

[nybirdman]

I put up an electric fence around my pheasant pens(with a dusk/dawn timer) ,pretty well stopped most of my losses from raccoons.Before the E-fence I had trapped 26 coons,2 skunks,2 opossums and a fox;over a two year period.This year I am up to 3 skunks and two coons.Most of my losses now are air born predators.

 

[roadhunter]

We're having the same problem here, although we don't have any chickens. I heard something going on outside a night or two ago, and finally spotted three half-grown raccoons trying to get past the baffle on the bird feeder. Sharn Jean flipped out later that morning when she discovered that the deer had been browsing her sweet potato vines and Purple Hull peas.

Are you Roy D Mercer?

 

[Cramby]

Coons have been going in thru the cat door on my barn and eating cat food and having a good old time. Tried live trapping with little success, only one small one. So I set up a wireless motion detector near the entrance and put some cat food out. Now I cruise TBN wait until I hear ding dong, go outside, got 4 coons this week.

 

[oldballs]

I like your method, Cramby......kinda like having a bobber on a fishing line.....only you don't have to sit there and watch it.

I'll be setting Havahartless traps this evening, because the critters have been getting into my corn. Now that the corn is harvested they'll go for the cantaloupes and and watermelons.

Those Conibear traps look efficient.......never had one however.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Are you Roy D Mercer?

Hah. No, but I'm a fan. My Sharn Jean is really Sharon Kay, but she's been known as Sharn Jean for quite a while. I do kid her about being a big boned old woman.

 

[dirt ditch]

By digging under the gate, raccoons got to the last of my wife's guineas a couple months ago. So my wife went on the offensive with a live trap. Using corn she caught Junior in the trap. Mama was trying to get him out of the trap but was taken out by my wife's 20 gauge. Then Junior met his end with her .22 pistol. Two days later Junior's 3 siblings were caught in the trap. Over a couple weeks she caught 2 more coons. Too hot at night to set out in a blind and hunt them right now so well keep trapping them.

In the game camera pic the date and time are off. We got the coon but the possum has been elusive. The other is my wife's victory pic.

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