I've had it with the masked bandit! He unceremoniously greeted my wife two days ago when she opened the storage door to our chicken coop.

In the last week he has killed three chickens and a duck. Over the last several weeks he's eaten the latch off my tackle box and ruined a number of my expensive baits. He's stolen the creel off the dock. He's found out how to get the lid off my 50 pound feed canisters that hold fish and fowl feed. He's had diarrhea in the chicken feed and oyster shell containers after eating large quantities of it. He's eaten at least a dozen eggs -- probably more. He's left large piles of "tell tale signs" all over the roof of the chicken coop, and inside too.

I've wired and patched the chicken run repeatedly, but he always finds a way to muscle his way in somewhere else. (It is 16 sections of 6x10 ft. chain link dog kennel panels with chicken wire over the top.)

I'm going catfish fishing in a few minutes. Besides my fishing equipment, I'm taking my big spot light, the 12-gauge, and my 30-30.

If I don't get him -- any suggestions?

Ken

At my old house which is on the market, the racoons come up onto my rear deck via the stairs and an adjacent tree.

And they have just crapped everywhere up there. I have to go and hose off the deck every few days to make sure some potential buyer doesn't get freaked out.

I don't have any other suggestions on how to get him if the shooting doesn't work, but he has to go.

Ken, have you tried live trapping him, last year when i tried live trapping otters with sardines all I ever got was coons.

We have been quite successful live trapping (so as to release the seemingly inevitable cat) raccoons. Peanut Butter makes an excellent 'coon bait.

+1. Make sure the bait is all the way in the back of the trap, and the wire on that end of the trap is fine enough so they can't get their grubby paws thru it and pull out the bait that way. Another trick is to lean or make a plywood cover that covers the sides and top but leaves enough room for the mechanism to work. They seem to go into the trap quicker if they are going into a hole vs. a wire cage.

I had mine covered with pine branches to make it look more natural.

Forgot something.

DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING YOU VALUE WITHIN REACH OF THE TRAP!

I ended up owing Fish Wife a new horse blanket several years ago after a trapped coon positively shredded it THROUGH the wire of the cage. We still find pieces of it occasionally in the barn.

Well, I was only partially successful this evening. I got an 18 inch catfish for tomorrow evenings dinner. It will be interesting to clean it. The belly is really distended



Rocky seemed to show up. I was quietly sitting in my truck with the shotgun out the window when I heard the lid go off the top of one of the feed cans in the storage part of the coop. I waited a little bit, then went up to the door. I could hear something inside. I slowly opened the door, with the shotgun cocked. Sure enough, the lid was off one of the cans. But no Rocky! I turned over everything, then I heard a racket on the roof. I have no idea how he got in or out.

I went back to the truck. About 15 minutes later I could hear him moving in one of the pine trees, and then I could hear him chattering. I never did see him.

I've put out a call in the neighborhood for a trap bigger than mine. Mine is for squirrels and possums (10 x 10 x 24??). I think it is way too small for this guy. I priced bigger ones tonight while in town -- $50 to $85. Seems kind of high to catch just one furry critter.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Thanks All,
Ken

Ken,

If my live trap is bigger I'd be glad to send it to you for use. I can measure it tomorrow.

Ken, I've caught some whopper coons in my squirrel trap. Even jammed in there, they can pretty well wreck the trap.

I have NVG's... If you can't get him I'll come put a hurtin on him!

No death and destruction last night.

Cecil, thanks for the offer. We stopped by Tractor Supply this morning. They had some Chinese made live traps -- a combination of a large trap and small trap for about $35. Not as well built as a Hav-A-Heart, but I'll try the big one out today.

I'm going down to bait the trap now. We are heading to my condo at the "old folks home" for tonight to watch the fireworks. We won't be home to lock the chickens in, so hopefully Rocky will get caught in the trap before he kills again.

As for NVGs -- I've got them, if you mean Non-Violent Guns. Mine certainly didn't lead to any violence last night. But, that reminded me that we've go a number of sets of Night Vision Goggles and helmets at work that I could borrow.

Thanks All,
Ken

P.S. The really fat belly on the catfish I caught while waiting for the raccoon was filled to capacity with pellets. I guess that is good.

Well that makes a lot more sense than non virgin girls. Thanks for clearing that up for me Ken.

I worked with this guy we called hoss (can't remember his real name) who used to trap the racoons in the lumber yard. He said half a Snickers bar was the best bait...and you get to eat the other half.

Sharing a Snickers bar with a racoon...now that's a Hallmark moment.

The brutal part that happens after he gets his half of the candy bar is not a Hallmark moment.

Ken, over the last couple of months I have trapped 18 of the little buggers. I trap them in a have a heart trap, but unfortunately they don't come out. I bait my trap with sunflower seed and catch one every night.

Well, the Cheap Chinese Trap (CCT) failed. Rocky got the catfish carcass, a bowl of chicken feed mixed with bacon grease, and some peanut butter. Before we left yesterday, I put some additional chicken wire over the top of the run. It seemed to keep him out. In protest, he left these presents on the roof of the coop:



I took a pair of pliers to the CCT. It should work now.

Once I get him, he'll come out! But it won't be until after I check to see how long he can hold his breath at the bottom of the pond!

Happy 4th of July to all. We're off to a picnic with the kids and grandkids.

Ken

I stopped live trapping and popping the feral cats on my property. I would eliminate three only to have three more take their place. And after my dog died I felt like a hypocrite whining over her death when I was popping cats.

One down. At least two to go. Hopefully, this won't be like taking cups of water out of the ocean.



Not only did he eat the bait, he ate the container it was in!

It's less futile than trying to kill every tick.


I'm convinced if you leave them in it long enough, they will eat the cage.

Fortunately, Raccoons are a critter I've never had to hassle with. Until reading this thread, I had no idea how destructive they are.

I had one that raided my trash can, making a big mess I had to pick up almost every day.

I put a coon-proof latch on the lid. One night I heard a commotion, and quietly went out for a look. The coon had the trash can handle in 1 hand and the lid in the other hand, and was pulling and straining exactly the way a human would to get a stuck lid off. I busted out laughing, and the coon ran off. He never came back, I guess he was too embarrassed.

JHAP,

I'm express shipping one to your business address. You'll have to transport him to the pond. Rocky II will go out by 8:00 AM tomorrow. You should have him by 10:00 AM Tuesday.

Ken

When I was attempting to see if I had another mink I got a possum in the live trap. I had put a dead trout as bait in it, that didn't take long to get really, really, putrid. I released the possum and there was no trace of the trout. Man those things must be walking garbage disposals!

I have a boat-load of raccoons around my pond, eating clams and the occational fish. I usually wait until deer season is over until I let the neighbor trap on my farm, but the population is getting crazy, so I may allow access earlier this year. No problem with the trash. When the occasional raccoon finds it, I leave Exlax around the bags, and that seems to train them to go elsewhere. They ain't dumb!

Well, the raccoons won. My chicken coop and pen was a mass murder scene when I went down there this morning. All had been beheaded.

I cannot figure out how the coons got in. The chicken "run" is made of eight 6x10 foot dog kennel sections set over fencing buried about 4 inches in the ground and connected to the kennel panels. The coop eves are all boxed in and the rest of the coop, except for the chicken door, is very tight. After the last attacks I even put a second set of chicken fencing over the top.

Coons certainly are clever, scheming, and deadly critters.

Geeze, I'm down to just my one-eyed cat and the fish.

Sounds more like a mink to me. They seem to like heads.

I'd think a mink (or other weasel family member) might get in through a much smaller hole than a coon, too.

Mink had me fooled also. I originally blamed the coyotes for all of my poultry losses. I saw a mink run down and kill a rabbit from my tree stand a few years back. They are proficient killers.

I had a feral cat kill a couple of tame woodies a while back. It killed 3, ate the heads and partially buried one. I trapped it, and it was huge. I held it by it's rear legs at my belt and the front feet were dragging on the ground. I didn't know what killed them, but a #1 1/2 foot hold trap did the trick. I was suprised to see the cat!

Ken, have you ever had Geese, some African or Embden geese would raise a ruckus and they don't back down from much.

Ken, now you can get your worms started again. No chickens, no problems.

Always look for the silver lining eh Dave:-)

Good thought. Actually, the worms have been doing a pretty good recovery job this summer. They are just about back to normal. I've had an old cast iron stove lid on top of the container.

As for the heinous critter, I still figure it was a raccoon because of the large scat pile left in the chicken yard. And, my game camera sees more coons than anything else. Sometime it will catch three at a time.




We've always got lots of critters roaming. Like this scroungy canine:



And, this dwarf Black Panther (who appears a little small for his size):

How did the "Granville (Ohio) Lion" make it all the way down to your place?



















Cat carrier?

I don't know if there is any significance to this, and I'm not paranoid most of the time, but the panther's tag is stamped "Raccoon International Golf Club, Raccoon Valley Road." Theo, you wouldn't possibly know anything about this conspiracy, would you?

AP -- as for geese, I just get these occasional Canadian snow birds that stop by for a snack and a poop on their annual journeys.





And, I've always got these two kinds of turkeys around.

Top turkey, yucky...

Bottom turkey, yummy!