|
 |
Adios, says this small raccoon. |
 |
Customer Raccoon Email: We have been trying to trap a raccoon for a few months now but no matter what type of food we leave out on the path to the trap remains uneaten. We have found nothing that it will eat but it continues to climb
our fence nightly to go into our back yard. There is no food or water in our landscaped yard and the only indication of a raccoon is footprints. It doesn’t play with sprinkler heads or anything else. Do you have any idea why we can’t seem
to tempt it with anything? We have tried wet and dry cat food, corn, apples, bread, marshmallows, eggs, sardines, salmon and water. Any advice would be appreciated. We do live at the edge of a small town in Illinois, surrounded with timber
and farm land. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, we get a lot of wild life. Mostly Raccoons and ' possums. One year the raccoons destroyed our roof. They made their home in our chimney. They also helped themselves
to our garden. We had no corn that year even though there were a number of fields all around! Anyway My son, (who by the way looks to be about your age) loaned us his live trap. We baited it with cat food and guess what? We caught cats! So that's
when I went to the web to check out what to bait them with and saw your site. I was blown away with the marsh mellow thing! We are going to try it tonight as we again have a raccoon problem. We think that there may be a family living in our
chimney. If we catch them we will take them out in the country and release them. (Animal control will kill them. We have already checked.) That's NOT an option. So OK. There it is. WAYYYYY more than you wanted to know, HUH? By the way, you have
an interesting web site. I enjoyed all your pics. I wouldn't want your job, but I bet it's never ever boring! Sharon
My Answer: I don't think the type of bait is a factor here. Raccoons will eat almost anything. The problem is your type of trap. This raccoon is likely "trap-shy", and it knows what a trap is, and won't go in. There are many ways
to combat this, starting with using totally different types of traps, or
camouflaging the trap you do have.
If you need wildlife control services in your hometown, click for the National Directory of Wildlife Trappers that I've carefully compiled in every US city.
The raccoon (Procyon lotor), is a common urban animal, and native to North America. Raccoons are easy to recognize, with a black mask and ringed tail, as seen in the above photo.
Raccoons tend to weigh between 10-20 pounds as adults, and live an average of 5 years. They are mostly nocturnal, and are omnivores, and will often eat pet food or garbage. They have
become very acclimated to living in cities and urban areas. They are very strong, excellent climbers, very intelligent, and they are very skilled with their hands, which causes them to
commonly break into homes and attics, where they cause considerable damage, and they also destroy other property, and thus raccoons
are considered pest animals by many people, which is why I remove them. If you want to learn more, please read my How To Get Rid of Raccoons page.
AAAnimal Control is a privately owned wildlife removal and pest control business, located in Orlando Florida. I deal strictly with wild animals. I am not an extermination company, but a critter removal
and control specialist. The above photos are some of the many that I've taken in the field over my years of work. Please email me if
you have any questions about the above photographs, or any questions about
wildlife problems or raccoon control issues.
| |
|
