Trap and release Raccoons

[teejk]

So don't plant corn? Drawing vermin to food for a reason, yes, and not just shooting everything that shows up. "A rat is a rat." etc. I'll agree to disagree as long as I think that coon damage 'symptoms' ARE the problem.

Raccoons aren't house-pets to some of us. They raid nests and trash my barn. I kill flies and ants too.

They do raid nests as do skunks and opossums...a major problem for ducks and upland game birds.

 

[goeduck]

Nature was in balance before humans messed it up.

 

[bcp]

Nature was in balance before humans messed it up.

..or asteroids...



Bruce

 

[FM504]

IIRC baiting mouse traps is to gather and extinguish vermin. What so wrong about shooting vermin over food if the shooter, unlike a conibear, is selective about whom/what is dispatched or not?? They s__ in my barn they go swimming, and no blood to rinse off the "Duke Heavy Duty Large" trap. I've had a pair of 'coons eat and poop 4' of a 12ga extension cord, four colors of plastic and shredded wire in their scat.

Props to the use of Duke 'Dog Proof' pictured a page or so back, a very selective trap for raccoons. There's a right spot to crack the skull when you catch 'em in a DP or leg-hold trap. btw, global fur market collapsed years ago, and recent weather has made things messy, with mud more likely during trapping seasons when bitter cold doesn't keep them from running.

So, rats are bad and once caught should be released to live on? Not sure where to draw the line between rats and coons. Cute babies, is that it? BTW, if we catch a skunk in a coon set, should we or shouldn't we have it de-scented before we crate and ship it to Moss?

Definitely leave the scent glands...I’m sure he’ll be along shortly for a fun filled ethics and morals lesson...

 

[goeduck]

..or asteroids...



Bruce

Well, that was a temporary natural interruption. The question now is is human impact a temporary interruption to nature? Will we go the way of the dinosaurs due to our own doing?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I don't think I'll be going without my garden to save a coon!!!

SR

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Wife: was that a coon?
Me: Nah, just a target with 4 feet.

 

[bcp]

"Was that a raccoon?"

"I don't know. It was wearing a mask."

 

[MossRoad]

One big problem is the urban tree huggers that shudder at hurting god's little creatures.

As a consequence grey and black squirrels, coons and skunks etc ret transported to an outside zone to become somebody else's problem.

I have owned my land for over 50 years and never saw a grey or black squirrel but every day I see about 6 or 7.
Same problem goes with bears and coyotes, they trap and move them but they come back, must be GPS equipped. LOL

Black squirrels are a natural mutation. They used to be rare around here, being common about 40 miles away. Over time, they spread out and pass along the mutation and now they are common about 15 miles away. And I've seen a few around here in the last 10 years. I doubt its because people are moving them.

 

[MossRoad]

IIRC baiting mouse traps is to gather and extinguish vermin. What so wrong about shooting vermin over food if the shooter, unlike a conibear, is selective about whom/what is dispatched or not?? They s__ in my barn they go swimming, and no blood to rinse off the "Duke Heavy Duty Large" trap. I've had a pair of 'coons eat and poop 4' of a 12ga extension cord, four colors of plastic and shredded wire in their scat.

Props to the use of Duke 'Dog Proof' pictured a page or so back, a very selective trap for raccoons. There's a right spot to crack the skull when you catch 'em in a DP or leg-hold trap. btw, global fur market collapsed years ago, and recent weather has made things messy, with mud more likely during trapping seasons when bitter cold doesn't keep them from running.

So, rats are bad and once caught should be released to live on? Not sure where to draw the line between rats and coons. Cute babies, is that it? BTW, if we catch a skunk in a coon set, should we or shouldn't we have it de-scented before we crate and ship it to Moss?

It goes to bad farm management practices, plain and simple.

 

[/pine]

So don't plant corn? Drawing vermin to food for a reason, yes, and not just shooting everything that shows up. "A rat is a rat." etc. I'll agree to disagree as long as I think that coon damage 'symptoms' ARE the problem.

Raccoons aren't house-pets to some of us. If they didn't come to feeders they'd come to your house or barn. They raid nests and trash my barn. I kill flies and ants too.

It's too bad animals seeking food have to be killed just because they are smarter than you are...

 

[EddieWalker]

I read if your strategy is the kill raccoons, you will still loose the battle. Too many of them out in the forest. We have 6 ft dia fences around each tree and plan to place a hot wire at the top of each.

Any other tricks to keep raccoons out?

This is true if somebody was going to try and kill off "all" the racoons in their area, but since that's not possible, killing of the problem ones is very doable. Just like people, some will cause problems, others will behave and never come close to your home.

When we first got chickens and guineas, we locked up all the chickens in a coop for the night, but the guineas would fly up into a tree. This worked fine until we started losing one a night. We figured that a raccoon was climbing the tree ever night and killing them one at a time. We ran three rows of hot wire around the pasture and since then, we have not lost a single bird to racoons or coyotes. Hawks have gotten a couple, but we haven't figured out how to stop that, so it's just part of it. We have a three rail fence around the pasture and the hot wires are between the boards. First one is at the bottom, then between the bottom board and the second board, and the top wire is at the very top of the fence to keep the horses off of it.

We are now doing the same thing around our back yard where our dogs are. They kill a few racoons every year, plus whatever else gets in there. Eventually one of them might get hurt, or a skunk might get in there, so our goal is to keep everything out. Why they go in there with four big Akita's is a mystery that never ends well for the invaders. Now I just need a way to keep snakes out!!!!

 

[MossRoad]

Look fellas... in all seriousness, I'm pro-hunting, pro-trapping, pro-fishing, pro-farming, etc... It just makes little to no sense to me to put out food to attract animals that you do like, and then shoot the ones that you don't like. If you were protecting a crop from predation, I can understand that. If you were baiting animals to shoot them for their fur, I can understand that. If you're trapping animals for fur, food, whatever, I can understand that. Just dropping food on the ground, and shooting the animals that you don't like, and wasting that resource, and creating all the problems associated with feeding wildlife... that's poor stewardship. And deep-down, you all know that.

There's better solutions that would allow you to harvest or observe nice deer, turkeys, quail, rabbits, ducks, whatever you're into, than feeding from feeders, and at the same time, lowering the racoon population. If you have no room to plant food for wildlife, then you have no wildlife habitat on your place, either. So what's the reason for feeding them, if there's no place for them to live? I think it would be a lot more rewarding to build up and/or enhance wildlife habitat and harvest or observe from that than it would be from feeders and all the problems associated with them. Also, in concentrating deer around feeders, you raise the risk of spreading disease to the very animals you are feeding, such as CWD, bovine TB, acidic conditions in their gut, aflatoxins, and other infectious diseases . That's why so many states are discouraging, or banning altogether, the feeding of deer.

Here's some links. Read and understand the negatives of feeding deer.

https://www.alabamawildlife.org/uploadedFiles/Deer Management Issues.pdf

Chronic Wasting Disease
https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-feeding_deer.pdf
Meeting on fatal deer disease set in Corydon | Local News | dailyiowegian.com

 

[MossRoad]

...Now I just need a way to keep snakes out!!!!

You figure that out, and you'll retire a rich man! :thumbsup:

Other than an electrified moat, I got nothin.

 

[bcp]

A snake has never been known to cross a rope made of unicorn hair.

Bruce

 

[MossRoad]

A snake has never been known to cross a rope made of unicorn hair.

Bruce

Or a henway.

 

[ovrszd]

We had packs of dogs running around our place some even being aggressive so I made a live trap & to my surprise caught not only dogs but a few raccoons and a bob cat . Dogs went to the dog catcher and wild animals I open the gate and let them go. None of the wild animals have ever been a problem for us.View attachment 543057

Did you stick your finger thru the cage Bill??? My BIL caught a baby Bobcat about the size of your hand in a live trap. He called me so me and the boys went to take a look. This was several years ago when they were rare here. That little beggar looked completely cute and harmless until my BIL put on a welding glove and tried to catch it in the cage. It was a complete metamorphosis!!!!!!

 

[ovrszd]

..or asteroids...



Bruce

Or both.

 

[MossRoad]

Someone is proposing starting a bobcat hunting season here in Indiana. Apparently they are making a comeback. But no one has done any studies as to how many there are yet, etc... so that should probably be done before opening up a season, setting limits, quotas, etc...

 

[/pine]

Someone is proposing starting a bobcat hunting season here in Indiana. Apparently they are making a comeback. But no one has done any studies as to how many there are yet, etc... so that should probably be done before opening up a season, setting limits, quotas, etc...

IMO, Both state and federal wildlife services do a very good job of wildlife management...I know the money I spend on hunting and fishing licenses is well spent...maybe some of the best management in all of government at both state and federal levels...

Also IMO...native wildlife rules and we humans should do what we can to coexist...But non native species is another animal (NPI) entirely...

The idiotic practice of live trapping (non native) feral cats, neutering and spaying them and then re-releasing them back into the environment has got to border on one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of considering the popularity of the practice...
Non native feral cats kill literally billions of native song birds and other native wildlife species every year...

IMO ALL non native feral cats should be destroyed...non native feral cats should be treated no differently than the non native constrictors that have decimated native wildlife populations in the Everglades and other wetlands etc...