Raccoons: Do they ever leave?

[mscallisto]

Relocation doesn't work for two reasons. First, they can travel up to 10 miles to get back to where they were. Second, you're just transferring the trouble to someone else.

I detest raccoons. I just lost a flock of 5 to these a-holes. And to make matters worse, they ripped down my eaves and moved into my attic. All my normal attempts to trap have failed. And to make it even more fun, insurance refuses to cover the damage....to the tune of 9k. They are destructive, carry disease, don't even eat the birds they kill, and leave disgusting droppings all over.

My vote will always be trap and kill.

 

[calboy147]

I apologize in advance if this has already been asked!

For the past month or so, after sunset, I have awful visitors also known as raccoons. They either come in pairs (quite chunky) or in triples (a chubby mother and two of her children, I am assuming). They saw at wood. They bite at the hardware cloth. They leave signs every single night.

I have game cams. I have sensor lights/motion detectors. There are predator lights/solar nite guards around the coop and run. I have tried cayenne pepper, garlic powder, powders mixed in water with liquid dish soap, bottle of hot sauce, a concoction of cayenne pepper/jalapeno peppers/onions stewed for 20 minutes and sprayed, rags soaked in ammonia, essential oils... basically, any natural repellents/remedies you can think of, I've tried.

How do you get these awful, obnoxious, persistent, creepy eyes out of your yard? Live trap them? Shoot them? There's the tiny fear that they will continuously reproduce and come back.
Will these raccoons EVER leave? Or is the only remedy a concrete yard?

Thank you so much!

Without iliminating safe access to food and shelter, they are probably going to stay.

 

[SchultzWoodworking]

You’ll never be able to rid the threat of coons so, to put it bluntly... you must dispatch them!!!
It’s war around here... I have 19 egg layers in a coop compound...50 meaties headed to the tractor this spring...rabbits coming and a family dog.
coons, possums, rats, coyotes, foxes etc., around here...
Totals:
73 coons and counting
67 possums and counting
0 foxes so far
0 coyotes so far
beyond a hundred mice & rats

These totals are from less than 1 year with the trap and .22 upside the head method including some for the maggot bucket and not including birds of prey because they are protected.

zero chickens lost... I donate most of my eggs to needy families after feeding my family rather than to a predator.

 

[Foxinthehenhouse]

I just dealt with a raccoon this morning actually. Two in the past week actually. One had tried to dig under the coop. Caught it. Relocated it. But, before I caught it, I noticed some of my ceramic eggs were missing. (Some of my girls like to nest in the forest since they free range. And they just dont always lay in the coop. So, I try to at least encourage them to lay in easy to find or easy to access places. So, the ceramic eggs were not in the coop.)

I assumed the raccoon was the one who took the ceramic eggs. So, after I caught it, I bought some new ceramic eggs the next day. Well, the day after that, the ceramic eggs once again went missing. So, I set the trap again.

The first two nights, I actually caught two of my cats. Filthy creatures. They get fed enough inside. There's always food in their bowls. Anyhow, last night, I caught another raccoon and relocated it this morning.

For a minute, I considered just shooting it, but, I thought they were actually possibly a pair of baby raccoons I'd seen before I'd gotten chickens. So, I decided against it.

I guess all of this is just a really long winded intro to my question.

What's wrong with relocating them? Aside from... I guess the fact I'd just potentially be handing the problem off to someone else and also teaching them not to fall for traps.

I mean, now that I look back on it, I probably should have just shot it. And, I guess I will in the future.

It illegal in my state.

 

[rhhowe]

I apologize in advance if this has already been asked!

For the past month or so, after sunset, I have awful visitors also known as raccoons. They either come in pairs (quite chunky) or in triples (a chubby mother and two of her children, I am assuming). They saw at wood. They bite at the hardware cloth. They leave signs every single night.

I have game cams. I have sensor lights/motion detectors. There are predator lights/solar nite guards around the coop and run. I have tried cayenne pepper, garlic powder, powders mixed in water with liquid dish soap, bottle of hot sauce, a concoction of cayenne pepper/jalapeno peppers/onions stewed for 20 minutes and sprayed, rags soaked in ammonia, essential oils... basically, any natural repellents/remedies you can think of, I've tried.

How do you get these awful, obnoxious, persistent, creepy eyes out of your yard? Live trap them? Shoot them? There's the tiny fear that they will continuously reproduce and come back.

Will these raccoons EVER leave? Or is the only remedy a concrete yard?

Thank you so much!

A dog is the most effective deterrent along with a predator proof coop.

 

[ijon]

I just dealt with a raccoon this morning actually. Two in the past week actually. One had tried to dig under the coop. Caught it. Relocated it. But, before I caught it, I noticed some of my ceramic eggs were missing. (Some of my girls like to nest in the forest since they free range. And they just dont always lay in the coop. So, I try to at least encourage them to lay in easy to find or easy to access places. So, the ceramic eggs were not in the coop.)

I assumed the raccoon was the one who took the ceramic eggs. So, after I caught it, I bought some new ceramic eggs the next day. Well, the day after that, the ceramic eggs once again went missing. So, I set the trap again.

The first two nights, I actually caught two of my cats. Filthy creatures. They get fed enough inside. There's always food in their bowls. Anyhow, last night, I caught another raccoon and relocated it this morning. When you relocate. Your giving your problem to someone else.

For a minute, I considered just shooting it, but, I thought they were actually possibly a pair of baby raccoons I'd seen before I'd gotten chickens. So, I decided against it.

I guess all of this is just a really long winded intro to my question.

What's wrong with relocating them? Aside from... I guess the fact I'd just potentially be handing the problem off to someone else and also teaching them not to fall for traps.

I mean, now that I look back on it, I probably should have just shot it. And, I guess I will in the future.

 

[Thomas70]

I apologize in advance if this has already been asked!

For the past month or so, after sunset, I have awful visitors also known as raccoons. They either come in pairs (quite chunky) or in triples (a chubby mother and two of her children, I am assuming). They saw at wood. They bite at the hardware cloth. They leave signs every single night.

I have game cams. I have sensor lights/motion detectors. There are predator lights/solar nite guards around the coop and run. I have tried cayenne pepper, garlic powder, powders mixed in water with liquid dish soap, bottle of hot sauce, a concoction of cayenne pepper/jalapeno peppers/onions stewed for 20 minutes and sprayed, rags soaked in ammonia, essential oils... basically, any natural repellents/remedies you can think of, I've tried.

How do you get these awful, obnoxious, persistent, creepy eyes out of your yard? Live trap them? Shoot them? There's the tiny fear that they will continuously reproduce and come back.

Will these raccoons EVER leave? Or is the only remedy a concrete yard?

Thank you so much!

I had a family of them once and I trapped a total of 6, and had no more issues. I gave the raccoons to "coon hunters" that used them to train their dogs. It has to be a good structured trap because those dudes are strong and can bend cage wire.

 

[NickyPick]

What's wrong with relocating them? Aside from... I guess the fact I'd just potentially be handing the problem off to someone else and also teaching them not to fall for traps.

This is a big one. A raccoon that has learned not to be trapped is horrible. I lost 21 chickens - 1 a night - to a big boar coon that had learned not to be trapped. Every time we'd fix the hole he got in through, he'd make another. I had to completely rebuild the two coops and he finally quit visiting, only to hit my neighbor and wipe her out. She still hasn't gotten back into chickens. I used to relocate, but after that, I kill 'em if I catch them. This was a couple of years ago when I lived in suburbia. Now I live in the country, next to a National Forest and so far, have not been found by the predators. I credit my neighbors GP's for most of that. They guard 800 chickens and are very noisy when predators are sighted

 

[GC-Raptor]

It has to be a good structured trap because those dudes are strong and can bend cage wire.

Yes they can. Look at my post #6, the trap door is bent outward the trigger plate was pulled up. I had to straighten the door and bend the plate back into shape. It's definitely a cheap trap. I also used a cable to hold it firmly against the fence. If they tip the trap over they will escape.

GC

 

[tikibanjo]

I have coons in abundance......and don't trap or shoot em.....and have never lost a bird to one or had any real serious damage to anything from a coon.......or for that matter, anything else either.

Process I use is simple and straight forward. Birds are locked into a predator proof house at night and coons and varmints can't get in no matter what. When the door closes at night, they are safe from all would be chicken thieves. That alone takes care of 95% plus issues with coons, as around here anyway, they are almost exclusively nocturnal. But during the day, birds are also yarded on a small acreage enclosed by super hot electric fence designed to keep birds in and varmints out. That fence runs hot 24/7, so to even get to the coop, they gotta get past the fence and an encounter with that thing takes the fun out of chasing chickens completely.

Those two factors.....tight coop and hot fence........are what works. No shouting, no trapping, no shooting and no worries.

BTW, mine is the typical BYC flock......currently just short of 2 doz birds in a standard chicken house setup in the back yard. Larger flocks in a more diverse housing setup changes the dynamics some, but principle is the same.

Any recommendations for electric fencing? This is something I’ve been thinking about adding to our chicken run.