Racoons are pissing me off

[wdfifteen]

In the past week they have broken into and ransacked my feed storage barn. I have chicken feed stored in buckets with heavy plastic screw-on lids and they chewed clear through the lids. They ate grub killer and fertilizer too, for some reason.
They devastated my strawberry patch. Fortunately I'd harvested all I could use and was giving fruit away, but I came out one morning and it looked like dogs had been wallowing in it. There wasn't an edible berry left. Then they turned to the red raspberries and destroyed them.
The piece de resistance was three days ago when I went to gather eggs from the chicken coop and when I opened the door there was a full sized raccoon staring at me. The birds were all OK, but damn, I forget to hook the 'coon proof latch ONE TIME and the bastage is in there.
I went on the war path, got an extra box of .22LR shells and planned to stay up and put an end to this bllshttt.
So at about 8:00 I'm pissed off and watching the birds and waiting for dark and what do you know, mama coon parks her baby in the crotch of the tree right outside my window (parking their babies is something they do when they go out to forage). She'd never done that in this tree before.

I go get the .22 and I'm sitting there, holding the gun, and looking at him, and thinking about all the destruction, and looking at him, and thumbing the safety, and looking at his face ...

And I just let it go. I couldn't put a bullet through his little head.
I am such a wuss...



MrsWD patted me on the back and said in a very un-PC way, "Remember honey, coon lives matter."

[Eric 951]

Hoo-Rah'd by a baby raccoon.

[masraum]

Thanks for the laugh. Maybe next time.

My parent used to live in a house in the woods. Their house was surrounded by woods (you couldn't see the neighbors' homes) and even most of their yard was full of trees, so they had plenty of critters. It was very common for them to either see raccoons or hear them. They'd come out of the tree in the back yard and crawl over the roof to a tree in the front yard. One night after my father passed, mom heard this crazy noise. She said she heard a "whump" or two followed by a loud crash. It was dark and she lived in the woods, so she stayed inside with the doors and windows locked and the alarm on and figured she'd figure it out in the morning. In the morning, she found one of the bird feeders that was set into the ground 5-10' from where it was supposed to be with some blood on it.

She'd heard owls before, and even had a couple of people tell her that they'd seen a huge owl in the yard. I think a Sheriff's deputy said it was the biggest owl he'd ever seen. Her guess is that a young raccoon had gotten onto the bird feeder to eat some of the seed and that owl had grabbed it (and the bird feeder along with it) for a snack. The "whump" noise, she thought was the noise of the wings flapping as it tried to lift the 'coon off the feeder.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

"Remember honey, coon lives matter."

LOL .... I couldn't/wouldn't do it either

Live and let live ....

[stevej37]

Live trap with large marshmallows for bait.
Give them a new home miles away!

[fastfredracing]

We were surfing/camping at Sebastian inlet in Florida a long time ago . The coons were unreal, they would pretty much steal the food right off the table while you were eating .
After day 2 and a putting on a nice buzz for the evening , we decided to have some fun with them .
We first hung several gallon jugs full of water in the tree tied to ropes that we would hold . We would bait the coons in with whatever leftover food we had, then , whamo! we would drop the water jugs on them . I don't believe this hurt them in the slightest , they would just come back for more every time .
After laughing our butts off for about 2 hours repeatedly doing this, we tried a new technique .
We had a huge plate of leftover spaghetti .
We laced it with Tylenol Pm, and a box of ex lax chocolates
There were some awful noises coming out of the woods that night . We were mildly worried that we may have hurt them, but they came right back for more the next evening .
They are pretty easy to trap . They really like ham and peanut butter sandwiches .

[fastfredracing]

They are pretty easy to trap . Mine really liked ham and peanut butter sandwiches !

[RWebb]

Cute little devils, eh?

You will just get more unless you remove the food source. you need some of those thick galvanized metal ash cans the Brits used to use. I have a couple but forget where I bought them.

and.. get a lid that locks

you are dealing with a sort of miniature bear here

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

They are pretty easy to trap . Mine really liked ham and peanut butter sandwiches !

It's actually illegal to trap them. You can shoot them if they are nuisance animals, but trapping out of season is illegal here. Live trapping has to be done by the department of animal control or the department of wildlife.
I looked it up.
If they are threatening you or your property - fire away. Otherwise it gets complicated. It's sort of a castle doctrine for critters - all I have to do is say I felt threatened and I can kill him.

[Baz]

I usually trap and re-locate them. We have a HUGE marsh zone along our Intercoastal Waterway and I have a a few discreet places I can release them at.

I use cat fud as bait.



They are damn cute and I could never kill one. Easy enough just to trap and relocate - discreetly of course.

[Starless]

I had a similar problem but with squirrels. Red and grey. And chipmunks. They would dig up my garden, chew on my tomatoes just as they were getting ripe, rip the screens on the porch and come inside, destroy the plants on the deck...I tried traps, everything. Had to shoot them. Felt bad the first coupe of times, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. One unexpected bonus is that if i just leave them on the ground, they're gone the next morning. Food chain. I'm helping.

[Starless]

Originally Posted by Baz

I usually trap and re-locate them. We have a HUGE marsh zone along our Intercoastal Waterway and I have a a few discreet places I can release them at.

I use cat fud as bait.



They are damn cute and I could never kill one. Easy enough just to trap and relocate - discreetly of course.

Depending on where you live. Relocating may mean giving someone else your problem. Or..Trapping and removing them will do nothing for long-term control, as the newly vacant niche will quickly be filled by raccoons from surrounding areas. Relocating raccoons—even to wild or wooded areas—is illegal in many places and will likely result in their death.
That last part is a copy and paste. I don't know anything about raccoons.

[aigel]

That could have been in your next gumbo. I am not kidding.

I'd take care of the immediate family and then see if there is someone who runs hounds that may want to do some dog training. All needs to be within the legal boundaries of course but a few weeks of pressure with hounds would seriously decimate the population until next season.

In terms of dogs, don't you live out in the boonies? Can't you have a dog that keeps critters like this in check?

G

[Tobra]

I have been having squirrel problems lately, may need to collect one of the traps I bought for the folks. They have hit the peaches pretty hard. I was picking fruit yesterday and the cheeky SOB was in the tree chattering at me, until I drilled him with one of the peaches he and his buddies chewed on, dog was in the house so he survived the fall.

Originally Posted by stevej37

Live trap with large marshmallows for bait.
Give them a new home miles away!

Peanut butter was my go to. Short ride to the other side of the river

Raccoons are tough, smart little bastards, would kill most dogs.

[Evans, Marv]

Years ago I lived on the border of a neighborhood with a huge, open space of many square miles on the other side of the road. It was developed into a huge area of tract houses (22K residences) with accompanying infrastructure. So all the animals there were displaced on a regular and ongoing basis. We had coyotes trotting down the road in front of the house, foxes, skunks, opossums, etc., etc. We'd have all kinds of animals coming through the driveway and through the back yard. One night I noticed a group of maybe a dozen racoons in the back yard. I went back there and made noise, menacing gestures, and tried to be generally threatening. The all looked at me as if to say WTF? I turned around and went back inside.

[Jeff Higgins]

As I mentioned in another thread, raccoons killed my neighbor's one year old Golden Retriever. They're not quite as cute after that.

[rusnak]

One of our cute critters killed a mama cat and left it's unborn fetus for me to find. I did not find them as adorable after that.

[ckelly78z]

We have had a huge raccoon problem this year with stealing our chickens, and ducks. There is virtually no fence that is inpenetrable by them, and the chickens are just dumb enough to stay close to the fence, so they get their heads pulled through.

Twice, I rescued chickens that were being carried away by this bastage (some are free range that roost high in the barn rafters).

We finally got the big SOB in our have-a-heart trap that was baited with crunchy peanut butter. Not a second thought was given to relocating this vile animal away from our farm, he was dispatched with one shot.

[KFC911]

Lots of wildlife around here....never see 'coons. They used to visit my college apt. dumpster every day searching for food though. I would dispatch without hesitation if I thought my dog was at risk though....

[cabmandone]

I'm a hunter and couldn't have shot it either. Doesn't make you a wuss.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

It's actually illegal to trap them. You can shoot them if they are nuisance animals, but trapping out of season is illegal here. Live trapping has to be done by the department of animal control or the department of wildlife.
I looked it up.
If they are threatening you or your property - fire away. Otherwise it gets complicated. It's sort of a castle doctrine for critters - all I have to do is say I felt threatened and I can kill him.

BTW, Not illegal to catch them in a "have a heart" trap and relocate them. Leg traps etc are illegal but if you check with the DNR, you can use live traps that don't harm the animal.