Help me deal with a blatant thief and murderer!

[elfs]

Raccoon of Doom

Omaha and I know that it was a raccoon that attacked Dinah, and probably got Lisakit's cat Sugar. This bastard just walked into my yard around 11:15am this morning, sniffing at my basil of all things.

I want him out of my yard. Animal control will come and get him, but they won't provide their own means. Are there good live-animal traps someone can recommend that probably won't snag the cats (or, if it does, it will do so harmlessly) but can get the raccoon just fine?

This guy has to go. The greenbelt behind my house (a common feature in Puget Sound neighborhoods, provides a sound-and-visual barrier between a subdivision and the wider arterials, it's a wide strip of "unimproved" pine forest) (I hate the term "unimproved," there's nothing wrong with a pine forest) is probably big enough to support a few of these, but I will not have this one threatening my family.

Comments

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

You can buy a live animal trap at most hardware stores (OSH and ACE both carry them) for around $30.

That way even if you catch a cat no harm done.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Raccoons will eat almost anything, and a live trap large enough to hold a raccoon will certainly handle a cat. Peanut butter is a good bait.

[urox.livejournal.com]

Do cats like peanut butter? I'd bait it with something I think a raccoon would eat (anything in a human plastic package.. I think most know what a chip bag looks like these days) rather than something a cat might taste.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

No cat I have ever met has liked peanut butter.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Mom's old cat tried peanut butter *once*. Ditto caramel. They don't go for the sticky.

Peanut butter will get most scavengers (raccoon, squirrel, rat, etc), but the kitties won't be interested. Dogs perhaps; canines do eat some small to medium quantity of vegetables - teh kitteh, however, is an obligate carnivore. "Veggies" are what food *eats*. :)

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I have never met a cat who paid attention to the obligate carnivore thing.

[katybeth]

You mean pumpkin isn't meat? :)

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

google shopping for "havahart" traps http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&tbm=shop&q=havahart+raccoon+trap&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=

I prefer the double-ended traps: gives 'em a feeling of "Oh, I can get out two ways..." heh heh

make a hat.

[tehrasha.livejournal.com]

I have a 3-legged cat (http://showcase.netins.net/web/tehrasha/images/moriarty.jpg) thanks to a raccoon.
I didnt go with the live trap, I went the hat route.
But then I didnt need to worry about other neighborhood cats either.

[laplor.livejournal.com]

Seconding the Havahart traps. They're the ones that our Department of Natural Resources uses. A cat might get caught in one if they find the bait attractive, but they are very unlikely to cause injury.

My sympathies. Raccoons are horrible.

[zanfur.livejournal.com]

I hope you succeed. The only time I had to deal with a raccoon, one of my cats killed it. Big mean siamese male. My cat nearly died as well, though. :-(

[rick-bannerman.livejournal.com]

Get them. I had a large mother with kits that came in our cat door in Lake City, and stood back without flinching when I cracked a whip at it that sounded like a gun. The whip led to a standoff, but they never left the neighborhood.

[zacs-pet.livejournal.com]

Here on the East coast, daywalking raccoons are a reason for panic. We have a serious rabies issue.


I'm no help on the trap subject. My father subscribed to the .22 calibre creature removal school of thought.

[chaosss.livejournal.com]

Raccoons in the Pacific Northwest are not a rabies vector.

I also recommend the live trap. If you don't want to buy one, you can often rent one from the humane society or even your own vet.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Some excellent information regarding rabies and raccoons in Washington State:

http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/zoonotics/raccoons.aspx

http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehsphl/factsheet/rabiesfct.htm

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

We had a four-coon gang that was huge and a problem.

In Oregon, you can hire a trapper who will come with a live trap; you pay $50 per animal caught (pets not included). Which meant my raccoon cost me $150; two raccoons and a possum I didn't know about. They have to kill the animals and you have to sign a release that you understand that. They're not allowed to let them free elsewhere (it's often a death sentence for the animal to transport it out of its habitat anyway; often you'd be dumping it into some other raccoon's territory).

That said, live traps are the way to go in a residential area.

He used dog food in his; which was fairly effective. (One of the coons was smarter than the others). He added hardboiled eggs in an effort to get the smart guy. He never did, but one of my neighbors eventually got him. I don't know what he was using as bait. He used gloves to minimize the human scent and covered the wire with leaves.

I checked the traps and let out any cats that got caught, although he released a few because he checked the traps at o'ghod thirty in the morning. The cats only went in once. Well. One of them twice. He was a brick-head.

The raccoons started hanging around because I was leaving cat food outside on my porch and they like that, too. So their deaths, frankly, were my fault, because I was feeding them. (You know, that sign in the zoo, DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. Yeah, that). I've stopped doing that, but I can't stop my neighbors from leaving food out for their animals, so we occasionally still have raccoons.

[lemur123.livejournal.com]

Marinate the racoon overnight in red wine - they're a bit too gamey to eat right off. Encrusting with cracked peppercorns before grilling will also make the taste more acceptable.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Termination via firearms or other expedient and efficient means is the only valid method of dealing with a problem raccoon. Moving them elsewhere is only moving your problem to someone else, and is also how rabies and other diseases are spread.

I saw it mentioned that WA doesn't have a rabies problem, but there are other diseases carried by raccoons.

Hav-A-Hart traps are very expensive, and you now have an extremely DANGEROUS animal to deal with. Unless you're willing to shoot it or submerge the trap in water, I do not advise using one.

Instead, I suggest using a dog-proof catch trap (http://www.fntpost.com/Products/Dog+Proof+Coon+Traps/Grizz+Grenade+DP+Trap), and use peanut butter rather than cat food or fish. This device is specifically designed to capture raccoons, because they reach inside to get the bait. Make SURE the chain is secured to a powerful holding stake, so it cannot pull free.

Check the trap before you go to bed, and make sure you're up before sunrise to check it again. If your area does not allow firearms, or you don't have one, bring a heavy shovel or other strong, heavy item with a long reach. One quick blow to the head to stun the animal, then another, more carefully aimed to finish the job. Do NOT bury the carcass in your yard, place it in the non-recyclable trash.

I lost 25 chickens to raccoons, and the hatchery I worked at lost nearly a dozen 50lb bags of very expensive fish feed because the little blighters insisted on tearing a hole in a new bag every time. I have nearly 12 raccoons to my name, and were I a trapper, I'd have MANY more.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

There are several raccoons in that greenbelt, unfortunately. I've run into them on a number of occasions. I've walked through the greenbelt at night without a flashlight (you get used to seeing in the dark and knowing the path without having to look at it). And we saw a much larger one than the guy above attempting to climb the fence of the home daycare down the street about a year ago.

When Elf saw this guy, I grabbed a long cane with a metal end and went after him. If he hadn't move his ass, it would have been mine.

Regardless, we do need to catch him because I don't want the cats in danger, and I don't want him getting bigger and trying to climb the daycare center fence either.