Thread: Damn raccoons - what to do?

Originally Posted by majurey

Great story Lou. If only there was an instructional video to go with it!

Cheers
M.

There is.
(more of a documentary, actually)

-whatever

-Lou

Or, on a less lethal note, you could try one of these.

I've been considering picking one of those up. We currently have a bit of a cat infestation in Jumpee's garden....the local feline population seem to regard the vegetable garden as their personal litter box!


Hell, if her gardens were in the Minneapolis airport, we might even have a certain senator hanging around!

(...I'm so humiliated!...)

-whatever

-Lou

Like, who would have guessed that I had suggestions on how to kill stuff right?

Options

#1
Put the poison up the tree.

pros
Keeps it away from the dogs.

Only coons and cats can get it.

cons
What poison to use?
I like Methomyl. It is regulated in most uses but can be purchased as
Apache Fly Bait, Die Fly, Golden Malrin Fly Bait, Stimuki Fly Bait, Bluestreak Fly Bait, and a few others.
It is illegal to use in this manner and will kill whatever eats it.
It comes in a granual form and can be poured or mixed in food.

I've also used a large chunk of lead and a cheese grater.
Yes lead is slow (very very slow) but who wants it dying in your yard anyway?

Antifreeze is always effective, just make sure it is ethylene glycol.
It gets metabolized into something like methanol and causes kidney damage.
Death in 2-4 days.
The antidote (ironically enough) is ethyl alcohol.


TRAPS

I like da traps!!

Here is an excellent page about the safe use of traps in selective sets.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...icial%26sa%3DX

Traps are your friend. Use them
THE VERTICLE CUBBY SET IS THE ONE I WOULD GO WITH

GO TO THIS LINK!!!

THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL SET!!!
I TRAPPED FOR YEARS AND THIS ONE IS DOG PROOF !!

IT GETS SET TOO LOW FOR THEM TO GET IN!!

Traps are your friend. Use them

Pros

You get to see it die.
Can be set in a selective manner. ie. on top of something or even in the tree if you have a ladder.

I am a big fan of the Conni bear body catch trap.
Depending on the size of the coon, (and you hand strength) I would use a 330.
This thing is NO JOKE.
It will snap a 2x2 in it's jaws. (go on and stick your neck in there eh)
http://www.nwtrappers.com/catalog/tr...DUCT_ID=VT330C

I once caught my wrist in one of these (oh thank freakin God that it didn't smash it to a million pieces) and my hand was numb in less than 30 seconds.
I had to drive to the corner store (5 miles) and have someone help me get it off.
" You see what happened was......"



The 330 is actually easier to set than the small ones.



Cons

You have to touch dead stuff.


Shooting.

I would be very, very surprised if you managed a clean kill with a pellet rifle.
Of course they very well might go lay down somewhere to stiffen up and die, which is just as good for you, right?

If you can tree the critters then perhaps you could use a shotgun firing #7 or something small. Shot has about a 300 yard limit.

Another solution is to pre-fragment your bullets. Take a knife and cut the tip of a 22 down to the knurling in a X pattern.
The bullet should fragment with very little penetration and I would be surprised if it managed to exit. If any part (there should be 5 now) did get out it would have the same energy as if you threw it.
Stingers would work well since they are already going so fast.

Ever consider bear repellent?
Hose em down!!!

A super soaker full of antifreeze might get enough on them to kill when they licked it off.
Other poisons can be fired directly from a super soaker as well.
They lick themselves and then die.

Very selective.

I read my previos post and decided that there was too much info there.

Let me pick out the good stuff for you.


BUY A CONI BEAR TRAP !!

PUT IT IN A BUCKET.

SCREW A SMALL BOWL IN THE BUCKET FOR BAIT (ABOVE THE TRAP)

HOOK IT TO THE TREE EITHER 5 INCHES OFF THE GROUND OR UP NEAR THE BRANCH THEY "TREE" IN

IT WILL MAKE A LOUD " THUMP" WHEN YOU CATCH SOMETHING

I TRAPPED (AND MADE DAMN GOOD MONEY AT IT) FOR ROUGHLY 10 YEARS.

WE HAD DOGS, THE NEIGHBORS HAD DOGS, THE PEOPLES PROPERTY I TRAPPED ON HAD DOGS.

I NEVER CAUGHT A DOG (BY ACCIDENT, HEHE)

A friend of mine had your same problem.
He also had dogs, worried about the dogs, ect, ect.
I made the set with no trap and he let the dogs try to get in it.
They couldn't.

We set 2 of these with 330 's in them.

In the course of a little over a month we caught.......

are you ready????













18 raccoons
16 opposums
3 cats

Needless to say, it would have taken him months to shoot all of these and he would have poisoned countless non target animals if he went that route.

It is truly amazing what a good trap set can produce.
We "trapped out" the entire varmit population in a little over a month.

He can now leave table scraps out overnight (dogs stay in) and NOTHING will eat them.
Know why?
There isn't anything left !!!!
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
MUHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!

LOOK AT THESE PICS CAREFULLY. THIS IS YOUR BEST OPTION.

Something else to consider is a .22 long rifle shot shell. I think it's equivalent to about #12 shot. Good for close range stuff, low risk of downrange damage.

Originally Posted by sensei_kyle

Something else to consider is a .22 long rifle shot shell. I think it's equivalent to about #12 shot. Good for close range stuff, low risk of downrange damage.

only good enough for a coon if you are within clubbing range, and then... well.....

it does work well for rats in the basement, but really only for super close quarters stuff, like 5 feet or less.

Originally Posted by gratewhitehuntr

only good enough for a coon if you are within clubbing range, and then... well.....

Boot to the head!

Had to do it. .22 Short is a good bet too, as someone has already mentioned.

scarecrow