THE ONGOING TAIL OF OUR RASCALLY RACCOON Hereabouts in the country we live amongst many woodland creatures. We usually all get along just fine minding our own business and making a point to not annoy or bother anyone else. The deer stay out of my garden, The woodchuck has stopped nibbling holes in my plastic gas cans. The dogs next door stay there. Everything has been going well till the local raccoon was let off of probation from last summers escapades. He would rambling in about 10:45 pm and do whatever it took to knock the hummingbird feeder down and slurp all the nectar out. Sometimes he would badly maul important parts. Not so good. After getting a buzz from the fermented nectar he would climb the big tulip popular tree and get on the roof of my motorhome with me sleeping underneath. I think he must have been taking tap dancing lessons and had remarkable endurance. After considerable time he climbed down, meeting up with Clyde the irascible opossum. There commenced a noisy argument about some vague point waking up anyone that could have possibly still been asleep. I had to go outside and shoo them both off. Both claimed a victory and sauntered off into the night to send emails to their friends about the big fight. The raccoon has a high speed laptop computer with DSL, the opossum had a used webTV he got at a yard sale. The coon clog dances and plays poker for fun, the opossum chain smokes Camel-no filters cigarettes and surfs eBay. I have rescued the coon many a time from the neighbors coon hound that has no talents or abilities save baying all night till he is hoarse at a cowering coon high in a tree. Now progressing into the future as to last night. I had big things I wanted to do this morning and that darned raccoon was into so much noise that a teenager couldn’t have kept up. He knocked the hummingbird feeder down and chewed it in half. That means he was soon drunk. Oh golly. He had to walk here because of all the past DUI’s. He then got into the bird feeder eating all the birdseed and knocking the lid off. After that he tipped over the garbage can, spreading out the wrappings and scraps from my last weeks meals for the whole world to see. I woke up tired and grouchy. There was no pie or ice cream for breakfast to cheer up this guy. Guys can really eat stuff like that for breakfast. The coon has got to go on vacations somewhere far, far away. I tried to rig up a homemade trap out of a converted rabbit cage, a mouse trap and a bungee cord. It caught the opossum which doesn’t say much. Do you know why the chicken crossed the road? To show the opossum it could be done. So there. You will learn everything you need to know, and less reading my stories. Opossums aren’t that good looking or smart. The coon got in and out of the trap four nights in a row. He is probably laughing at me this very minute. It was time to get earnest. While growing up I was very familiar with Havahart catch‘em alive traps. It was fun to set out a trap and see what had been lurking around outside the night before. That was years ago for fun, and now this was grievous and desperate situation. I am down one $9.95 hummingbird feeder and another big mess. What would happen if one of the fine ladies from the garden club were to show up? I would just have to die. Of embarrassment. This is where the story comes to a temporary hold. We need a decent ending. We need us a raccoon trap. We are in a fix. The rabbit cage trap is not working. I am not getting any sleep. I think they are planning a rooftop kareoke party very soon. Can you help us? Please send envelopes filled with cash. Or a coon trap. Or both. Justin! Hurray! We were saved by the helpful folks at Wildlife
Control Supplies. We now use a wonderful Safeguard trap - 36"L x 11"W x
12"H cage trap with Slide Release Door. ($35+$11.31 UPS ground to WV- Cheap!) These
are the most inexpensive traps that are also easy to setup and use. It is a good size to
be able to catch many critters.
If you want to see what is going bump in the night at your place call Carol at Wildlife Control Supplies at (860) 844-0101. That where I order my trap and have been very pleased with their prices and service. www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com Did we get any results? You bet! The very first night we caught a young, very surprised raccoon. We were tired of it getting into the garbage and took it for a long ride.
After coming home and easily resetting the trap I went to bed. In the morning I found a very embarrassed young opossum. (Boy, am I going to be in trouble with mom, staying out all night).
After showing it off to everyone (Look! A ferocious wild animal - eek!) we let him go. He was grateful to be going home and wasted no time in doing so. I like the slide door for easily letting the animal out when the time comes. It is best to wedge something at the sides so the animal doesn’t turn over the trap and make an escape. This is just the first night. I wonder what we will catch the second night? Having a catch-alive trap makes every morning an adventure, a possibility of wild excitement. The Safeguard trap we got didn’t cost much, is well made, is fast and easy to set and will provide years of use. I highly recommend having one around the homestead.
What to do with the animals caught? Catch alive trap source: (Justin's fascinating
information HOME page)
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