Raccoons - Need to eliminate as many as possible

I wish I had that many raccoons where I live. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
You already have alot of good advice that should help ya out but Im just gonna second it.I would go out and call as many of them in as I could and then trap some.
But what I really wanted to talk about was a way that I have heard of catchin them and I just wanted to know if any one else had heard of doing this.A guy that I know used to trap alot when he was younger and he told me of a way they done it a few times.They would get those big blue bottles that water comes in and fill it half way full of water and drop a marshmallow in it.He said that they would set them out and go back the next day and alot of times a raccoon had its arm down in that bottle tryin to get that marshmallow.They could have gave up and walked away any time they wanted.Their just too greedy and they want that marshmallow. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Chupa,

When I was a kid, a friend had a few coons for pets and we used to give them the little round oyster crackers. They'd go to the water bowl to wash them and stare in disbelief as their treat disappeared, then get another one and same story. I had forgotten about how we laughed until I read your post. Thanks, I needed the laugh today.

Jeff
 
+1 on the marshmallews. Use them in a live trap, that's what I do in town where I live. The marshmallows don't catch the neighborhood cats like other bait.

kevlars
 
A trick for the legs of your feeder. Get some carpet tack strips from the hardware store and wire them to your feeder legs. they won't climb these especially with grease above them. Saltyvarmintr
 
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A trick for the legs of your feeder. Get some carpet tack strips from the hardware store and wire them to your feeder legs. they won't climb these especially with grease above them. Saltyvarmintr


That sounds effective! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
with the feeder legs you can but pvc pipe around them(loose fit).tie them about a 1.5 off the ground with serg tubing.they climb up get a hold of the pvc and it sends them to the ground.pvc needs to be 3-4 ft long.
 
I know of folks who had coons in the sweet corn, and cured the problem by putting out a hog pan of Golden Malrin...fly bait...mixed with Pepsi. The story is that the coons were not very far from the pan! Might have to be careful for non-target animals, and check to see that its legal, but it works. Personally, I like to string out a bunch of live traps with marshmellows or corn curls. #220 Conibears in a 5 gallon bucket work good too, but keep your pets home! And you can be assured that if there is a skunk around, he will find that conibear! Now we're having fun!
 
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I know of folks who had coons in the sweet corn, and cured the problem by putting out a hog pan of Golden Malrin...fly bait...mixed with Pepsi. The story is that the coons were not very far from the pan! Might have to be careful for non-target animals, and check to see that its legal, but it works. Personally, I like to string out a bunch of live traps with marshmellows or corn curls. #220 Conibears in a 5 gallon bucket work good too, but keep your pets home! And you can be assured that if there is a skunk around, he will find that conibear! Now we're having fun!


I can vouch for the effectiveness of fly-bait/blue streak. That stuff will put a coon down before he can wipe his mouth. And mixed with pepsi is the trick I was told to use.

They are DRT.
 
Well this trip turned out to be weird one.

We left Dallas about 2pm, got tied up in traffic in every little West Texas town, got detoured in one because one wreck shut down the road. Ended up getting on a parallel road that put us another 45 minutes behind, didn't get out there till 15 minutes before dark.

Ran out to check feeders, took a shot at a fox right at dusk. Then we went back to our trailer where we left my mother and my 4 year old daughter.

We planned a little campfire to cook marshmallows and hot dogs. As we were cooking a pickup truck kept driving up and down the road slowly, then park about 400 yards away for 15 minutes, then drive past us real slow and park 400 yards away in the other direction.

With my daughter and mother in camp, my dad and I were a little worried. This ranch is in the middle of nowhere, seriously, 45 minutes to a gas station or a town of any size. We weren't going out to set traps.

Ended up laying in the grass in the dark about 50 yards on one side of the trailer with my shotgun and 357 with my dad about 50 yards on the other side.

Eventually, one of the ranchers came down the road and the truck drove off. Don't know what the [beeep] was going on.

About 11pm, we ran out on our John Deere gator because one of our feeders had a dead battery. Killed 2 coons with the shotgun at the feeders, and a skunk, but we headed back to camp without wasting too much time.

Got up early the next morning and watched the same buck I've been looking at for the last 3 years, finally gotten big enough to shoot next week.

About 11am, we put out our caller with the coons sounds, but we didn't draw any out. We did a few last minute chores and headed back home.

Next weekend is the opening of deer season. I'm gonna try and get out there earlier, set some traps away from the feeders and try again.

Oh, and pack my riot shotgun with 00 buck!
 
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I was going to suggest something like the coon cuffs. You can build something similar for alot less money. I've never done it but I remember something in my old trapping books about little boxes made of wood, bait inside, one hole with nails or screws stuck at an angle so when the coon puts his hand inside to grab the bait, he won't pull it back out. Just remember, if you're going to set a trap that doesn't kill, you gotta check it frequently. Good luck.



That raccoon trap sure rang a bell. It is detailed in the classic hunting/dog story "Where the Red Fern Grows". Excellent book.

That racoon trap duckdog speaks of is the same trap the old man in the book recommended to the young kid for trapping some raccoon, to get the pelts necessary to train his first coon-hound dogs.

Now I gotta read "As the Red Fern Grows" again!LOL!
 
danny cross same here. I got back from texas a few weeks ago. A few times they came in and smacked the heck out of my FoxPro. I used a woodpecker sound for bobcats and coyotes and the coons came to every set. I had 8 o more in some fields. After you call a few areas you will find THE TREE that they come from. get closer to the tree call softer and wack them bast-rds. I like a 17hmr its fun.
 
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I know of folks who had coons in the sweet corn, and cured the problem by putting out a hog pan of Golden Malrin...fly bait...mixed with Pepsi. The story is that the coons were not very far from the pan! Might have to be careful for non-target animals, and check to see that its legal, but it works. Personally, I like to string out a bunch of live traps with marshmellows or corn curls. #220 Conibears in a 5 gallon bucket work good too, but keep your pets home! And you can be assured that if there is a skunk around, he will find that conibear! Now we're having fun!


personally i think the fly bait is irresponsible and not a good way of dealing with a problem. hunt,trap kill em how you want to but dont ahnilate them. it kills anything that gets close to it. then people want to take them to the fur buyer and he is in jepordy of getting poisened also. its just a bad deal all around. coons are a great resource and bring halfway decent fur checks. killing and letting go die somewhere is'nt sportsman like at all. there is always someone that would love to hunt/trap them and use the resource the way it is supposed to be used. JMO
 
No, I'm not much in favor of the poison method either. Our game dept. used to, and perhaps still does, put out poisoned eggs, which isn't much different. Indiscriminate. However, when the hen house is being raided, or the sweet corn patch, the owner wants results. And coon pelts aren't worth diddly squat during sweet corn time. Fur checks are nice, but the gas price eats them up awfully fast. Last fall, when it turned really cold, I pulled everything, or I would have lost money, just from the cost of gas to check traps.
 
Gave it a try for a second weekend. Got 2 raccoons and a possum on the regular leghold traps baited with marshmallows, corn and sex bait. Did not get a hit on the Cooncuffs.

Going back in a couple of weeks, gonna bring every leghold I have. My dad decided to "passdown" all of his old traps to me, so I've got plenty now.
 
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