You can get a live (box) trap for under $100 that should be big enough for raccoons.  The absolute best bait is jelly doughnuts, preferably fruit filling, not spicy.  Once they are in the trap you can shoot them for a clean and essentially painless execution.  I've also know people to electrocute them by placing the trap on a rubber pad and attaching the wires of a household plug, one at each end.  It kills the raccoons before the circuit breaker trips.  You should NOT trap raccoons if you plan to release them elsewhere.  This is utterly unethical, verging on immoral, as you are just moving your problem to someone else.  Raccoons prefer to live around people because we provide much of what they like and/or need, rather like rats.  So someone else will then have to deal with damage from your raccoons, and it is your fault, absolutely.  And they will be unable to trap the raccoons because they are smart, and will not enter a trap again once you have taught them that it is dangerous.  Our dog kills them, also, but that is a secondary control.  They are tasty. If we have extra, we cook it and feed it to the chickens, sort of frontier justice.  :-)

Dan Hemenway

In a message dated 7/5/07 4:14:02 PM, cory8570@yahoo.com writes:


OK, we now have some very slick raccoons that come in our nursury at nighttime and do very strange things like empty out pots.   Would like to hear any and all suggestions for handling such other than a big dog or perimeter fence which we can't do right now. 

Cory






-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barking Frogs Permaculture Center
www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org

Our 12th Annual Permaculture Design Course Online begins Oct. 14, 2007. The protocol for our Annual Permaculture Design Course Online is at http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/Protocol4-23-06.pdf

A complete list of Yankee Permaculture publications by category may be downloaded from:

http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/YPCpublicationsbycategory.pdf



 





**************************************
See what's free at http://www.aol.com.