Not for the squeemish or the "huggers"...

Hi ksbmom, I once 'permanently relocated' a coon too....
Farmers rules again:
Shoot once
Bury Deep
Say nothing...lol
It had been bothering my chickens, stealing the eggs, injuring and traumatizing the chickens so we used a trap and bye bye coon...lol

I no longer have the chickens and ducks and I'll be turning the old run into my veggie garden and their old shed into my seed starting and potting shed.
I know we have a lot of chipmunks and squirrels even though we have 10 rescue cats and a 93lb dog that thinks she's a cat but there's still plenty of wildlife around.. So I'll be making wooden frames and covering them with chicken wire to place over the beds to protect the crops.. And I've asked for a BB gun for my birthday...lol I'll scare them away if I don't actually hit them...lol
Not bad for someone who used to be a city girl in England...lol

Aran

Three years ago, out of a 2-1/2 foot by 25 foot bed of strawberries, we were able to harvest three ripe strawberries. The chipmunks got all the others, even those still green. So my near and dear set out to save our crop: he found a place under the deck where the 'munks (aka rats of fancy coats) were wont to travel, and he baited a couple of rat traps with seeds and peanut butter. By fall, he'd eliminated 53 chipmunks and several mice. The next year, we had a decent strawberry harvest, and 'munk catches were significantly lower than previous. Ya do what ya gotta do. Nonna

Good to know the traps worked... I've been planning to get mousetraps and rat traps for the shed cos we know that we have mice and chipmunks and squirrels in there too... they used to steal the chicken food.... I had a cat that used to sit in the middle of the run, and you could see him thinking, "I am a tree, I am a tree"....lol ...he never moved a whisker until a chipmunk or squirrel got too close and bam... the critter was gone....lol Then he was back to imitating a tree again....lol

AranMC, love your description of the cat! Would love to have such a fearsome small predator. Alas, too many coyotes too close to the house to let our cats out. Nonna

Nonna, unfortunately Mr Bojangles is no longer with us, only in spirit... Last August we had 14 rescue cats, then they opened the new bypass half a mile away from where we are, the road itself is not a problem. The problem is that so much of the woodlands has been blown up, removed, and diverted that the prey and predators have had to find new routes and hiding places. We now have a Fisher that regards us as the Mcdonald's of South River.
We lost Jade my 10 month old Blue Russian rescue, we hoped she'd found a new home. Then a week later Mr Bojangles the tree thinking cat, he just didn't come home one night. Then Tabby the week after that and her brother Thomas the following night. We heard nothing, there were no signs of fights or scuffles... they simply disappeared.

Then a month later, a neighbour had just let her cat out for it's last pee of the night when she heard a scuffling and a squalling on her front porch. Her cat was gone. We found the tracks next morning, they were Fisher tracks.

Luckily the winter arrived and the cats refuse to go out in the snow so they're safe for now. It is going to be difficult in the warmer months because our cats are outdoor cats in summer.

Aran

Oh, Aran, I'm so sorry. It's so hurtful to lose a four-foot friend. Our youngest cat, a rescue I named Mimsey, is today at the vet getting spayed...surprisingly expensive on top of getting her healthy to begin with! Defiinitely an all-inside cat--I balk at providing expensive coyote food to the pack that hangs around here. A fisher, huh; I've never seen one in the wild. Probably some law against turning it into a fur coller, I'd guess. Here in Oregon, one is justified in removing predators that threaten, or injure, livestock or livestock protectors, like dogs. Hmmmm? Nonna

Oh yes, we're allowed to permanently remove them if they're a nuisance... It's just getting the beggars... I've been setting the trap every day and night...
I've seen one from 3 ft away... If you've never seen a Fisher just picture a Weasel, a 3ft Weasel it is... beautiful coat, fantastic tail and pure evil... No fear of anything or anyone.
In 2007 it was 5-30am and we'd just let the cats out when there was a horrible squealing... the Fisher had caught one of our cats, just at the bottom of our outside steps, it had hold of him at the base of the skull...That's where they aim for... long story short we tried to get close enough to kill it, but it finally ran off before we could and we had to put the cat down because it was brain damaged... But the amazing thing was, it had no fear of us, it stood there with my cats head in its mouth and just stared as if I was disturbing its breakfast and should get lost...

A Fisher can bring down a deer very easily...

Might not be a bad idea to invest in something other than a trap for your not so neighborly neighbor.. Like say something in the "smith and wesson", "marlin", "mossberg", or "winchester" persuasion ....

ksbmom wrote: We also have a chicken coop in the yard and have had problems in the past with 'coons. Hope nobody squeamish is still reading.....my husband traps them and then they go for a little swim in the pond....after a few minutes, he pulls the rope in and voila! No more problem!

We really have a problem with a family of raccoons that decimated newly laid sod last year, to the point it all had to be removed because it died. They also had a field day in our apple tree, and got about $1000 worth of koi in our pond.

So... I'm wondering what sort of trap did you use, and how was it set up so they actually were trapped? We have a large hav-a-hart trap, but it seems they can grab the bait without going all the way in, so when it springs, they just back out because their rear end isn't trapped. Someone that traps 'coons and other vermin for a living suggested setting the baited trap on it's end, which I intend to try this year.

We're also trying to figure out how to safeguard the pond before we buy new fish.
If I had a gun, I'd shoot the blasted things.

Might wanna think about snares and such as well.. When we first moved into our new place my beloved thought the squirrels were "SOOO CUTE", running around and such .. Once they started digging up the bulbs, the "cuteness" went away.. Was then told by her to "Get'em ! I don't care how, but get'em !!".... So snaring, havaharts, and airguns were employed, and the populous was thinned down by about 12, which made the surviving bulbs and plants happy I'm sure... My beloved was happy as well...

For your pond you may want to use plastic netting made for pond protection, a good pond supply store will have it. It lays on the surface of the water and you really can't see it. It attaches to the ground with U pins, cover with soil or mulch. Worked well against whatever was eating my fish.

we've looked at that, but will need to figure out how to anchor it since our inground pond is surrounded by large rocks, making the fastening somewhat problematic. I still think that might be one of our best options, after we make a design change at one end that may have given them a shallow "fishing pier".

Thanks

We used a live trap, that's what they're sold as... you're supposed to trap the suckers then take them somewhere and let them go... ha!
We caught a nice big coon in our live trap, one that had been bothering our chickens.. that coon got 'permanently relocated'...lol




Aran

I hope you ate 'em. I was raised you kill'em you eat 'em. Coons can be tricky to clean they have these scent glands along the back but if you do it right they are some good eat'n.

Nope, not learned how to do that yet.. Considering the fact that when I came over in 2003 I was a big city gal.. I'm doing okay...I can shoot a 22 but a shotgun near takes my hand off with the kickback... I have small hands and can barely hold the darn thing...lol
If the cats catch a squirrel or a Chipmunk I'll practice skinning on those first then graduate up to bigger stuff...lol

where i live here in michigan, we pretty much have just bout every type of critter. i've wittnessed deer walk within 15 feet of my table tops an not even give them a second look. never seen a skunk,possem or coon in or near the garden, squirrels on the other hand are like the marading hun around here. if i dont put out a cob of dried corn and some peanuts for them. they are constantly tryin to eat the bird seed i put out for the birds. two years ago one spent ten minutes tryin to get a ear of corn thru the garden fence. last year one chewed off a giant sunflower head draged it off to a pine tree. to eat. so this year we noticed we have a (blonde) squirrel. ifin i ever find the flippin camara i'll post some pics. long story short the (otherhalf) likes watchin the critters so much that nuttin will end up in a pot in this house.



boog

AranMC wrote:Nope, not learned how to do that yet.. Considering the fact that when I came over in 2003 I was a big city gal.. I'm doing okay...I can shoot a 22 but a shotgun near takes my hand off with the kickback... I have small hands and can barely hold the darn thing...lol
If the cats catch a squirrel or a Chipmunk I'll practice skinning on those first then graduate up to bigger stuff...lol

there is a pretty good vid on youtube on coon cleaning.

i feel like I should add, I eat very little meat these days due to my feelings about the factory farming industry. I guess I am kind of a hugger, however IMHO it is kinder to eat game animals that have at least lived a natural life. Pigs most of all they are wrecking havok here in Florida. We also have these great crabs called stone crabs. You catch them snap off one claw it grows back in a year, amazing! we get this delicious meat and the crabs keep their lives. Talk about a renewable resource.

does it hurt the crab very much when one "snaps off " a stnoe crab's claw? I bet it hurts like hell! I inject 200 mgs of lidocaine into anterior of dorsal of claw and ocycotten 20 mgs. prn per os for post operative pain.

james lujack wrote:does it hurt the crab very much when one "snaps off " a stnoe crab's claw? I bet it hurts like hell! I inject 200 mgs of lidocaine into anterior of dorsal of claw and ocycotten 20 mgs. prn per os for post operative pain.

I just crack open a beer.

I let somebody else do it.

james lujack wrote:does it hurt the crab very much when one "snaps off " a stnoe crab's claw? I bet it hurts like hell! I inject 200 mgs of lidocaine into anterior of dorsal of claw and ocycotten 20 mgs. prn per os for post operative pain.

They don't react like it does. I think they have evolved to lose claws as a self defence like the lizards that lose their tails that then grow back. They are unique among crabs in this way as far as I know.