Racoon mania

Racoon mania · 07-02-2009, 07:58 PM

my neighbor has a beautiful corn crop this year ....unfortunately the raccoons are enjoying it as well

Anyone have any humane solutions ?

Mike Davis · 07-02-2009, 08:06 PM

DaveO successfully used a live box trap on one last or the week before. Maybe he'd let you use it or you could build a few of them.

steelwheel1999 · 07-02-2009, 09:40 PM

We use to have one as a pet. Just be careful around those littlel rebies carring buggers. Before you trar ask the county if they have had any confirmed cases in your area. BTW they are pretty tastey if cooked with taters onions and carrots.

JackLeg · 07-02-2009, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by sawduster

my neighbor has a beautiful corn crop this year ....unfortunately the raccoons are enjoying it as well

Anyone have any humane solutions ?

Sad to say, but a Hav a Heart trap and a 22LR are the only SURE solution. I sent 4 on to the big cornfield in the sky last year. A friend of mine caught 17!!

Charles Lent · 07-02-2009, 11:00 PM

My uncle used to catch racoons and skunks in his garden with a large live catch type trap, and then deport them to a wooded area across town. Once they were caught in the trap he would walk slowly up to it with a piece of opaque (black) plastic held in front of him, and then cover the trap slowly with it. Then he would pick up the trap by the handle (through the plastic) and place the trap, animal, and plastic in his utility trailer, keeping the plastic loosely covering the trap. Then he would tie the trap down, and then haul them across town. If they can't see you or see what's happening to them, even the skunks don't get upset when you approach. They aren't afraid of the plastic, and that's all that they see.

Once they reached their new home, he would reverse the process, placing the trap on the ground, unlocking it, and then lifting the plastic slowly and backing away with the plastic held in front of him. The racoon or skunk would then leave the trap as soon as they felt that it was safe, which was usually only a few minutes after he removed the cover. He took a polaroid picture of each one before he deported them, and kept a record of when each had been caught. Only one racoon ever made it back from across town, and it took him almost a year to do it. On his second deportation (to another location) he never made it back.

You will need a large live catch trap, a sheet of black plastic, a utility trailer, and a camera for record keeping, to successfully run a deportation system like this. Racoons will travel OK in the trunk of a car, but I don't recommend doing it with the skunks. It's probably quite safe though, because my uncle never got sprayed in about 30 years of doing this. He said that several of the skunks were even asleep when he uncovered them, and he had to wake them up to get them to leave the trap.

Charley

CaptnA · 07-03-2009, 09:24 AM

Hav-a-hart traps are probably your best choice. They are effective.
Mother used to have more squirrels around her house than you would believe, due to her wooded acres and the building boom around her they moved in by the dozens. They can do serious damage when left unchecked. She bought a hav-a-hart trap and started trapping them and taking them across the river, pulled into her lawyers parking lot and let them free. She made so many trips, she swore they were coming back.
She started marking them with spray paint before letting them go. The only paint she had was a horrid yellow color. She knew if she saw a yellow marked squirrel they were indeed coming back.
I was at the corner grill in Avery Creek one morning eating breakfast. The three boys in the next booth were talking and began talking about those blonde squirrels down by the river and how they couldn't wait for hunting season to try and get some of the rare critters..... I almost choked!

sapwood · 07-03-2009, 01:28 PM

Be wary of the critters and the laws regarding them. Raccoons, squirrels, and beavers are considered wildlife. Therefore wildlife laws apply. That is why one must capture or kill on your own property or with permission of property owner and within limits of local law (like not shooting near houses). It gets dicey when beavers damage adjacent property whether by flooding or gnawing. County and city Animal Control Offices only deal with domestic animals.

I'm reasonably sure it's against federal wildlife regs to "relocate" captured wildlife, though I may have done that on occasion

Roger

LeftyTom · 07-03-2009, 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by JackLeg

Sad to say, but a Hav a Heart trap and a 22LR are the only SURE solution. I sent 4 on to the big cornfield in the sky last year. A friend of mine caught 17!!

17?

That is enough hides to make a pair of pants!

merrill77 · 07-03-2009, 09:30 PM

Originally Posted by sawduster

Anyone have any humane solutions ?

Dogs?

Jeff · 07-07-2009, 09:35 AM

Sometimes we just have to overplant so that there's enough to share with the critters. I love the rural life, but have come to realize that I'm the intruder in that setting. After killing many squirrels at my place it seemed that 1 dead meant that 2 or 3 living ones showed up to aggravate me. I finally accepted it.

Good point about verifying state & local laws about trapping/relocating, etc. Check out the NC Wildlife Commission link or just give them a call to speak with an officer and get the heads up.

ncwildlife.org

Ken Massingale · 07-07-2009, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by Jeff

Sometimes we just have to overplant so that there's enough to share with the critters. I love the rural life, but have come to realize that I'm the intruder in that setting. After killing many squirrels at my place it seemed that 1 dead meant that 2 or 3 living ones showed up to aggravate me. I finally accepted it.

Good point about verifying state & local laws about trapping/relocating, etc. Check out the NC Wildlife Commission link or just give them a call to speak with an officer and get the heads up.

ncwildlife.org

Yup, we have to plant veggies for ourselves, the coons, the deer and the turkeys. Along with the random turtle that loves to eat cantalopes.

figucp0 · 07-07-2009, 05:36 PM

Well if the raccoons are raiding crops than you can be relatively certain they are not rabid. Rabid animals do not eat as the virus causes them to lose their appetite. They begin behaving very strangely, and in the later stages they show a pronounced irrational fear of water. It is a form of encephalitis and destroys the brain causing very notable behavioral changes. There is "furious rabies" and "dumb rabies." Some animals lose their natural wariness of people and pets (cats and dogs) and often come out during the day and behave very aggressive. Other animals just act strange, dumb and lethargic, (even affectionate). The foaming is caused by the virus damaging the part of the brain that activates the saliva glands This is not to say every raccoon seen during the day is rabid either. Rabies is a terrible virus and the infected animals are running on borrowed time. If you see the same family of raccoons over an extended period of more than a week they are probably not rabid. Rabies kills the infected animals off fairly quickly. Also the animals have to be symptomatic to transmit the disease. Now the problem is any raccoon that bites a person will surely be destroyed regardless of symptoms. Also you will probably have to get an expensive series of vaccinations within a very short time of exposure. There is no cure for rabies and it is fatal in over 80% of cases. Once you have symptoms there is not much you can do so if in doubt get vaccinated. Be very careful if you plan on trapping. Also be careful because raccoons tend to leave round worm eggs in the soil that last years. This can lead to some really bad infections in people while although rare I cannot think of a worse situation to deal with than worms in my brain. Good luck with the problem.

Jeff · 07-08-2009, 09:36 AM

That's good information. Thanks for a clear explanation. Ya definitely don't want to mess around with a rabid coon. The rabies vaccinations are not at all pleasant; I believe that it's a series of about 6 infused injections which are said to be pretty painful.

Thanks for the heads up.

figucp0 · 07-08-2009, 10:06 AM

The newer vaccines while certainly not pleasant are an improvement over the older series which had to be delivered into the lining of the stomach via the abdomen!