Raccoon attack last night. Need advice.

[aprophet]

Quote:
this may depend on the area you live in, the skunk runs a close second but here where I live there are no skunks so it probably is the coon but where there are skunks they cary the virus often during the incubation period of the virus they may appear heathy and display none of the symptoms what so ever. it just pays to be really careful when disposing of carcass's when removing animals from traps I use thick rubber gloves that go halfway to my elbows .

 

[Dust Bunny]

Quote:
2 miles from my house, friends found a coon in their kitchen - tore through the screen in the window over the sink.

OK smarty pants you win

 

[nightcap]

Quote:
Good, I was wondering what to use as bait for trapping. Will that work for possums too? Or is there a super top secret bait that always works?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Some folks report having better luck catching raccoons with sweet bait like jelly donuts or PBJ sandwiches or marshmallows. That wouldn't work at my place because of the ant problem. But if you keep catching your cat by using sardines for bait, you may need to switch to something sweet instead that the cat doesn't like. I also put a few whole eggs in the back of the trap, that helps to attract both the raccoons & the opossums. Occasionally it attracts an armadillo.

I do release them.

I only set the traps when I've been losing birds to predators. I figure since they're hungry for meat then the cat food & sardines will attract them the best.

 

[nightcap]

Quote:
I'll give it a try. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Dust Bunny]

anybody else see the irony in drowning predators in "hav-a-hart" traps?

 

[fancbrd4me02]

Quote:
It's absolutley possible. I would say that a well thought out and constructed pen made of solid materials or properly electrified will prevent most predation problems. Even a bear can be successfully excluded with electric most of the time. The real problem is that when designing and building pens, most don't go to the same lengths predator proofing that a predator will go to to get dinner. It's much like baby-proofing, you won't solve your problems until you think like the predator you are trying to exclude. You really are not even aiming for "predator proofing", what you want to to do is make it a big pain and a lot of work for the animal to get into your pen to the point where it will not be worth the energy expense for the predator to break into your pen, Then it will go to your neighbors yard where they don't lock up the chickens or didn't bury wire or whatever it is they didn't do to make it difficult to break into thier pen. just about every night racoons dance on my henhouse, but they can't get in, so they go to my neighbors and pull thier chickens through the too large wire or out of the trees they roost in. Really if chickens are not locked up in a good sturdy pen, it's like leaving a buffet out and complaining when it gets eaten. Also, trapping is a slippery slope in which the symptom is being treated but not the disease.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
no it's not......

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
hundreds of acres? that's not far enough. Coons range up to 15 miles per day.............

Anywhere within a 15 mile radius of your coop is inviting them back for McNuggets. If guns don't work in the city, swimming lessons are more perm... or have animal control come out and jab it with a pointy stick.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
For the most part I use moist cat food mixed with tuna water in a little dish zip tied near the trigger. My cats have given up going into the traps (and if you worry about catching yours, this will work to get them to avoid it....)

I get the garden hose out whenever I find a cat in the trap... turn it on, spray said trap down till somebody is good and spitting mad, open the door, and maybe have to repeat that whole song and dance one more time......

I do not do this when I have barn cats living on property tho, because those fellars I do have to trap to take them in to the vet, or when I give them their distemper shots