Good News...Bad News...

[Downeaster]

I keep a flock of laying hens. I feed them layer pellets and use a bird feeder mix as scratch feed for them.

I keep the feed in metal trash cans in a room on the end of the barn.

Of late, either I've been having CRS and leaving the lids off, or the raccoons have figured out A) how to get in there and B) how to get the lids off the trash cans. They've crapped all over everything, eaten $20 worth of rat bait and tore into multiple bags of feed.

I went with a two-pronged defense: I put rubber bungee straps on the trash cans, and I put down a Havahart trap baited with sardines. I put the trap where their little footy-prints indicated they were getting into the feed room. Slab has sunk or walls have heaved or both, leaving a big enough gap for them to get through.

First day, nada. Bait still in the trap, trap unmolested. Seeing as it's been raining in Biblical proportions for two days and was supposed to (and did...) freeze HARD last night, I moved the trap inside the feed room.

Opened the door this morning and Oh, Look! The trap is sprung! Followed immediately by Oh, Shit! It's a skunk!

Fortunately, Monsieur LePew agreed to remain calm if I did, and I was able to pull the trap out where I could get at it at arm's reach, get it blocked open so he can wander out at his leisure. I'll go back down in an hour or so and see if he's taken advantage of my kindness.

 

[gggGary]

Gulp!

 

[GLJ]

Good luck and be careful.

 

[halfmile]

There is a family of raccoon`s that come every night to eat cat food from the back porch. If they don`t wreak too much havoc they each get a butter cookie, then they leave and go to the next house and do the same thing. They`ve got it made.

 

[peanut]

ha ha bet that was a jaw dropping moment.
Reminds me of when I trapped a rat that was hanging around our bird feeders. Huge beast it was big as a small cat.
it would scurry across the lawn in broad daylight and climb the tree to get to the seed feeders right in front of my 2x useless cats . !

I caught it in a humane trap and boy did it scream when i tried to pick the trap up. it tried everything it could to bite me through the wire mesh.

i chucked a cloth over it and put it in the car and drove a very nervous 3 miles out into the countryside where I spent 10 minutes trying to release the trap catch with a broom handle from the safety of my car window, ....bloody tricky.

 

[gggGary]

 

[Downeaster]

I went down an hour or so later and he was gone.

I'm told, by people I do not believe would lead me astray, that the trick is to cover the trap with a blanket and wait until mid-day. Skunks are nocturnal and normally sleep all day (hmmmm...I wonder if my Grandson has some skunk DNA???) and if you give them a dark place they'll doze off and you can handle them.

The guy says once he had to dump the sleeping skunk out of the trap and it just laid there on the ground sleeping as he walked off.

 

[jetmechmarty]

Maybe your raccoons are actually skunks.

There are also some YouTube videos about removing a live skunk from a trap without getting sprayed.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

... I put down a Havahart trap baited with sardines...

Out here we use an egg. Catch less cats and skunks, but the 'coons can smell an egg at 100 yards. The smart 'coons reach thru the cage wire and get soft bait, can't do that with an egg, they have to go in...

 

[Downeaster]

I have video (game cam) of the coon, plus the scat is definitely coon.

I've heard they're fond of marshmallows too. Don't want them to get used to eating eggs...

 

[Boog]

What are you gonna do with their skins?

 

[Downeaster]

What are you gonna do with their skins?

Why do you ask, Dan'l?

 

[Boog]

Why do you ask, Dan'l?

That's the idea...

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

...I've heard they're fond of marshmallows too...

Haha, yup.
Put out a bowl of water, with a marshmallow.
Set back, enjoy the show.

They'll wash and wash and wash that thing 'till there's nuttin' left.

Now, THAT's entertainment!

 

[Mailman]

Big story in the news here. People reported rabid raccoons in a neighborhood, animal control showed up, coons weren’t rabid, they were drunk. They had eaten crabapples that had started to rot and were fermented. Animal control captured the little booze hounds and released them outside of town.

 

[GLJ]

I have got a couple of funny stories on coons. Many years ago a friend 's house was across the highway from my radiator shop. He was a car nut and had built a 50x100 shop. One night I stopped to have a beer with him. When I pulled in there was a coon sitting on his haunches in the middle of his parking area. I pulled up to about 10 feet from him and he just sat there. Swaying. Flashed high beams at him and he didn't run. Went inside and told my friend what I say. He said he knew. Asked him what he was going to do. He said wasn't much he could do. I told him I had my 45 ACP with me and I would shoot it for him. We were outside the city limits, no real neighbors. I was afraid the coon was rabid and since he had 3 small boys if the coon was still there in the morning they might think it was a dog. Well you know that wouldn't be good. He said OK shoot it. So I did. Stood 5 feet in front of it, hit it between the eyes. Figured at the least it would make jello out of it's brain. Coon was down. Went inside had another beer. Another guy there said he would put it in the dumpster. We went out to watch and drink. He was using a shovel, when he got the coon to waist high it was like the second coming of Freddy. Damn thing came back to life. A lot of elbows and assholes heading back to the door. After I got my whits back I went back out, found him and emptied the rest of the clip in him. Stem to stern. I hit him with wad-cutters that my brother and I reloaded. I talked to my brother later and told him what happened. I said are reloads are a little weak. He said " dumb shit you never hit a coon between the eyes. That's the thickets part of their skull."