Raccoon problem... HOW DO I GET RID OF THIS HORRIBLE CREATURE.

[Cowgirl75446]

Live trap works great.

 

[jmc]

i feel so macho. all i ever catch is fuzzy little bunny rabbits (well, and a dumb porcupine who decided s/he liked my bait eggs)

it is a fact that some Animal Control people recommend putting the live trap--with the trapped animal--in water. so those who do so are not necessarily 'inventing' a mean cruel death......

as i learned from the great folks on this part of the forum last year: if you have chickens, etc. a live trap--or four--is not merely an option, but a necessity, now or later. Better to just get your own and be always ready when you need it.

x2 on the pellet rifles, also

 

[HeatherLynn]

We have 4 traps that stay constantly baited. I do mean constant. Even with all that. With wire on floor and up the insides of wooden walls, we still caught a possum inside our coop. You do not want to try to release them either. WOW they are mean. Racoons are worse. I have patched up cages from the couple of times we caught them. A friend caught a huge one in a small trap. He went to get the gun and came back to see a racoon with legs sticking out the bars of the cage trying to walk away. It actually turned around trying to threaten him, while still carrying the cage. They are cute only in little kids picture books, other than that they are a vicious menace. Yes I do hate racoons.

BTW best bait so far has been chocolate. I caught more possums with chocolate than you can imagine. Sardines worked great for racoons too but so did chocolate and cat food . Pretty sure they will eat just about anything. The sardines seemed to work best when they were not too fresh anymore either. Nasty little things.

 

[Stevo]

After loosing 9 chickens in one afternoon we set snares on all the game trails leading to my coop. These were all within 20ft of the coop.

Here are 6 of the 9 critters we got in three weeks. 8 Fox and 1 Coon.


Snared fox

Nothing goes to waste.

It took me 2 weeks to get the chickens to go back in the coop were the last attack happened. They would roost in a Pinetree and refuse to go to the coop. They left four dead chickens on the floor of the coop. They killed them just to kill. Now the birds are safer and happy to go to the coop.

 

[Mattemma]

Wow a lot of fox in your little area. Do people buy the fur?

 

[Stevo]

Our pelts here in NJ don't fetch the same price a midwestern fur would. We get 17 bux a piece for Fox, 12 bux for a Coon. But it is being used.

 

[jtcsdt]

We set a live trap and caught several raccoons, a opposum and a kitten. We did not kill any of them. We took the critters (not the kitten) several miles away to a large park/lake/creek area and let them go, with permission from the county. Sorry, cannot imagine drowing any animal. If you are going to kill it, at least do not make the animal suffer. Shoot it, but if you plan on killing it, you should plan on eating it or giving it to someone who will. Have not had any problems since. ;*}

 

[drowningcreek]

I don't know about other states, but in Georgia, it is illegal to relocate a trapped raccoon because of the prevalence of rabies. The only choice is to dispatch.... or let it keep feasting on chickens.

 

[Stevo]

Quote:
I know you thought you were doing a good thing by not killing them. But the reality is you just made several racoons trap smart. They will be a problem for someone else and be untrapable now. Plus if there was any disease confined to your area you just spread it to another. Never release a trapped problem critter. If you can't do it yourself have a local trapper do it for you. Nothing will be wasted.

 

[nmcrittergranny]

Maybe you could call animal control and just let a couple of your chickens spend the day in your bedroom in a box or something till they are gone?