Raccoon problem
 

I found signs that a raccoon got into a house that I look after. There was a little mess but nothing like they can do when they go on a rampage. So I set out a havahart trap Monday night and caught one. Average size, about 15 pounds. I was hopeing I was done but set out the trap last night as well. This morning there was one in there that had to be 30 pounds! Not only did it eat the cat food that was in there but it also ate the tin can!

They LOVE cat food. Free food for those guys. The sad part - the cats will sit there and watch the coons eat it! Then the cats have the nerve to act hungry! Haven't had a lot of problems since I removed the dry food from my two 14 y.o. cats diet and getting a dog that would love nothing more than to crush a small animal in his toothy maw.

best thing is to find where they get in and block it some how.. Make sure crawl space doors, etc are sealed, along with nearby tree limbs trimmed. These things are full of disease and can hurt anything near it severly.

they are a little greasy, unless you clean them right.

The way us country boys clean a coon is insert a firearm up his butt (shotgun preferred with bird shot) and pull the trigger, this will gut and skin him at the same time.

Whatever is left usually tastes like chicken. :beer:

mmmmmm, whats for supper?

So, how'd they eat?
Or did you feed them bread and milk before?

Man, a 30lb coon would bring $35 or so around here!

Well I got #3 this morning in the trap.

I am saving them for a friend who will use them as coyote bait. I can't get myself to clean one to cook it. I've eaten just about everything out there but raccoon doesn't appeal to me.

We had some light snow last night and the trap was surrounded by coyote tracks. Maybe I should try to use one as live bait. Anyone want to help me put a dog collar on one and chain it to a stake in the yard?

LOL!! Black fella named "Sweet Daddy" at Thunderbolt Marine will take 'em, as long as they're still live.

Which reminds me of a story.

A good friend of mine and his buddy used to shoot them with 22 rifles when they were 12-13 years old. They used to take them down to the folks who used to live down in Sandfly and get 5-10 dollars each skinned out. After a while they depopulated the coons so much around their place they started doing the same with the feral cats. After a couple of weeks the folks in Sandfly started to get wise and told them to leave one paw on them for identification purposes. LOL!!

My grandfather said the same thing about rabbits when he was a boy. Nobody would buy a rabbit from you or the butcher unless it still had a paw on it after all of the stray cats started disappearing.