Raccoon

General Gardening
#21

@Stan
Where is the best place to put the trap with marshmallow as bait?
Right under the tree?
Away from it?
Last year we had enclosed our trees with strong netting and some chicken wire, leaving a space big enough for the opening of the Hav’a’Heart Trap. There was only one way in - to get the peaches . . . . ‘into the trap’. It worked great . . . but what a pain in the tail it was to set it all up. Even more of a pain to ‘enlarge’ it the following year, because the trees had grown.

We are working on covering 2 trees in one enclosure - but it’s taking us forever to complete and D-day is approaching. Everything is ripening QUICKLY. Any suggestions???

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#22

Electric fence around tree cages, so if they try to climb up it, they get zapped? Or electric wire on cages, get zapped as they try to climb up? Stake rebar in the cage for stability? Will have to make sure hot wire does not touch cage.
Saw a permanent set-up once. They had the wire running everywhere above in their backyard. Would have been dangerous had the wire been hot. But was probably effective.

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#23

Set up the trap as early as possible, to eliminate the raccoon population before fruit is ripe. Then specific placement of the trap is not important, it can be away from the trees.

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#24

What did you do with all these killed animals?

#25

Hown are the eliminating the muskrats? They dont take the usual bait…m

#26

@Ahmad … in addition to being a hunter of small and big game… a fisherman… and a preditor hunter… I was a fur trapper… and a ginseng and other wild medicinal root hunter.

I grew up eating all kinds of wild game that we hunted, trapped, fished for or gigged ourselves.

Back in the early to mid 80s… a muskrat pelt was worth 5 to 6 bucks… a large male coon 20-24 bucks, a nice male bobcat 110.00, mink 45.00, Grey fox 35.00… red fox 45.00.
The lowly possum 3 to 4 bucks.

I absolutely loved trapping and preditor hunting to collect fur pelts to sell. I helped put myself thru college with fur money… I have 5 or 6 guns now still in use that were bought with fur and ginseng money in the 80s.

On the large catches of coon and muskrat like that… my Dad was friends with a Black man in town that would come to our house on the day we skinned our weekend catch… we could just call him and he would come on over. He would take every coon and muskrat carcus we had… and load them in the trunk of his huge old car. He told us he knew people that would love to have those to eat… and he took them all. I am not sure if he gave them away to needy folks… or sold them for a bit of profit… l was just glad they were being used.

I have eaten coon and muskrat and lots of other critters too many times… not my favorite wild game but will eat.

@noogy … when river trapping… we used 2 main things for bait … jack mackrel and white field corn (hickory king).

Out main target was coons… but we welcomed muskrat too… on the river we made a ledge set where you basically made a flat spot on the river bank slope with a sharp shooter shovel… the bottom of your flat ledge would be 3 or 4 inches deep… and nice and flat… and that is where you set your steel trap. Above that ledge on the river bank we would take a half handfull of that white corn and just press it into the bank and would sprinkle some around a bit. Any muskrat swimming by… would see that corn shining and come and check it out… same for coons… but we also put down there at the set some jack mackerel chunks and that very fishy smelling juice… which worked as a good longer distance lure.

On day one of the trip we would get out 125 or so sets. The next day we would run the line collect the fur bearers and reset any sets that needed it… then we would make more sets again until dark… ending up with 200-220 sets out the second night. The next morning we would run the entire line collect all fur and pull out traps… and take it all back home.

Then we would have several hours of skinning fur bearing critters. You had some maintenance to do on the fur pelts, fleshing, stretching, drying, and sometimes freezing.

I could skin a coon in 45 seconds a muskrat around 30 seconds. It is just something you get good and fast at when working with larger qty for some time.

This may seem odd or even barbaric to some of you… but back in the 70s 80s… it was common practice.

I think up north fur trapping is still practiced today… in colder regions the fur is much higher quality than our southern fur is. The price of southern fur really tanked in 1987… and it never really came back.

I sold most of my 200+ steel traps to a northern trapper in the mid 90s.

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#27

When I was a young boy, I was very interested in hunting and fishing, but there was never much animals to hunt in the city of Cairo where I grew up, but I did some not very successful fishing in the Mediterranean. Now in the middle of my forties there is a ton of deer and other wildlife around, but I am no longer interested :blush:. However, I feel I should take my teenage boys to learn hunting, I think this is something that they need to learn from and enjoy with their dad…

P.S. I enjoy shooting squirrels and rabbits in my backyard though :blush:.

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#28

I still enjoy hunting and fishing … preditor hunting (yokes mostly now days) and hunting ginseng.

I caught 3 bass and 12 blackperch from a local creek Thurs morning that we will be having for dinner tonight.

Fish (bass black perch crappie catfish) and wild turkey, young Grey squirrel, and a young deer… are always welcome for dinner at my house. Occasionally a good mess of bullfrog legs are a real treat too.

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#29

Would a woodchuck enter a live cage trap? Like the hava a heart ones?

#30

I expect they would enter a live trap like that if you tempted them with fav foods…

Per google.

Favorite foods include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lettuce, broccoli, plantain, and soybeans .

I have caught plenty (we call them groundhogs here)… using regular steel leg hold traps at the entrance to their burrow.

PS a half grown groundhog/woodchuck is good eating… Fried like chicken… nice and tender, good flavor, older ones will be a little too tuf for frying but ok for the crockpot or pressure cooker.

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#31

crackpots and preditors I presume are crockpots and predators. Should write a book of that title. Would be interesting to read about ways to feed yourself off the land. I grew up fishing from the creek behind the house. It was almost entirely perch with an occasional catfish. I found the best wild blueberry bush in the country growing near that creek. The berries were 1/2 inch diameter and had superb flavor.

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#32

This new phone kbd gives me fits… and the auto correct only seems to mess things up. No telling what I will type… you may have to use your imagination from time to time to interpret.

Southern red neck slang into good English.
I need a help tool for that… that works.

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#33

I would be concerned with Raccoon Roundworm. In Florida where I spend winters, a majority carry it and its a really bad parasite to get it. Its in the feces and takes years to break down, so even if the raccoons are gone, its still there . I have them destroying my Avocados in Florida in the winter when they ripen. They are easy to trap with Avocado because other animals like stray cats arent attracted to the Avocado smell. I use broken, open , cut up avocados in the traps so they can smell the flesh. They also like the Mangos. Apple works well also. Not sure if anyone else can smell it, but I hate the smell of Raccoons when they have been in an area. Nasty.

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#34

Wish I could get someone like you guys to trap Coyotes at my Upstate NY summer place. I am over them and really sorta pissed at the lax attitude people are developing towards them. Its just become so risky for pets outside and they need some sort of management.

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#35

The smell of a fox is imo much worse than raccoon. Of course, that is nothing to the smell of the Ballplay swamp creature.

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#36

@Fusion_power … mink… especially a male are very smelly… a dark musky smell.

I caught 10-12 striped skunks during my trapping years… skinned and sold each one.
A regular striped skunk pelt sold for 3-4 bucks… a civit cat sold for more like 10-12 bucks. They had much finer fur… more like a muskrat or mink.

I saw a possum coat at a big fur house in AL one time… it was georgious.

@Lonster …

Per this article in NY the coyote hunting season and rules / limitations are pretty good.

In TN you can’t use electronic callers… but you can in NY… night vision scopes are allowed… you might seek out a good preditor hunter. If you have other big game on your land… deer, moose, bear… many big game hunters also preditor hunt… and you might find one that will gladly reduce your yote population if you let them hunt other big game.

Coyotes in NY should have excellent fur… there may be hunters there that would love to take them just for the fur value.

Found this online…
Heavy western coyote pelts are worth between $70 and $100 . Eastern coyote pelts usually go for between $30 and $40. Southern coyote pelts and low-quality pelts are likely to be worth $10-15.

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#37

I was initially interested, then thought “what the heck would I do with a raccoon after catching it in one of these?”.

Are these only good for people who can dispatch the raccoon with firearms? In places where firearms would be frowned upon, submerging a (Hav-a-heart) trap for a while is the most practical approach. But I have to imagine that doing that with this type of a trap would be a bit difficult- can you imagine trying to disconnect the trap from the stake, connect it to a heavy weight and bring the raccoon to a barrel/lake? I’m guessing it wouldn’t hold still for it.

And the other options which come to mind (baseball bat, long spear, propane burner, etc) don’t sound that appealing and could even be dangerous, though maybe not as dangerous as trying to submerge it…

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#38

I’ve killed raccoons with a 2x4 about 3 feet long. It was eating one of my chickens at the time so you can guess I was motivated.

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#39

Bob,

I exclusively use a pellet gun (not a BB gun) to dispatch coons and possums I catch at the house. It’s the kind of pellet gun which cocks once in the middle. The projectile lead pellet is powered by a cocked spring. They aren’t classified as a firearm, and they are much much quieter. I have a Gamo whisperer. It’s pretty quiet. It will penetrate the skull of a coon or possum, whereas a typical BB gun won’t.

Re: Dog proof traps (i.e. coon cuffs)

I’ve used these before too. While the concept is an excellent one and will prevent accidental trapping of dogs, I’d recommend good quality dog proof traps. I bought some cheap ones from a farm store, and one coon was able to pull out of it. I know this because it was clear the coon had been caught, then escaped. A few days later I caught that same coon in a leg hold trap, and his other leg had all the fur skinned off where he had pulled free from the dog proof trap.

For anyone interested, here is an excellent place to order traps. I’ve not ordered dog proof traps from them before, but have ordered other traps. I was very impressed with the quality of their USA made traps.

Here are some of the dog proof traps they sell. My guess is that more $$ = better quality with this vendor.

I would probably go with this Sterling, if I were to use dog proof traps again. Made in USA and they claim the strongest spring in the industry.

Here is the original coon cuff. Again I’ve not used this before. Currently it’s on sale:

https://www.minntrapprod.com/Coon-Cuffs/products/546/

Here is a cheaper version of the Sterling trap linked above. This may have been the same trap I purchased from a local farm store, which I was disappointed in. It looks the same as the ones I bought from the farm store, and made in China, like the ones I bought. The problem is the spring isn’t strong enough, so the coon can pull out. So I probably wouldn’t go with the Z-trap.

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#40

@BobVance … when trapping 1000’s of coons for many years and selling the fur pelts you will learn best dispatch methods.

One quick blow to the top or back of the head… with something like a small baseball bat… hard enough to at least temporarily stun (KO) the coon… then I used a 22 pistol… positioned the shot between the ears… with exit wound out the mouth.

One small caliber bullet hole in the hide in the head would not dock the value of the fur pelt.

It killed the critter dead quickly.

Coons are TUF.

If you attempted to bludgeon one to death with something like a bat… it would take several blows… and often you would think he is dead… but no he just keeps coming back. They do not give up easily.

If you can’t use something like a 22 pistol or rifle in your location… they do make some very nice air rifles and pistols now days that would easily do the job.

Since you are not concerned about the fur pelt… you could skip that initial blow to the head… and just place a good shot in the brain for a quick kill. A coon will almost always keep a close eye on you when you approach and he is trapped… a shot placed right between the eyes… normally does a quick job. You really need your projectile to penetrate the brain for a quick clean kill.

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