Coon Problem

[BBFarmer]

A good bright light on my fn 5.7 with has kept the numbers down around our place.

I'll usually sneak out to the coop around 3-4am and catch one trespassing.

It can be difficult to get em when you're still half asleep, but i get 20 trys with that gun so it usually works out.

Hate them bastards.

 

[RCW]

Don’t want to get off the thread, but lately a lot of poultry folks around here seem to have more problems with fishers than raccoons, weasels or the like. Fishers are a pretty stout predator. We had one screaming near the house a couple summers ago. Like black bears and bobcats, never heard of them 40 years ago.

Sounds like @Stmar has a good sense of how he wants to proceed with his raccoons. Hope it works well for him.

I learned something with the corn bait - great idea.

 

[mikester]

When I bought a live trap, I first baited it with a can of tuna as recommended by the pest control guy. First night I caught a black cat. It had rained that night and he was not happy. When I released him, he shot out never to be seen again. Then I started thinking, since the coons had been raiding my suet feeders, I wired an ear of feed corn to the trap floor and smeared suet on it. Worked like a champ, first night, and I don't think cats would go for it. Skunks and possums I'm not so sure.

If you feed your cats use a recently emptied soft cat food tin as coon bait. Skunks seem to like it enough to investigate.