Stranger in the garage!

[samuraijunkie]

I have a cookbook that tells you how to cook racoon i'll find it.

 

[Beefie]

2nd vote for a coon skin cap. opcorn:


Beefie

 

[forestryworks]

I've caught a few over the years in a trap just like that.

I lived in town so gunshots were out of the question.

Each one I trapped I'd take it off into the woods. Lots of landowner friends.
Drive ten miles north and you're in the middle of nowhere.
They never came back.

 

[TreePointer]

Well, this coon got a reprieve from me.

When I purchased the trap, I thought a lot about what to do with the critter. Logic dictated that I should shoot it because it learned to go into the garage when a big dummy happens to leave the garage door open at night. And I shoot 20+ groundhogs per year on the farm, so I have no problem with killing nuisance animals.

The problem was that this was my first time with a caged raccoon. It was about 11 p.m. when I carried the cage out of the garage, and I had to make a decision because I read that these cages sometimes can be destroyed by these animals. I decided to let him go because I wasn't mentally prepared to shoot a caged animal, but I will shoot him and his kin when they are in season.

I'm also thinking that the next one that causes this much trouble probably will be shot while in captivity. Oh well.

Thanks for all the great replies.

EDIT: And the Huskee 35-ton seems to be okay.

 

[727sunset]

An easier way is to fill a garbage can with water and dunk the trap...no noise.

 

[Woodjack]

Be a real man

and take him for a drive and set him free. No need to kill him.

 

[BigE]

and take him for a drive and set him free. No need to kill him.

As I mentioned earlier, those "wussies" in my area that set them free always end up setting them free near my property because I'm way out of town, past civilization.

Guess what? The ones that get set free out here don't have a long life. Save us yokels who live in the boonies the hassle, man up, and kill the rodents yourself.

Or just let 'em go free on your own stinkin property. We're tired of doing your dirty work for you.

I'm starting to think I need to trap 'em, take into downtown, and let 'em loose. Give you guys a taste of your own medicine.

You can have the fun of explaining to your 7 year old son how/why his dog was disemboweled by a raccoon.

 

[chuckwood]

wait till you get a skunk!

Those traps work great on racoons. I like to leave an open can of tuna in there for bait - they seem to like it.

Yup. I have problems with both coons and groundhogs destroying my garden, and I use the traps. Tuna's not a good idea, you'll catch your neighbor's cats. Peanut butter works great. The groundhogs get drowned, sorry. With the coons it's different. I've a friend who lives next to the Great Smoky Mtn's National park, around 15 miles away, and she gets all my raccoons. She and her family love 'em and feed them. They and a lot of their neighbors cater to a pack of raccoons that have a sort of circuit they travel on through a spread out, very rural neighborhood. These folks even leave big pans of water out with the coon food so the coons can dip their stuff in water as they chow it down, coons have trouble making enough saliva while they eat. This has been going on for five years or so, and last year they were all very excited when a bear began to show up to join in on the fun. If you live close to the park boundary, you can expect bear visitations. I wouldn't mind the coons, but I thought it foolhardy to encourage bears, but heck, bears are a lot more exciting to watch than tv. It's not legal to feed them inside the park, but outside I guess you can do what you like.

A couple years ago there was a big story in the local paper (Maryville). A bunch of people who lived in a big mountaintop development right next to the Smokies were outraged when a hunter legally shot one of these "pet" bears. They had a name for this bear and the bear had a routine feeding route that it traveled on, everybody feed this bear and loved it. Dangerous? Maybe so, but chainsaws are also dangerous.

Back to the original point of this post. One day I found a skunk instead of a raccoon in my trap. What to do? I called the city animal control guys for advice. I couldn't shoot because my trap was in the city and next to a commercial office building. They declined to come get the skunk, and told me to sneak up on the trap, slowly cover it with a tarp, and very gently reach in and open the door to the trap. I did and the skunk didn't seem the least bit alarmed and took it's time leaving, apparently the skunk had greatly enjoyed the big peanut butter dinner I'd left for it. I could have left it there to die, but I just couldn't bring myself to do something like that to an innocent sentient being.

 

[chuckwood]

dogs and coons....

You can have the fun of explaining to your 7 year old son how/why his dog was disemboweled by a raccoon.

Well, my daughter and son-in-law have a farm, and they also have a German Shepard and an English setter. SIL was in his shop and heard a lot of barking and another crazy howling sound that he knew wasn't a dog. The dogs had cornered a coon and the fight was on. The coon got in a few good licks but the dogs won the fight with no vet bills. The dogs were happy and extremely proud of themselves and carried the dead coon around like a trophy for a couple of days before SIL decided he'd better confiscate it and bury it. Dogs like to play with dead, stinking stuff and then come up to you and give you a big, stinking doggie kiss.....

 

[angelo c]

Try to reason with the raccoon, and if that doesn't work impose sanctions. If that doesn't work, leave your garage door open so everything can come and go as it pleases, and if that doesn't work, bow to the raccoon and all of it's friends while apologizing for building your garage.

you do know your humble Columbia and Harvard educated racoon was a Chicago community organizer with friends like Bill Ayers Rat and Tony Rezko Mouse ?

 

[BigE]

So you think all them coons out your way come from the city?

Nope. I've watched people drop them off. I've heard people at work tell about dropping them off. Actually had one guy describe the place way out in the country, and on further questioning, you guessed it - right by my property. You can't see the house from the road, so you'd never guess.

I am with you on killing that coon. But to kill all of them just to be killing them isn't necessary.

The ones that stay away, I leave alone. (I don't kill for sport - I'm not even a hunter). The ones that don't fear humans need to go. The ones that attack my livestock and animals don't survive very long.

 

[BuddhaKat]

sorry, i guess thats just the inner-hippy in me
i cant even kill stink-bugs when i catch them inside, anything other than a spider or tick, i try to catch it and release it outside alive.
im weird, i know

i was taking a dump in the woods last week while working, and there was an injured little bird on the ground about 10 feet away, i called my buddy who i thought was real into wildlife , and he said to smash its head with a rock and put it out of its misery, i didnt have the heart to do it.. he was limping around on the ground, both his wings seemed to be ok, so i left him there surrounded by other little birds that seemed like they were ready to attack me if i didnt leave the injured one alone, i hope he made it. i am a weirdo when it comes to living things.

You can be certain it made it as far as dinner. That's the way of nature.

 

[RAMROD48]

Well, my daughter and son-in-law have a farm, and they also have a German Shepard and an English setter. SIL was in his shop and heard a lot of barking and another crazy howling sound that he knew wasn't a dog. The dogs had cornered a coon and the fight was on. The coon got in a few good licks but the dogs won the fight with no vet bills. The dogs were happy and extremely proud of themselves and carried the dead coon around like a trophy for a couple of days before SIL decided he'd better confiscate it and bury it. Dogs like to play with dead, stinking stuff and then come up to you and give you a big, stinking doggie kiss.....

not to mention they just licked their own rear ends...

 

[TreePointer]

The ones that stay away, I leave alone. (I don't kill for sport - I'm not even a hunter). The ones that don't fear humans need to go. The ones that attack my livestock and animals don't survive very long.

Same here.

On the farm, all groundhogs and coyotes I see get shot if I have a rifle handy. In over 30 years on my parents' farm, we never had a raccoon problem until this year. They've been making a strong case to be included on my list of nuisance animals.

 

[Curlycherry1]

FWIW in most parts of the country is it illegal to trap an animal in one area and release it in another without a permit. It spreads diseases like rabies and mange, and can lead to the faster spread of parasites. Check with your local dog pound or animal protection agency for specifics, but if you are moving a critter, you are moving a problem.

As a person that used to work on a farm where people dropped off cats that they did not desire anymore I can say full well that those cats never survived long. They are not adapted to farm life and they do not do well.

Raccoons are very adaptable, but they carry rabies and should be carefully dealt with.

 

[bluestem]

:agree2: My two dogs are just big enough to take on a full grown coon. I don't see to many around me. I'm more worried about coyotes than anything.

 

[Kingsley]

People here that have issues about killing coons or other pests probably have never had to clean up the mess or repair the damage they make when they get into something of yours.
If it is a pest and on your property where I live you don't need a season to kill it, just kill it.

 

[TreePointer]

People here that have issues about killing coons or other pests probably have never had to clean up the mess or repair the damage they make when they get into something of yours.
If it is a pest and on your property where I live you don't need a season to kill it, just kill it.

Interesting. I think PA regulations are different. Here, you actually need a license or permit to kill essentially any wildlife, and there currently is no legal definition of nuisance animals. Raccoons are classified fur bearing wildlife and you need a hunters or trappers license to kill them and it must be in season. In fact, many folks consider whitetail deer to be pests, but one can get into big trouble taking them out of season.

Of course, there is a lot of shoot, shovel, and shaddap going on here when it comes to raccoons and similar critters.

 

[jjett84724]

I was just talking to one of my son's friends about coons yesterday. He says that he gets $20 for every coon that he kills on the neighbors farm. Sounds like easy money to me.

 

[1999HarleyRN]

People here that have issues about killing coons or other pests probably have never had to clean up the mess or repair the damage they make when they get into something of yours.
If it is a pest and on your property where I live you don't need a season to kill it, just kill it

.

:agree2: We recently came home from work one morning to find ur geese mauled to the point that they eventually died, our ducks mauled, and three of our dogs missing, the last showed up 12 hours later a little worse for wear but ok. Anyways, coons, possums, etc. have always been fair game on our property if they were harrassing our animals, but after this last incident, anything with four legs that is not ours may get lead poisoning.