How do I trap a raccoon?
 

So, this raccoon has been hanging around by my side door and my garage eating the salt that we've put out to melt the ice. I've got a trap, so I'm wondering where would be the best place to put it and what would be the best thing to bait it with.

might try the trap in the same area,and try the salt as bait? just a thought, good luck.

Are your trashcans nearby. Thats probably where he starts looking. If the first suggestion doesnt work, put the trap near your trash cans. Try covering it with some branches or something. And put some chicken wings or something in there. If you get no luck after a few days, try throwing some salt in there.

You could try googling for different things. Maybe there is a scarecrow for racoons or something. That way you wouldnt have to deal with a trapped animal or a dead carcass. Also, there may be repelling scents.

Just go out and pet him.

Go with tuna fish. it is the best attractant for raccoons, opossums and skunks.

Wrap fish in aluminum (shiny side out), and put it in a well lit area near the garbage, so that it shines and sparkles. Racoons are transfixed by shiny things - not unlike myself - and will grab it like there is no tomorrow. Once you catch it, take it to your local PETA place. Tell them to treat it ethically. That ought to shut them up.

last time there was a racoon in my yard, i freaked out... and then time after that, he went inside the tool shed. so we took a pitch fork but that didnt kill him. not even the arrows from a 50lb compound bow. so i dunno, shotgun?! good luck catching him!

I think dad used to use either a sardine or a rolled up slice of bacon in the traps we used to set out for the raccoons that would get into our trash. Chicken bones with some meat on them work pretty well too - used those in live traps at scout camp.

Invest in a pet wolf, or take up falconry as a hobby.

Once you get it in the trap, if you drown it in a pot of boiling water that will cook the meat and loosen the pelt to make skinning easier (in case you wanna make a Davey Crockett hat).

Wow. I hope you guys are joking.

Raccoons love fish...especially smelly fish, so the sardines are good advice. They also love fruit. Especially apples. The riper...the better. Corn, still on the cob, is also good.
Once you catch the little bugger, call your local Animal Control to come get him. Don't mess with him yourself, as he's gonna be one pissed off ball of fur with very sharp claws and teeth.

Yeah... you'd better figure out what you'll do with him when you catch him. Also, where there's one....well, you know. They others might get pissed and come and get you. They're so quiet you'd never know what hit you. Or, if he's not causing a problem, just don't worry about him. Leave a little extra salt out and think about how you are living next to nature.

racoon trap...



oh come on, someone had to say it..! :P

try to find someone like this, he'll take care of it for you.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/l...ge-dvic519.jpg



in all seriousness tho, in my area (upstate new york) it's illegal to kill them, and just as illegal to move them out to the woods and release them if you do catch them in a live trap.


so just get a shotgun and dispatch the thing, odds of getting caught are much less if you just kill the thing then if you attempt to move it.

We always use a live trap with a pie tin wired inside. Put some jelly in the tin and wait. They love jelly. To dispatch them a 30 gal garbage can filled with water works good. Leave the coon in the trap and using a stick with a hook on it pick up the trap and submerge it for about 20 minutes. Drowns the little sucker. No muss, no fuss. Also a .22lr to the head has always been an effective way as well. It can be hard on the trap though, so drowning works well.

I've been battling raccoons in my crawl space for a couple of weeks now. As a result of business travel I've not been home much (only late friday night through early monday morning) so the little bastards have knocked a hole in my louvers covering the opening to the crawl space and taken up residence. It's okay until they wake up around midnight like clock work to head out for the evening. Noisy little f-ers. I've called a trapper who has baited traps on the roof of the house. He claims to use a bacon block of some sort. Once they're out I'm considering bricking up the crawl space :D (yeah yeah I know that's not good for the house but I'm moving anyway! haha).

We put out a nice fruit and vegetable garden every Summer and anxiously wait for all the vegetables and fruit to mature and ripen. Last year a raccoon beat us to nearly all our early poduction. I put out a live trap and baited it with what he seemed to favor. I was away on business when my wife told me that we caught him. He was mad as hell and so big he could barely turn around in the trap. She would go nowhere close so she called animal control to pick him up. They were most uncooperative and released him just down the street. We caught him again about two days later and I put a .22 into the medula oblongata with near instant terminal results. The last I saw of him, or any kin, was as he was sliding out of the trap into a dumpster at a nearby construction site. We enjoyed the garden all the more for the balance of the growing season.

Really, in my parts they're considered vermin, just like rats. I can catch and kill coons opossums and rats with virtual impunity - inside city limits... Go figure.

You guys have no idea what it's like to have racoons... There are more racoons in Toronto than pet cats.

The best way to trap a racoon? Call someone who knows what they are doing (ie a professional) and get them to do it. That said, if your concern is for the salt you left out, did you consider putting the salt in an a racoon proof container... like your house?

back in the day, the coon' hunters used to drill holes in trees and put a piece of shiney metal in them, then stick nails in the hole at an angle, the coon's paw would go into the hole and grab the metal, and the paw would be larger with the metal in its hand, therefore preventing it from pulling out of the hole, because the nails would be too narrow.. and if it tried to pull it out, the nails would dig into it's paws.... the coons are too stupid to let-go of the metal


but please don't use that technique, it's not quite that nice for the coon



.... as for bait, put garbage in it for bait, just take a little of everything and put it in a disposable plastic bowl wrapped in alumnium foil, with just some leftovers and stuff... no need to buy anything for bait when you have garbage cans full of bait!


i would reccomend you invest in something like elastic ties or building a container to put your trash and salt in.... raccoons when determined can open simple latches and doors with ease, you would be surprised at what they can do... we had some problems with them in the past but ended up building something to contain the garbage, then they were opening the latches and doors... soo we had to improve on it