I’m not cruel enough to use a paw trap if I can trap an animal any other way. I’ve occasionally used them for woodchucks, but even them I can usually coax into a live trap. However, a high powered pellet rifle is too expensive for some people- with a paw trap you could use a shovel to dispatch a coon.
Spring operated live traps are not that expensive, and the animal can’t escape by flipping it over. I use the type with a latched extra door that allows the safe release of unintended captures and the easy dumping of coon and possum corpses. Marshmallows in a plastic bag, staked with a spike in the back of the trap with a couple leading in never fails.
The raccoon only traps hold with a heavy wire pulled against the inside of the pipe. No sharp edges and I don’t think it’s painful or cruel. I’m not into cruelty either and I dispatch them at first light with a high powered pellet gun or a heavy pipe. I use live traps as well, which are great for opossums, but the raccoons often roll them or manage to pull the bait from the back by reaching through the cage. I hadn’t thought of staking the cage but that is a good tip that I’ll use. Thank you.
I have a spring operated box trap that was bent up and rolled that I can show you that was defeated. It took a little work to get it bent back into shape to be usable again. It was that event that lead me to using the dog proof raccoon traps. To each his own, or different strokes, as the sayings go.
Good, I wasn’t sure how it worked. They don’t like being confined to a cage either so there is no kind way to trap and kill an animal. Trap and release is often crueler still, as animals are said to usually starve when relocated. The fact is that death is a cruelty from which none of us escape and the deaths we impose on our vermin are usually much kinder than what nature imposes on them eventually.
My small squirrel HaveAHart trap was bent up by a squirrel sympathizer using the tire on their car. I couldn’t undo the damage to get it to work. Now I place traps away from where cars can get to.
I also think I will use a dull green spray paint to somewhat camoulflage my squirrelinator so as not to draw attention to it by said squirrel sympathizers.
I do agree. But netting is for birds. I have found (watching a game camera) that it can discourage some deer. Raccoons laugh at it. They ate through netting to decimate my blackberries. The lower their population, the better chance of you getting to eat your fruit.
I just wanted to update this thread. American nettings has a sale on their bird netting right now. It was mentioned in the Discount Codes thread. 15% off. Shipping is fairly flat rate, so bigger orders aren’t too much more in shipping.
@mrsg47 and @mamuang have both previously recommended American Netting to me, and I really wanted to pass on my recent experience with this company. I ordered nets earlier this month. The very next morning after placing my order I got an e-mail saying it had been processed, shipped, and gave the tracking number.
THings started off well with the tracking and it showed it was in the system. Then it just stopped. For about a week there was no new tracking info and just a note saying “package will be a little late but is still on its way” This went on for a total of almost 2 weeks. I asked my post office but they said the shipper would have to request a special track or a refund or whatever. So I sent an e-mail to American Nettings saying I still hadn’t got my package and it had been 12 days since they shipped it, and could they please try to look into it. I said the birds were eating my fruit daily so I need my nets.
In no less than 15 minutes I got the nicest e-mails you could ask for, and it was from the OWNER of the Company (they told me so in the e-mail). He/she (it was a sex neutral name that I’ve forgotten) said they were very sorry and felt bad about the delay. Keep in mind this was 100% post office fault and I have the tracking to prove that it was given to the post office the day after my order. The owner then said they were sorry I was loosing fruit because my nets hadn’t arrived, and then they told me they were immediately going to send me a new box of nets via Fed Ex immediately- and they did. I got my fed ex tracking number within the hour, and my nets are on the way.
I then asked the owner if I should send the other nets back if and when the US Post Office finally delivered my original order. The owner said no, that I should keep those for my trouble!
I don’t see how you could ask for better customer service than that. This was just yesterday so I haven’t got to see the actual nets yet. When I do I’ll report back on them. But when a company shows great service like this, I think they deserve some recognition for it.
ha! I didn’t know that. SO how did you know which one I dealt with?
To be clear, I am talking about:
American Nettings and Fabric, Inc. in Ferndale, WA. Is that the one @mrsg47 and @mamuang recommended? If not, I just got lucky. Either way, they seem to have done me right.
Different company, but same problem. I was dealing with live tomato plants. The USPS has had a terrible time with flooding in so many states that anything west of the Mississippi has at least a four day delay. My tomatoes finally arrived today. Needed water immediately. I have never had a prob. With American Netting’s. I agree a great company! I bought my nets from American Netting’s! Have a new box here just dying to be opened!
Has anyone used Bird-X Heavy-Duty plastic bird netting? I saw it at my Tractor Supply store at $180 for a 100 ft. x 14 ft. roll and it was kind of like the monofilament cheap Home Depot stuff but 3x thicker - but also 3x the price, haha.
The only reason I am straying away from American Nettings (which is about half the price of Bird-X Heavy-Duty) is because I want to be able to cut it into 10x10’ sections and the woven American Nettings doesn’t seem like it can be cut down to size.