Coons? Believe it!

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Howard E

Howard E

Crowing
5 Years
Feb 18, 2016
2,881
4,038
296
Missouri
To anyone contemplating the use of chicken wire under the hope it will protect your birds from coons and other varmints, perhaps my recent find will convince you otherwise.

Last year, in an attempt to determine which varmints were getting into the cat food, I setup a game camera. These showed up:



So I go out yesterday and find this:



That was a coon attempting to rip the remnants of a 30 pound sack of cat foot through a 1 inch hole. He got a whole bunch of it through. Laughing, I tried to get it out. Tried harder......tried really, really hard and with some effort, finally managed to pry it back out.

The carnage.......




This hole........the one no bigger than the hole in chicken wire and a whole lot stronger..........





So to get that bag hoisted out as far as he did, he had to reach down into that hole, grab the bag and yank the heck out of it. If that had been a chicken's head? Gone. They are incredibly strong and mean.

The good news is if you have one hanging around, their willingness and tendency to reach into things like this is their weakness. They can be caught using the dog proof traps. They stick their hand in for the bait and get nabbed and they it's up to you to snuff em. Buzzards gotta eat too.......same as the worms.
 
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We caught and eliminated a raccoon last evening. Wonderful! They are not an endangered species! My barn cat gets meals, never food left out. The time we had a skunk in the barn cat's food bin cured us! Mary
 
Make some jerky out of the raccoons and give your city dwelling friends some. Don't tell 'em what kind of meat it is 'til after they've eaten it. Raccoon makes great jerky. Also, There is a hand trap made for raccoons. Attach one to the inside of the can lid. When he reaches through the hole he can't pull his hand back out, you got him. Scratch one raccoon.
 
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The most effective coon traps I know of are not live traps, but the dog proof ones. They look like this:



This is a Duke, but there are many like it. One made in Missouri is the Coon Dagger. All work similar. Bait is placed in the bottom, coon reaches in and as they pull the bait out, the act of pulling it back out trips the trigger and the loop of wire shown then grabs their leg. And there they sit until you come to get them. These are so effective, of the fur trappers I've talked to, these are all they use. Again, these take advantage of a coon's willingness to reach in with their grubby little paws and grab stuff. Payback?

These can be anchored anywhere with a short piece of cable that is pushed into the ground. (Google "Berkshire disposable trap stakes"). If you wanted to catch a whole pack of coons on the same night, make a circle out of these traps and bait for the bunch in the middle. Stake them far enough apart they can't get tangled up.

Traps of this type do not catch dogs or cats, since the animal has to have a "hand" that can grasp. A paw won't do it. With a one way trigger, the bait has to be grasped and pulled out, similar to what that coon did to my cat food bag. The exception being some of them, like the coon dagger, that has a two way trigger. A dog, fox or coyote might actually set one of those off with his paw if small enough to go inside. Or his tongue if he tries to lick the bait out. OK by me if a fox or coyote, but maybe not my neighbor's dog. The advantage of a two way trigger is they are more sensitive and the catch rate is said to go way up. One way to filter that is what bait you use. Say mini marshmellows instead of cat food.

Coon jerky? I've not tried that.

What some might use is a soldier fly bin. Skin the varmint and toss him in and he turns into soldier fly larva for the birds to eat. Or again, buzzards gotta eat, same as the worms.
wink.png
 
Found this video recently.......entertaining as well as educational. Gives some insight into the behavior of things that go bump in the night.


If you are having coon problems and think trapping might help thin the herd or eliminate a few problem animals, DO look at the DP traps. If you have concern about cats, dogs, etc. also DO stick with the Dukes or one way (pull) triggers. You will pretty much limit your catch to coons, possums and skunks. Switch baits from dry cat food to mini marshmellows and you will limit even that to coons.

BTW, my daughter lost a bird about a month ago.......her birds are confined to their coop and hoop run only. I had reinforced the chicken wire on the hoop side with 1" x 2" 14 gauge welded wire after evidence showed up of an attempted break in. Coons then dug their way in. Fixed that, then set up traps to catch the culprits. Nabbed three and no more evidence of trouble since. Buzzards gotta eat.......same as the worms.
 
On post #5 up above I referenced setting up a bunch of these DP's in a circle to catch a bunch in one night. This shows exactly how to do it.


If these coons are after my chickens.......contrary to what is shown in the video (by a fur trapper), nobody gets released alive. The possum too. Buzzards gotta eat.....etc.

Edited: Also, on the DP traps. The trap itself is only half the equation. You have to anchor it. Video above shows a really good way to do it using 1/2" rebar, with flat washer spot welded on, then how to attach trap to anchor with carabiner clip or a snap swivel. Trap chain must be able to swivel. Anchor (vs. a tree) means your can go anywhere and is easy (for you) to retrieve. Or apparently you can use a ladder!
 
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Howard E said:
The most effective coon traps I know of are not live traps, but the dog proof ones. They look like this:



This is a Duke, but there are many like it. One made in Missouri is the Coon Dagger. All work similar. Bait is placed in the bottom, coon reaches in and as they pull the bait out, the act of pulling it back out trips the trigger and the loop of wire shown then grabs their leg. And there they sit until you come to get them. These are so effective, of the fur trappers I've talked to, these are all they use. Again, these take advantage of a coon's willingness to reach in with their grubby little paws and grab stuff. Payback?

These can be anchored anywhere with a short piece of cable that is pushed into the ground. (Google "Berkshire disposable trap stakes"). If you wanted to catch a whole pack of coons on the same night, make a circle out of these traps and bait for the bunch in the middle. Stake them far enough apart they can't get tangled up.

Traps of this type do not catch dogs or cats, since the animal has to have a "hand" that can grasp. A paw won't do it. With a one way trigger, the bait has to be grasped and pulled out, similar to what that coon did to my cat food bag. The exception being some of them, like the coon dagger, that has a two way trigger. A dog, fox or coyote might actually set one of those off with his paw if small enough to go inside. Or his tongue if he tries to lick the bait out. OK by me if a fox or coyote, but maybe not my neighbor's dog. The advantage of a two way trigger is they are more sensitive and the catch rate is said to go way up. One way to filter that is what bait you use. Say mini marshmellows instead of cat food.

Coon jerky? I've not tried that.

What some might use is a soldier fly bin. Skin the varmint and toss him in and he turns into soldier fly larva for the birds to eat. Or again, buzzards gotta eat, same as the worms.
wink.png
Click to expand...
This is the best coon trap out there, especially if you have pets around. The only other animal I've seen caught in this type of trap was a opossum. That was only once. If you need to get rid of coon's, this is the way to go. Nice post Howard.
 
For live traps nothing beats the duke dp. As far as i have seen (yet to catch a coon in one) but they only catch coons and the odd possum if you them. To note though that you have to place your dp coon trap on sign of the coon just placing them where ever will only catch maybe 10-30% of the coons going by (heard that on a trapping video) you gotta place it on sign.
 
More on the DP traps. It turns out there may be as many as 5 to 10 different outfits making them and patent wars have ensued, meaning all are similar and all will likely work. Duke is mass made and mass marketed, so is the most well known, but other brands are used more by fur trappers.

The key difference in these is they type of trigger they use. Fur trappers not wanting to mess around use traps with two way triggers. The trigger on those traps will fire when pushed or pulled. Catch rate is said to go up when then do. But that may also include catches of dogs, cats, etc. as they have paws that can push, but not pull. So to remain dog and cat proof, and limit your catch to only coons and possums, you have to limit your use to the pull type triggers only. The Duke is a pull type only.
 

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