Fairly curtain I caught a relocated coon

slingshot · #1 07/21/14, 09:24 AM

Saw a thread like this a few weeks ago and thought I would share....

A few days ago a raccoon showed up around my house, doing the normal night time rummaging and such. My chicken and turkeys are about 60 feet from the house. However this guy had no interest in the birds, it was far more interested in the house.

We do not live in suburbia, the raccoons here are wild and invisible. They avoid humans like the plague, with good reason. My daughters birthday was Saturday, so when we cleaned up I put the garbage in the back of my truck to go to the dump first thing Sunday morning. When I got out to the truck I realized I had a serious problem, all the bags were ripped apart in the bed of the truck.

I always have a live trap set by the coops but never catch raccoons in it, again they avoid the house and coops. If this was a resident I would have caught it long before today. I moved the trap up by my house just outside the garage baited it last night with leftovers from dinner. Caught it first try. ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1405952042.525761.jpg

This raccoon learned to eat from garbage cans, and it had no fear of getting in my truck. Even a brave coon not used to people wouldn't do that randomly. It showed up one day in the garage the next in the truck, seemed to be perfectly healthy, no mange and nocturnal. The garbage is always in the same place outside and even the bears don't get in to it.

So if your reading this and have thought about relocating a trapped problem animal, don't. Someone else's problem became mine.

lazyBum · #2 07/21/14, 09:38 AM

My neighbors in town trapped coons. Im assuming they relocated them. If they werent so trashy and would stop feeding cats outside they wouldnt have a coon problem. Same as most people in town.

JoePa · #3 07/21/14, 09:55 AM

Now the question - what you gonna do with it - relocate it maybe -

7thswan · #4 07/21/14, 10:23 AM

I'm trying to catch a coon right now. It seems to be a relocated animal, it sure is wise to the trap and has managed to eat the eggs and marshmellows I've used for bait without stepping on the trigger.So far it is content eating the food for the feral cats and staying away from the chickens. The feral cats keep down the rabbit/mice/rat/chipmonk that ruin my gardens. Ya, the cats are "relocated" too ,by who knows who,drop-offs...

Harry Chickpea · #5 07/21/14, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoePa

Now the question - what you gonna do with it - relocate it maybe -

Drop it off in the center of Washington D.C. It'll blend in with the other garbage eaters.

slingshot · #6 07/21/14, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7thswan

I'm trying to catch a coon right now. It seems to be a relocated animal, it sure is wise to the trap and has managed to eat the eggs and marshmellows I've used for bait without stepping on the trigger.So far it is content eating the food for the feral cats and staying away from the chickens. The feral cats keep down the rabbit/mice/rat/chipmonk that ruin my gardens. Ya, the cats are "relocated" too ,by who knows who,drop-offs...

Are you using a leg-hold or a live trap?

You can get a dog proof coon trap for like 15 bucks, they are bad medicine on coons.

What ever trap your using make a tunnel and force the coon to walk down it to get the bait, you will catch it.

7thswan · #7 07/21/14, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slingshot

Are you using a leg-hold or a live trap?

You can get a dog proof coon trap for like 15 bucks, they are bad medicine on coons.

What ever trap your using make a tunnel and force the coon to walk down it to get the bait, you will catch it.

Live trap. MIght need to get something diffrent soon. I will try what you say, make a tunnel to the trap.

haypoint · #8 07/21/14, 11:57 AM

By the way, it is illegal to kill raccoons with Blue Marlin fly granules and Coke in a shallow pan. They die in seconds. You don't want to risk killing the neighbor's dog or feral cats.

slingshot · #9 07/21/14, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7thswan

Live trap. MIght need to get something diffrent soon. I will try what you say, make a tunnel to the trap.

Just block it in behind something so it can't pick the trap up and dump it out. Make it so they can only get to the bait by going in the trap.

Put some bait in front of the trap as well to get it eating and than the rest behind the pan, that should be all she wrote. They won't go on of the trap moves.

o&itw · #10 07/21/14, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7thswan

I'm trying to catch a coon right now. It seems to be a relocated animal, it sure is wise to the trap and has managed to eat the eggs and marshmellows I've used for bait without stepping on the trigger.So far it is content eating the food for the feral cats and staying away from the chickens. The feral cats keep down the rabbit/mice/rat/chipmonk that ruin my gardens. Ya, the cats are "relocated" too ,by who knows who,drop-offs...

For anybody wanting to catch a coon with a live trap, use half a cob of sweet corn and tie it with wire inside the back of the trap. While coons will be attracted with a lot of food baits, they can't seem to resist sweet corn. (as those of you who try to grow it in your garden already realize

)

Danaus29 · #11 07/21/14, 04:02 PM

Sounds like a coon that someone made a pet out of and was relocated when it got too big or someone called DNR on them.

blanket · #12 07/21/14, 04:31 PM

I always relocate them with a 22, never had one come back

slingshot · #13 07/21/14, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blanket

I always relocate them with a 22, never had one come back

Same here

billfosburgh · #14 07/21/14, 05:52 PM

marshmellows are excellent bait, and wont attract cats

slingshot · #15 07/21/14, 06:06 PM

ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1405983961.476258.jpg

Caught this guy with marshmallows.....

Wyobuckaroo · #16 07/21/14, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slingshot

Attachment 33111

Caught this guy with marshmallows.....

===
I'm going to say that doesn't look like any variation of raccoon I have ever seen... Don't know your location, but wonder if it isn't a Pine Martin, Fisher, or some other like that... I would check it out against fur bearing animals on your states DNR web site...

I also have found that no matter how far, or elaborate a procedure you go through relocate them.... They will beat you home....

I have found it is best to float test the animal "IN" the trap at the lake for about 20 minutes before relocating.... If the animal can't keep the trap afloat, they aren't going to survive the next winter....
KnowwhatImean...

Good luck...

Brighton · #17 07/21/14, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyobuckaroo

===I have found it is best to float test the animal "IN" the trap at the lake for about 20 minutes before relocating.... If the animal can't keep the trap afloat, they aren't going to survive the next winter....
KnowwhatImean...

Good luck...

Jeez, that is just cruel, put a .22 in the back of it's head and be done with it.

rags57078 · #18 07/21/14, 07:51 PM

Put the bait under the trap and make sure they can't flip it over

slingshot · #19 07/21/14, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyobuckaroo

===
I'm going to say that doesn't look like any variation of raccoon I have ever seen... Don't know your location, but wonder if it isn't a Pine Martin, Fisher, or some other like that... I would check it out against fur bearing animals on your states DNR web site...

I also have found that no matter how far, or elaborate a procedure you go through relocate them.... They will beat you home....

I have found it is best to float test the animal "IN" the trap at the lake for about 20 minutes before relocating.... If the animal can't keep the trap afloat, they aren't going to survive the next winter....
KnowwhatImean...

Good luck...

Yes it's a fisher....

Danaus29 · #20 07/22/14, 03:25 PM

Fisher was my first thought too.