FrauHirsch wrote:I think it is amazing how many people do not understand that raccoons are omnivorous and will eat your cats and chickens if they can. A lot of city people figure they just eat the eggs.
Oh yeah. One of the scarest moments for me was when a racoon turned on us at a dumpster and charged at me and my wife. We ran like hell from that thing! (unarmed)
"I think you're wrong in your understanding of fighting.... though what you have written is very manly, it does not convey a real sense of clue...." - Sir Christian The German
Leo, when I got to "You see, I own this bec d'corbin" I had to take a five minute break to let the laughter run it's course.
Good luck with the critters, man.
Thomas de Bristol
Nissan Maxima wrote:God grant me the courage to change what I can't accept...
I killed a muskrat my dogs had cornered with a nerf fungal bat...sometimes its amazing hard to get to the weapon you want or need, and you just have to make due with what you have.
We had one that decided to move into our carport. It was hanging out on roof of my dad's workshop when it was discovered by my dad. He took a broom handle and chased it from underneath into the rafters. It mistakenly decided that the upside down canoe that was stored up there would make a better refuge and lost it's footing to fall about 10' to the concrete floor below.
My dad picks it up, stuffs it into a sack and takes it down the road to some neighbors as we didn't have anything to humanely deal with it. By then the raccoon had woken up and they were a little surprised by this angry raccoon in a sack.
I live in a suburb and our back yard is fenced with 5 foot tall stock yard. We have two boxers and this allows them to run around without worrying the neighbors.
We regularly get at least 1-2 large Possums and 1 or so Raccoons in our back yard every year. I can always tell because it is at night and the dogs are going crazy outside.
I always manage to bring the dogs in he house and then I get my 7 1/2 foot pole arm. It usually only takes one hit (I generally do a second and third just to make sure since I worry if they are rabid). Blunt trauma does its job very well.
I remember one night I thought it was raining when I killed a possum this way. Well, that is, until I went inside and looked in the mirror. It looked like I had just murdered someone, I had blood all over myself. Luckily the wife was in bed and I had a chance to clean up before I went to bed.
It also shouldn't be to job of the government to do what a farmer should be capable of doing. Plus, with as crafty as this last coon is, animal control would probably give up.
Groundhog vs. bardiche didn't work out well for the groundhog.
You need something with some mass and an edge.
See, if something's pissed off at you, if you can make it smaller, it's usually less of a threat.
And nowhere near as mobile.
But, ya gotta swing like you mean it.
"As far as setting down a drinking horn, historical records show that proper Viking etiquette was to simply jam the pointy end into the nearest non-Germanic person should one need his hands free...
y'know, if you had to pee....."
Violante de la Fuente wrote:Why don't you just call animal control or an exterminator to get him out and relocate him?
Lack of necessity, pride, economic common sense, love of a great story, not wanting to contribute to the American public's rapid slide into infantile dependence...(and the list goes on.)
Fair enough. My only interaction with raccoons aside from the usual trash-rambling when we lived 15 minutes off the paved road was in college, when a family of raccoons took up residence in the attic of our dorm. The babies chewed a hole in the ceiling tile and tumbled out into the 3rd floor hallway, with mother in hot pursuit. My best friend (the RA at the time) and I had to evacuate the floor, call animal control, and I believe they took them out into the county after they caught them.
I just thought that was standard procedure - get people to catch your raccoons, release them in unpopulated areas.
"Violent optimism in the face of all evidence to the contrary is the Alpha form of outrage these days. It really freaks people out." - Grant Morrison
Violante de la Fuente wrote:Fair enough. My only interaction with raccoons aside from the usual trash-rambling when we lived 15 minutes off the paved road was in college, when a family of raccoons took up residence in the attic of our dorm. The babies chewed a hole in the ceiling tile and tumbled out into the 3rd floor hallway, with mother in hot pursuit. My best friend (the RA at the time) and I had to evacuate the floor, call animal control, and I believe they took them out into the county after they caught them.
I just thought that was standard procedure - get people to catch your raccoons, release them in unpopulated areas.
Standard procedure here involves a .22 hollow point, repeat as necessary.
Brynjolfr Hrafnsson wrote:I killed a muskrat my dogs had cornered with a nerf fungal bat...sometimes its amazing hard to get to the weapon you want or need, and you just have to make due with what you have.
I would have loved a poleaxe =)
Guy I worked with killed a groundhog with a plastic whiffle bat, while holding his dog back with his other hand.
Vermin wrote:Groundhog vs. bardiche didn't work out well for the groundhog.
You need something with some mass and an edge. See, if something's pissed off at you, if you can make it smaller, it's usually less of a threat. And nowhere near as mobile.
But, ya gotta swing like you mean it.
Was that before, or after, you went the other way, with groundhog chasing you, after you realized they have back doors?
Living in the burbs of Wash D.C., Raccoons are an increasing problem due to the restrictions placed on citizens. And the laws that prohibit you from taking any action yourself. In the past I've had several racoons hauled off by animal control from work and home (A gratis to taxpayers) which used to come out and take the animals themselves. Until a few years ago, they would rent you a non leathal trap for $25, and then when YOU cought the animal, they would come out and remove it (I was told the coons would be euthenized).
You were not to hunt or kill racoons even if you have a hunting license, because I was told it is illegal to hunt in residential areas. So, I did what every good automoton does and followed their instruction to capture the racoons.
A few months ago (maybe 2), I came across a couple of young racoons in the yard after a long deluge of rain (no sign of parents), and threw on some welding gloves, snatched them up and tossed them in a plastic tub, and called the Animal control # which is now an automated service. After about an hour of calling redirected numbers, I was called back by someone reportedly from "Animal control" and I was told "Racoons are federally protected. You have to let them go on their way".
Well my jaw just about went through the floor. I wanted the moron on the phone to tell me how they could make a rabies carrying, trash can riffling, nasty rodent like a racoon federally protected. In typical Washington D.C. beaurocratic fashion, The person was completely useless with regards to directing me to any source of said "law" protecting racoons, or any federal agency or number I could call to reference who I should talk to about potenial raccoon issues.
The end result is that, through extensive research I can find no law protecting racoons, nor any penalties for killing a racoon. (though it is illegal to shoot a firearm, shoot a bow or "hunt" in residential areas). And though it greatly bothers me that I pay insanely high taxes, part of which goes to a department that serves no further services then to return phone calls and say "we don't do that anymore", my recommendation to anyone if you have a raccoon or other rodent issue, is to off it yourself in a Sentorial hooker fashion.
Dig a nice deep hole in your own property. Wait until late at night when no one is looking. Chop it's head off and throw it in the hole (preferably with a bit of lye), and never talk about it again. If it's near the end of your term, you want to make sure you put some plantings over the area of disturbed earth. Rose bushes or some other perenials are nice.
Oh, and raccoons aren't really all that hard to kill. You just need to treat them like a zombie. Once their head is clean off, and the body stops twitching, they can't hurt you (I don't think fleas can carry rabies). But you can't just stab them and expect them to fall over dead. Unless the blow severs the spinal cord or punctures the heart, they are totally capable of coming at you still. And they have claws and teeth unlike anything you would expect from an animal 1/5th your body weight.
If I didn't know better, I'd swear raccoons are like an alien or prehistoric monster rat. They can have fangs like a friggin wolf. Don't underestimate them.
-Cian
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. - Anonymous
When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality. -Thomas Jefferson
In all seriousness. Lye works wonders. I tastes sweet they lick their paws, and then lick it, and before ya know it DEAD vermin.
1 con, if you can't find it you will have to wait while the smell of dead animal waftes through the house. However, they usually wind up not getting far, so if you know they are inside sprinkle it on all of the in's and outs you think they are using and when they leave and track through it hopefully will die outside.
We used to put down lye to keep skunks from crawling under the porch back home on the ranch.
You also need to ensure your own pets are controlled or only put it down where your animals can't lick it.
(old country boy stuck in LA)
Patraic O'Ceallaigh
Baron of Lyondemere
If you are not having fun you aren't doing it right!
Get a live trap and bate it with sardines. Coons will sit quiet and calm like and give you big sad eyes while you put the .22 barrel up to their heads.
"A man who does not attack evil defends good but half-way."
Robert Schumann
kclayton wrote:In general, cultures which promote learning and admire intelligence generate teachers.
In general, cultures which look down on those things, do not.
Well, I don't have any stories or opinions on killing cute furry animals with medieval weponry/whiffle bats, but I'll second Cian's experience with the local government officials in DC. I had my share of facepalm moments during my four years up there, particularly with the DMV. Talk about a place that I'd like to take a bec de corbin into.
Possums, raccoons and starlings get a .22. Muskrats get 6 oz birdshot. Coyotes get either .22 or .223. depending on range and time of day. Feral Toms get whatever i grab. Farm does happen.
Damon wrote:In their own little world they are like this huge evil overlord however in the grand scheme of things they are just this sad little hamster going squeek squeek squeek in their own little ball.
My dad hated them. They used to come into the open part of the barn, walking through the cow poop, then wash those evil little paws in the drinking cup, then trundle off and eat silage oout of the bunk.
Poop in the water=cows don't drink water. Milk is a LOT of water, so if cows don't have access to water, the milk production goes down.
Had to clean the poop out of the drinking cup every morning:(
Did I mention I HATE raccoons?
Sean F. Ryan
Writer's Tears is comparable to an angel standing on the edge of a cloud peeing on the back of your tongue!
Last summer we got those damned gophers. Well, not really, gophers, but ground squirrels (it's a twitch of the local dialect that they call them gophers).
Little buggers, really, but a bunch of them. Because they breed like, well, rodents.
My brilliant idea is to shove the hose down their hole and turn on the spigot. This nearly works. But I'm impatient, and I pull the hose too soon. Out of the hole erupts about a dozen of the little maniacs, scrambling for cover.
Naturally, I'm not dressed for the occasion. No gloves, no shoes, even. I can't stomp my way out or anything. So I start laying about myself with the garden sprayer, which I thoughtfully removed because it wouldn't fit in the hole.
I did manage to get 3 of them before they all disappeared (and you thought SCA combat wasn't good for anything). Seriously, without training, I wouldn't have killed any. If I'd had gloves and shoes I'd have probably got them all (because I'd have slapped my hand over the hole immediately and kept the water running).
Imagine me in the dead of night, flailing around with a sprayer. Broke the sprayer, too. Cheap junk.
Didn't see any this spring, but I baited the holes I could find, just in case.
We live right on the edge of town, and are always getting raccoons, skunks and even fishers(sp) in our back yard. Coons wreck stuff, skunks are stinky, and the fishers are just plain deadly, they fear nothing and have to be killed on sight. the cops dont like it when you start shooting up the neighborhood at 3 in the morning so Ive taken to using my big double recurve ( 90 lb pull ) with hand made 3/8 diameter shaft oak arrows with razor sharp broadheads. each arrow weighs about 4 oz.
So far its me 8 and fishers 1 (they got one of my arrows, I know I hit it, it just ran off with it stickin out, and I never did find it.)
I just use the arrows on the fishers, the coons and skunks get my paintball gun on full auto , ( fishers will attack dogs and small kids, even smaller adults)
everyone in our neighborhood has killed or trapped at least 2 or 3 varmint in the last few years, I dont know where their all comming from but the MNR wont do anything to eradicate them so we just have kind of a neighborhood watch for them and have our back fence get togethers on the weekend to keep everyone up to date.
FrauHirsch wrote:I think it is amazing how many people do not understand that raccoons are omnivorous and will eat your cats and chickens if they can. A lot of city people figure they just eat the eggs.
Oh yeah. One of the scarest moments for me was when a racoon turned on us at a dumpster and charged at me and my wife. We ran like hell from that thing! (unarmed)
Course I had this same experience with a giant Florida cockroach...
(and to keep this on topic) I was in a business suit with a briefcase, so I didn't have any weapons to try on it...
