Woodchuck Bait

   / Woodchuck Bait #21  
Hillbilly, Why do you say 'coons are dirty because of what they eat? Gee, they even wash some of what they eat, don't they? Grin grin, wink wink.

I have two Havahart large single ended traps that I got two 'coons with 3 and 5 days ago. Seems the one 'coon started climbing my DIY bird feeder stand made from rebar and then going out the horizontal rebar to get at one of the sunflower feeders. Bent the vertical rebar 45 degrees and took the one feeder 20 ft through the grass. I straightened it and refilled the feeder and the next morning it was bent over past 90 degrees and was nearly touching the ground (it is over 6 ft high). So that reved me up. I baited two traps and set one by the compost heap where they frequently dig up vegetable scraps and I put the other by the feeder stand. Next morning he had got into the sunflower feeder by standing on top of the trap but at least didn't bend the rebar AND had gone into the trap ate all the bait and left. The trap was brand new and malfunctioned. He tripped the door but it only fell about 1/2 inch and jammed. Reworked the trap and rebaited it. Caught and deported the rascal about 5 miles (and across the south Canadian river). Set and baited again and got #2. Deported him. First shot out of trap the instant I opened the door and he was off so fast I couldn't bring a camera to bear. For the second, my wife took a picture as he hit the road. I had to hold the trap vertical and shake it vigorously to get him out. I don't have a problem with 'coons in the world but we have a large garden and that is incompatible with 'coons. I hope I can keep the numbers down by keeping a couple traps set and baited near the garden. Those buggars can pull several mature cornstalks down in a night and ruin your chances of eating sweet corn.

Regarding the Whistle Pig's cousin the woodchuck (aka ground hog) and the poison gas flare thingies. If they aren't readily available you can make one out of confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) and salt peter (potassium nitrate) and some powdered sulphur. Mix the sugar and salt peter roughly 50/50 ,by volume, maybe a bit heavy toward salt peter but no more than say 60/40 then add in powdered sulphur 10-25% by volume stir well but do not use sparking tools or a lot of pressure, definitely not a mortar and pestle. You can wrap it up in news paper say 3/4 inch ID and 6 inches to a foot long and tape it with Scotch tape. Fuse can be made from soaking soft cotton string in a saturated solultion of salt peter and drying it well. With care you can light the paper and get the mixture to ignite but wear welding gauntlets to hold it as it may spritz a few sparks. You can lay it in his hole and light it with a propane torch. Lay it in his hole and cover it with a piece of scrap plywood, masonite, or whatever. Shovel on some dirt to get a seal and look for smoke coming out anywhere else as they often have more than one opening. Cover it quick before the occupant can escape. It is better to search around for alternate exits and cover them in advance.

There will be a dense cloud of smoke created but contained in the burrow. The smoke will be partly made up of sulphur dioxide which is pretty poisonous. This stuff does not need oxygen (air) to burn as the salt peter supplies the oxygen. Later (like the next day) you can get the ply or masonite back and fill the hole with dirt.

Patrick
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #22  
We had a bit of a 'chuck issue around the barn. What a mess they caused!!! They started digging on the outside wall and ended up collapsing some of our stall floors. I used carrot greens, carrots, and fresh green beans in a live trap. Shazam, no more free roaming 'chuck. Had to live trap and relocate him as the wife did not want me to kill it. Told her I will move him once; he returns the .22 comes out. I don't know yet how I'll recognize the same one again but then again I don't think the wife thought that far ahead either.

The conibear trap is also a good idea; but as it mentioned, not if there are pets roaming or maybe even kids to get into it.

The small ones can be "cute" but in my book "cute" stops when it generates more labor for me.


b249
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #23  
Patrick:

Have you or anyone else run a hose from an engine exhaust into the chuck hole and just let the engine run for a while?

Egon
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #24  
Egon--

My father used to use the exhaust-pipe method to get rid of moles. I'd completely forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder!
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #25  
While the gasser will kill him, what do you think will happen to his body down there next to the foundation of your house? My sister tried it, and apparently it killed him, because about three days later her whole house started smelling like dead animal. It lasted for about a week.

Also, the gasser, or car exhaust, could leak into your house. I wouldn't do it.

I'd recommend trapping, live or dead, your choice.

I had trouble with a young woodchuck in my garden. Electric fencer took care of that. Two strands, one about 6 inches and another about a foot high in front of the existing rabbit fence. $150.00 worth of electric fencer and accesories to protect $75.00 worth of vegetables /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #26  
To get back to the original subject of the post..... the best bait in the world is to have a vegetable garden!!! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Guaranteed that the pesky little varmint will mow your best veggies down to nothing very quickly!!

Many suggestions are offered and all of them work. Pick the best one for your situation and take care of that animal quickly. If it's a lady hog, you'll have many other troubles very, very soon. Not to mention some upset neighbors with the same problem!!!!!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Terry
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #27  
I also have a new tenant and have just read that Granny smith apple chunks are good bait for them
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #28  
We trapped over 40 woodchucks from our accountant's place the last two years. We set three traps with some tuna in each trap and usually have 2 coon's and sometimes 3 as we only trap on the weekends when we can take care of the animals. We take them to a friends place where he has 200 acres of swamp and woods about 30 miles from their home. He was going thru 300 lbs of corn and other food he sets out for the turkey and deer a week because of the coon's. The hardest part was taking them out of the traps and putting them in a 55 gallon barrel so we could transport them, the first one goes in easy but the second and third you have to make sure the other ones don't come back out as they are usually a little mad. I would rather tangle with a woodchuck then a racoon because the woodchucks mostly try to bite. The racoons will try to bite, scratch and kick you if they can. At least they are the only critters I have to deal with around here as nothing else bothers anything. Later.
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #29  
Egon, My vehicles, being very GREEN, do not produce CO. I suppose, eventually, you would displace enough O2 with CO2 and water vapor to drown him IF it was somewhere you gould get to with a vehicle (within hose distance). Simulalting Los Angeles seems a cruel and unusual punishment. The gas chamber is quicker. Near a house, I'd build a custom frontend for the Havahart live trap to direct the target animal from his hole into the trap after plugging any other exits with a scrap of ply or whatever and a few shovels full of dirt. Spray paint will mark an animal, sort of. Some of them are communal (not sure about chucks) and preen each other. They will keep at it until all the spray paint or magic marker is removed even if it means pulling out the coat.

(My wife's lab rats did that in her psychology thesis experiment. She marked them where they couldn't see it with some success but if in with other animals they will get it off of each other.)

You could use a paper punch on his ear to see if the same one comes back. I have deported 2 'coons in 4 days of setting two traps. Have been considering marking them to see if the same one returns. If it were the same one I might try maybe a 20-30 mile deportation instead of the 5 mile one I have used . If that failed then sorry 'bout that but euthanasia IS a viable control method.

Have two traps baited tonight to try to continue to get a handle on the enormity of my problem. I hope to be able to make a serious dent in the local populaltion to preserve our investment in the garden. Racoon numbers are way up compared to previous decades. Dead ones are thick on the roads. I might have to get much more aggressive to make useful headway. I love to hear the Bob White quail calling but 'coons eat a lot of eggs of ground nesting birds. Used to be enough quail to sustain fairly active hunting harvest. Now it is just a fond memory around here. I have only a few of the quail on my property and if a couple 'coons get lucky they could wipe out the entire generation of young, maybe as eggs.

I have several large connibear traps (for beaver) but they can kill a large dog, kill or maim a child, or whatever. I would never recommend seting them where there is a reasoable chance that something you don't want killed or maimed could get in one. That said, they are very effective and have in my experience essentially killed the caught animal virtually instantly. Some sets are made underwater for beaver and even if it just barely caught one, how long can they hold their breath?

I got two armadillos in them in one week while trying for beaver. Coyote had a feast before I got there.

Patrick
 
   / Woodchuck Bait #30  
As SteveBenson already mentioned, broccolli is the magic bait for woodchucks. We had lived at our house for over twelve years, and had a vegetable garden every year. Never, ever saw a woodchuck around. A couple years ago tried growing broccolli for the first time. Had a quite a few very nice looking, almost ready to pick plants going. One morning, looked out the kitchen window saw nothing but broccolli "stumps". Didn't know what got it at first, but the next day my wife saw the bleeping S** checking the broccolli patch out for any remnants. To make a long story short, I talked to the Missouri conservation department about it and they told me broccolli was probably just about the most favorite food of woodchucks! I was able to borrow a hav-a-hart trap from them, and I baited it with store bought broccolli. Caught the little jerk the next day and the MCD came and took him away. Trapping was my only option, as I live in suburbia right now. Good luck.
 

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