Set the trap tonight!!!!

[ninjapoodles]

We are OVERRUN with raccoons. I felt the same way you do about killing them, and we have had some serious and simultaneously hilarious problems with them . During hunting season, my husband would take the ones we trapped, and release them 3 counties away in the wildlife management area where he hunted. But the more they just kept coming, trap & release just became overwhelming, plus wherever we released them, we were upsetting THAT area's ecosystem. We finally came to the conclusions that:

A. Raccoons are in no way endangered
B. Where we live, the population is artificially enlarged, due to people and our garbage
C. Raccoons are a likely vector for Equine Protozoal Myelitis, a debilitating neurological disease in horses--and we have several horses (it used to just be opossum, but lately, the evidence is pointing to raccoons carrying the disease as well)
D. Dumping a huge load of raccoons somewhere else was placing an unfair burden and imbalance on the new ecosystem

We began humanely destroying the raccoons we trapped in our chicken-yard area. It's important to note that it takes a LOT of trespassing for them to get that far, and these things were so bold that they were regularly pooping in the bed of my husband's pickup! They're still as plentiful as squirrels, and never seem to stop coming, but the weird thing is that, since we took a more "permanent" stance on getting rid of them, we've have dramatically fewer raccoon sightings. It sounds crazy, but I SWEAR it's like they put the word out among their compatriots!

I very much agree with the previous posters who've said that if you relocate, you should go WAY farther than two miles away, because two miles is nothing to a raccoon--he'll just come right back. And please be VERY careful handling a trap with a live 'coon in it. My first-ever tetanus shot was thanks to a "pet" raccoon when I was a kid.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Oh, I meant to say, as far as baiting--try something sticky, like peanut butter (or commercial raccoon bait) that they can't grab and run with. Something that requires them to enter the trap and work a little to get, so they'll trip the trap. Also, the way my husband sets the traps, they're very, very tenuously set...he kind of barely fastens the latch open, so that the slightest disturbance trips it. The down side is that sometimes it can go off accidentally, but it's been very effective for us.

Also? Since you want to kind of "live and let live" with the local wildlife, I'd invest in an electric fence. It's cheap, easy to put up, and VERY effective at keeping things out of your runs. We have wires set at 6", 12", 18", 3 feet, AND along the top of our run, and it's never been breached, even though we're crawling with predators. Knock wood.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Well???? Did you catch it?!?!

 

[riley grapes]

The suspension is like a chicken at a coon party!

 

[Ang]

Yep, use peanut butter. It took us about 5 or 6 nights before we finally caught the coon. Just keep rebaiting and resetting it. You'll get the coon. We only had one thankfully. Since we caught that coon we have been going through less catfood and our chickens are safe.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
It's illegal in most places to relocate wild animals without the permission of the local wildlife authorities. If you must relocate an animal contact a state park or local wildlife rescue. Disease ond overpopulation of drop off areas occurs when animals are randomly dropped off. Not to mention, you might be just giving the problem to someone else.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

well, nothing. I bet the raccon is too big for the trap. he gets in and eats the food, the trap goes off, and he just backs out.

 

[ticks]

Take a pic of the trap with a comparison for size.

 

[gumpsgirl]

It sounds like it is time to call animal control. They should have a trap that you could borrow. They might even come and get the varmit after you trap it. They do that here.