Raccoon advice (live in, cost, safety)

[OleTomCat]

.22 with a two liter soda bottle taped to the muzzle, will be about as loud as a mouse fart...

[CrusherCountry]

Don't kill the coon. Stop letting the cat out and/or putting food out. You put food out - the coon eats it as that is their nature - and the coon needs to die? Really?

[southbel]

The food has been put up and that caused the raccoon to tear up our screen porch. There's no food on the porch nor has there ever been. Problem with raccoons is that once you get them, about the only way to get rid of them is to trap and release very far away or kill them. They are vermin that are quite problematic and very, very destructive.

We did take an earlier suggestion, closed up the cat door, put my cat in the garage for the evening, and put out a trap. We'll see if that bears any results.

[Annie53]

In the winter I put sunflower seeds on my front porch for the birds, around March I get racoons.....they love those seeds.

I usually have several that come every winter and I feed them until May.....I add cat food to the seeds once they show up.

I wean them off of the food by skipping nights until eventually I quit altogether.

Once I quit putting food out.....within a week or two they quit coming by and they have never damaged my property.

I look forward to watching them every winter.....along with the possums that also come for the seeds.

I just don't understand why people are so quick to kill. I would trap a problem racoon and drive it 50 miles away to let it go before I would ever dream of harming one.

[brokencrayola]

Call your local Fish and Game?Fish and Wildlife Service. They will trap it and release it elsewhere. Be careful with your cat, raccoons kill cats and dogs all the time.

[Robynn]

Make stew out of him and put it out as a warning to his buddies

[bulldogrsp61]

Here ... these are specifically made for racoons because they'll reach their paws down into the trap to get the food/bait.

I've got a buddy that uses them with a LOT of success.

Duke Dog Proof Raccoon Trap

[cape_fisherman]

High powered bb or pellet gun. Sting his rear a time or two and it won't come back. Much more fun than a trap.

A friend of mine had a modified .22 once. It was an automatic and when he shot it about all you heard was the bolt chambering a new round and then the bullet striking it's target. It was the most silenced thing I've ever heard.

[southbel]

No luck on the trap. Figures. My cats about went nuts having to be locked up in the garage for one night. This is a cat that just loves his outdoors. We'll try again tonight.

Oh and for anyone else wondering about having a raccoon in suburbia. The wildlife officers will not do anything about raccoons. Animal control will not give out traps anymore either. So, it's really up to us to try and get this thing ourselves. I did call them both on Friday to see what they would say. They suggested hiring a pest control company or getting my own trap. I am not going to hire someone to do the exact same thing we're doing - putting out a trap at night.

As to those who think I am somehow wrong for wanting this raccoon gone? Well, do some research on raccoons. They are aggressive, destructive, and disease carriers. That's not even counting the rabies. They are vermin. They are notorious for killing pets, causing destruction, and not something you should encourage to have around your home.

[accufitgolf]

Friends hired a guy to trap a racoon. He used tuna fish (from a packet) in the trap to catch the racoon. Caught it one night. He charged $35.00.