coon trouble!

[shooter43]

hey guys. Ive got a big big coon problem! last night they got into my trash and ripped it all up. i wanna know how i can trap them and kill them because ive always wanted to make a coonskin cap. I know they like shiny things, but thats about it. i dont own an animal trap, so maybe i could improvise somehow. advice??

[rickyrick]

Bait the trap with a few marshmallows and a little corn....Make shure the critter cant; turn the trap up, dig under the trap, or reach over the trip pan....

other than that, they are pretty easy to trap...sardines work but you might catch skunks, cats and other undesired critters.

with the marshmallows you will most likely catch the coon, they lovem'

[wcar]

They are pretty crafty critters. A Hav-A-Hart cages are a little pricey but are well made and will hold them. (About $70 for the last one I bought. The lookalikes are pretty flimsy.) IMHO, unless you are a very good craftsman, a home-made cage probably won't hold them. Moreover, once they escape from a trap, they will never get caught in one again. Like rickyrick says, they are easy to trap (the first time.) Marshmallows, sardines, old steak bones...

[Rifleman1776]

Live traps are about $35.00 and well worth having around the house.
You could hang a large treble hook about 2 ft off the ground and bait with something. Not a pleasant way to do things but it works.

[dalegribble]

get an airedale

[hogcowboy]

I've caught a bunch with this trap but you only get one at a time and has to be re-baited. It's not humane but I don't give a darn. They are destructive little critters.

[Archer 9505]

get an Airedale

When I let them out in the morning; it's a mad charge. If it don't belong there it better be running for it's life.

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[Shotgun693]

Tractor Supply Company stocks the Have-A-Heart traps and you can order online. Hides have a little value this time of year. Young 'coons and mature females are edible. An old male can kill a dog and also smell rather gamey, alive and cooked.

[arch308]

Bass Pro sells a little hand trap, cheap and effective.

[shooter43]

Thanks for all the advice everyone i appreciate it! i will look into the tractor comp. website to see what they have and maybe order something, or buy a trap on my next visit to Basspro. thankfully, i dont have any dogs, so there is nothing to worry about there. im wondering if either store has any good trap for about 20$?

[rickyrick]

The cheaper traps will work, but they usually require repair and adjustment after each raccoon. They are usually not very happy about being trapped and even though they are fully contained in a cage you wanna have gloves on cause they will try to reach out and grab you....believe me after being trapped all night they know all of the places they can fit thier hand through. It can be quite comical the amount of rage contained in a small package. Some are as equally docile and disposition is trouble free....but never let your guard down LOL ... in my experience the larger the raccoon, the larger the attitude.

[Hog Buster]

Coon hunting here has always been fun. At night in the woods with a single shot .22, a head light and a dog, while riding a mule. It’s been years since i did it, but still have fond memories of many hunts. Why the mule? So when you got lost the mule would always find its way home.

As a side note: According to La. WLF rules you had to use a single shot .22 and a dog. No special dog, just a dog. It could have been a french poodle, but you had to have a dog of some kind.

Being a country kid I always had some kind of wild varmint as a pet. Squirrel, possum, coon, nutria, otter and so on. Coons were the worst. When young they are like cats with hands. Very inquisitive, they get into everything. I got more than one ass whipping over a coon. Great pets when young, that generally changes.

As they mature most get a bit vicious and will bite you at the drop of a hat. With teeth that cut to the bone, that’s no fun. A grown one can make most dogs say uncle and run back under the porch after a bite to the nose.

They’re pretty good eating, but you have to know how to clean one. There’s a bunch of scent glands that you have to remove, otherwise you have a smelly mess.

Hand traps are probably the best to use for coons. They keep you from catching cats, dogs and other varmints. The trap is enclosed in a small box so that when Mr. Coon reaches in it catches him by the foot. The other varmints don’t have hands like a coon so are not caught, at least most of the time.

[watebo]

We had a tray cat here that was atttacking our cats. Bought a live trap from Harbor Freight. The first thing we caught was one or our cats, then a possum, then a raccoon and finally the varmint we were trying to catch. Our cat and the raccoon came out quickly, but had to shake the possum out.

[P97]

A good live trap, and dry dog works good.

[603Country]

P97 has it right, though we use cat food or catfish food for bait. They just LOVE cat food. My wife alternately goes through phases on the coons. Some days or weeks it's "kill em all", and some weeks it's "they're so cute". On the killemall weeks, I trap and shoot em. On the 'socute' weeks, I trap them and then put some spray paint on them and take them off a mile or two and release them. If I ever get a coon with spraypaint on him, there's no second chance for him.

And every now and then I'll take a coon to a friend up here in the country and he'll cook it up, using his late Mother's recipe. Yum!

[FrankenMauser]

Just make sure you're legal.

Coon hunting and trapping is regulated in most areas.

[Cowboy_mo]

My neighbor trapped and relocated a bunch of coons last summer. They were destroying his garden. He used a Have A Heart type trap and baited it with canned tuna. He would open the cans partially and leave the lid attached. Several times he caught 2 at a time in a single trap.

The other advantage of using the Have a Heart's is that you can release the neighbors cat without harming him

[briandg]

At one time, about 6 years ago, we had a duck. It lived in our fenced yard. One night, I noticed that it wasn't around, and walked behind our house looking for it.

To make a long story short, a coon had killed our mallard. I wasted the coon.

when I was a teenager, I earned the nickname "cat killer-death giver, defender of the chickens" because I blew everything that made me mad into dust. Another long story.

[rnr]

Golden Malrin (spelling is correct) fly poison mixed in a can of coke. Equal parts. It'll kill 'em before they can get 20 feet. Google it.

[tmlynch]

Hog Buster:

You are making me think about my in-laws.

At night in the woods with a single shot .22, a head light and a dog, while riding a mule.

My father-in-law grew up near Natchitoches. He had lots of stories about shooting, the woods and mules.

Coons were the worst. When young they are like cats with hands. Very inquisitive, they get into everything.

My mother-in-law's family had a pet raccoon for awhile. It tore into the back of the TV and took ALL of the tubes out, mixing them up. That did not make him popular.

I hope you had minimal trouble when the Morganza spillway opened.

Regards,
Tom

[mete]

Coonskin cap ?? Back when the TV series Daniel Boone was popular with kids I knew a guy who bought real coonskin caps for his kids instead of fake fur.
His kids complained about birds attacking them .The father wondered about the cap.He put it on and went outside - he was immediately attacked by bluejays !!

[870shotgunner870]

just kill them i got five off my front porch last year, three in one morning(a momma and her two babies. she got it first and they kept coming back to her body) before school. yeah put a flash light on your gun cause they stop and stare at it makes shooting them in the head real easy

[Hog Buster]

tmlynch

I’m down river from the spillway. The river is just across the road from me. It got up to the top of the levee here, but once the spillway was opened it started going down a little at at time. Finally going back to normal in about 6 to 8 weeks.

Not as many coons here as there once was. Of course that seems to run in cycles of about 5 years. Plus over the years I’m sure that many wound up in somebody’s oven. Even fewer mules, haven’t seen one here in years, everyone owns a John Deere, or two. now.

I’m told that’s progress, but I’m not sure how good a thing that is.

[Rifleman1776]

My second post on this. My live trap is an off brand I have used regularly for about 10 years, still in excellent condition. I use smoked bacon for bait. Often catch possums also but let those go. I think it is pointless to relocate racoons. You are just moving the problem elsewhere. I kill them all and let the buzzards eat. Racoons kill whatever they can, often just for the blood lust of killing. I once raised chickens and 'coons killed many-many and did not eat them. As for neighbors cats. Cats kill songbirds by the thousands. They also kill small critters that keep insect population under control. If I catch a cat, it is dead. Feral cats are becoming a huge problem. People and people property are more important than 'coons and cats.

[C0untZer0]

The coon thread was shut down

I caught a racoon the night before Thanksgiving in a Hav-A-Hart LARGE trap especially designed for racoons.

Seeing how smart they are and how they grab everything. When I picked the trap up by the handles, the racoon immediately copied what I did, and he was grabbing the carry handles through the bars. I will tell you that you need a double door on your trap. The inner door has to be smaller mesh to keep the racoon from getting his hands on the latch mechanisms in the first place. You should have 2 latches for more solid latching of the door, and, it is harder for a coon to open both latches at the same time should they find a way to get their fingers on the latches.

If you are dealing with a racoon that has been trapped before, you'll have to anchor the trap to the ground, otherwise they'll just tip the trap over to get the food. Or tip the cage to move the bait to the side and eat it through the bars. So you'll also have to have the bait in some type of container and anchor that container to keep the coon from just tipping the trap to slide the bait container to the side of the cage.

I will probably add another handle to my Hav-A-Heart cage because just one handle in the middle is too unstable. When the racoon moves around in the cage the whole thing sways and you risk dropping it. I think I'll attach 2 cables to the 4 corners of the cage, and conect them in the middle with a velcro strap.

My experience was that the racoon really liked Friskies brand cat food - the salmon flavored Friskies. It's something like 44¢ for a can.


Also if I were you, I'd check the laws.

In Illinois racoons are categorized as a fur animal. There are some specific nuisance laws that were passed concerning them but I found out that if I were going to turn him into a hat - I'd need a trapper's license. If I didn't get a trapper's license and I attempted to convert him into a hat - I'd be poaching.

Also, as far as removing a racoon as a nuisance, I needed to contact my Illinois Department of Natural Resources District Wildlife Biologist to request an animal removal permit. And their literature says "If the situation warrants the removal of the animal, the biologist will issue you an animal removal permit."

It just pays to know what you are doing and what charges you may be facing - fees & fines and so forth if you violate the regs.