trapping raccoons - no luck yet

[Jubilee1111]

Quote: LOL!

 

[Jubilee1111]

I am so sick of these raccoons!

I didn't set the trap last night because I thought I had everything secure and the dogs were out. I stayed up almost all night long standing watch and they STILL managed to go through TWO enclosures and kill three more chicks early this morning.

I heard the dogs barking like crazy a little after 5 am but after sleeping only 3 hours a night this week, I was so tired I didn't get up to go check, thinking the dogs had them on the run. Well, they did, but only after the stupid coons killed 3 out of my 6 remaining babies.

I never thought I could HATE an animal so much.

 

[rustyacres]

Eggs! Works every time for me. Cats don't go in after eggs.

 

[Andrewdp123]

I had a bunch of my chickens go missing over about a week so one night i sat outside and watched...A
HUGE raccoon came to the door of my coop and starting pawing at it...I scared it off right away and ran and got a trap...Set it with about 5 marshmallows and got him the first night i set it there. Marshmallows are the way to go.

 

[TeamChaos]

I just came back in from shooting a big fat coon in a trap outside my grown up ladies' pen. I dinged his partner in crime, but it was able to run off. I hope that's the last of them for tonite!

I've been using sardines and canned salmon- oddly enough the barn cats eat their fill of wet food before I put the trap out and they leave it alone, but when I use marshmallows I end up catching a lot of cat butts.

My daughter's bantys were killed last week, our first predator attack, and the next nite I caught a big fat coon in a live trap I had placed at the scene of the crime. The next nite, I shot a opossum and the nite after that I had three small coons up a tree (with my dog's help). I shot two of them and my husband happened to get off work around daybreak, so he finished off the third.

Whew.

What I've learned about traps so far is to make sure they can't snitch the bait out of the side instead of walking in, tie the trap on a short enough rope to something near by so that the raccoon can't flip it upside down and crawl out of it and try to position it on flat ground with natural cover.

 

[Mattemma]

I used to get one every few days,but now I am down to a coon every few weeks.Surprised the cats like the marshmallows,but then again I got one that likes popcorn.

 

[Jubilee1111]

I set the trap last night, complete with marshmallows stuffed into the openings of the floor in between the back of the cage and the trigger plate. Kept the dogs in over night and... NOTHING! It hadn't been disturbed in the slightest. The neighbor's teenage kids camped out in their backyard and had a little camp fire, so I think that kept them away.

The babies did enjoy their night in the kitchen in a dog crate. I still got up several times throughout the night to look out at the trap and see if there was anything going on.

I spent a huge portion of the day yesterday installing hot wire, building a new door for my huge open air coop and putting a new metal roof over an enclosure that surrounds my smallest coop. I have left the baby pen as it is for now to lure the coons in.

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

There are traps out there specifically for coons that are dog proof. The first of this type were called egg traps. Duke traps makes a dog proof one also. If you can't find them locally there is always Ebay. Multiple brands all with similar results. A coon puts its paw in to retrieve the marshmallow and gets caught. The earlier advice to use marshmallow as bait is good advice. Traps like that can be left set so you catch them before they become heart breakers.

 

[tellynpeep]

I found it well worth pointing my trail cam at the trap for a few weeks. I could see who was snooping around and what the behavior was around the trap. Helped me catch my fox! Now I have a skunk... Maybe tonight I'll get that one...

 

[Jubilee1111]

Still haven't managed to trap any coons but the trap is set every night now.

I have been researching coons like crazy lately, looking for any advantage in this war. I was struck with a realization that about knocked my socks off today.

My dogs work the night shift. Three or four days before my first losses, my especially drivey working/competition/guardian dog barfed up a ton of chicken scratch/cracked corn and a pelt with skin in her crate during the day. She normally doesn't pay any attention to chicken feed ... and the pelt was far darker than a squirrel with no red hairs. I was stumped. I have seen one really dark squirrel here, with lots of black overlay... but he still had red hair underneath. All I could come up with was that her gastric juices had stained the fur.

So today I am researching egg traps, looking at photos and I realized THAT WAS A COON HIDE! It totally explains why there was so much chicken food mixed in with the pelt and why the fur was the color it was. She must've been able to catch and dine on one of the younger ones. I do feed raw 3 days a week so she is no stranger to weird looking natural dinner. She is a 120 pound Boerboel and mows through bones much bigger than a coon has on a regular basis.

At least we've managed to eliminate one of those thieving little chicken killing bandits! I know it's gross but I am relieved to figure out what that mess was and to know she is out there doing her job.

Good girl Tata!! I love this dog.