Ok, so I'm lying in bed sleeping last night, when the Mrs. wakes me up with the proverbial "did you hear that?". So, I sit up in bed and listen for whatever she heard. After a few moments, I hear a scratching noise, but can not figure out where it is coming from right away. I am assuming it is one of our cats screwing around with one of the kids toys, or something. I lay back down, and now the scratching is getting more persistent, and more annoying. Now I have to get out of bed, and per the Mrs. orders account for all of the pets (to ensure none of them has been locked in a closet). With this brief task completed, I still can hear the scratching, and it is now worked in to a frenzied pace, and is quite a bit louder. I throw some clothes and a jacket on and go outside to see if I can find the noise, as by this time I have determined it is not coming from inside the house. I grab a flashlight, and head out to the front yard, look up and see a whopper (25 pounds or so) of a racoon trying to claw her way through my (brand new) roof into my attic :cussing: . This vermin must be terminated. Herein lies my problem now. I have two young boys at home, thus no firearms are kept in the house. I do however know that my neighbor (who is a great friend and is moving away in a month :( ) has plenty of guns and stuff. So I give him a call (yes I am aware of the time (11PM), but also aware of the situation) and ask for his assistance. He says he will be right over. I meet him in the front yard and all he has with him is his son's pellet gun with a scope on it :crazy: . He has all of his guns "stored" for the move. Anyways, I spot the 'coon and shine him while Wally "sights him in" and squeezes off a round right into her backside. She lets out a grunt, jumps about two feet and waddles laterally along the roof line to the other end of the house. Wally pumps up and shoots her again, but it is becoming obvious to us that the pellets are not phasing this vermin. After another shot, she decides to slide down the downspout and make a run for it. I am now thinking good, she's gone. Back to bed. 4AM rolls around, and I can hear her climbing the downspout again, but this time I just open the back door and make alot of noise and throw some rocks at her (yes quite lame, but it's all I've got at 4AM) to scare her off. The racoon runs away. Back to bed. 5AM, and the phone rings. It's Wally (my neighbor). He is calling to thank me. It seems the racoons (yes now 2 of them) have taken off a vent cap on his roof, and made their way into his attic. Well, at least they won't bother me anymore today. Now I need to repair my (brand new) roof :cussing: , with rain forecasted for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and kill a no good racoon or two. My question is would you live trap them, or kill 'em?

I vote for the death penalty (as does Wally), but my wife does not want me to kill them.

Sorry, can't help to with the decision, but have to tell you shamefully that I just about fell off my chair reading about your misfortune. Good Luck which-ever way you go.

Originally posted by CORY9@Mar 23 2005, 12:44 PM
Sorry, can't help to with the decision, but have to tell you shamefully that I just about fell off my chair reading about your misfortune. Good Luck which-ever way you go.
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It is ok to laugh, I can laugh about it now. I guess that's why we pay for insurance. I was quite steamed this morning though when I got a look at the roof. Time, and telling the story to everyone at work and here seems to be a great venting tool. :undercover:


SWRules

:undercover: Kill them I dont know about Wisconsin but here in Michigan some of them carry rabbies.Good luck a 22 works very well.

I am a farm boy and I say shoot the little bugger! Live trap her and if you don't take her far away enough she will be back.

A pellet gun, come on those are some thick hides :!: I did get one with an air gun that shot pellets though. He was chasing the chickens in broad daylight so we figured he was not all there (rabies or something).

EDIT: I second the 22

kill her and then hang her in a tree for all the other racoons to see, actually just kill her and then sell her hide. hanging it will cuase to much trouble, a guy did that around here, he shot a few crows that were roosting by his house and hung them in the trees, the other thousand crows never came back. once the news got ahold of that well what a comotion it caused.

I have a coon in the attick too :( The 22 stays there now cuz I never got a shot off. Once I hear him again the gun is there all I have to do is load it ;).

Mama coon is looking for a place to have her babies. ...lol
And she has choosen your Attic

Good luck with your problem... been there many times and it's never fun getting ride of them. Not at my house though ...a yard full of hounds for some reason seems to keep most of them away :)

My suggestion for safety and preservation of the nieghbourhood in the middle of the night would be to live trap them with some tastey left overs....and then kill the little buggers, before they become someone else's problem.

BTW the hides are no good this time of year , the meat how ever would make a nice stew !

Didn't know that about the hides. Are they molting (sp) this time of year or something?

Live trap them and keep em alive for 6 months. :lmao:

Not sure of the seasons in all the States and Provinces but generally from mid Oct to the end of Jan is the "hide season" . The hides at this time of year would be all matted ( from being in the dens)and the insulating hair is starting to come out thus rendering the hide worthless. Even a good hide these days is not worth much...it's been a tough sell around here this year with prices lower than they should be.

The best I averaged in the last 20 years of hide hunting was $32 CND/ hide going rate this season was about $13 CDN.

Originally posted by IndySKS@Mar 23 2005, 05:32 PM
... the meat how ever would make a nice stew !
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...mmmm stew... :devil:

Get the general impression you guys don't like those destructive little varmints!!!!!!!! Yeah, unfortunately shooting's probably the way to go. With a real gun that is! :lmao:

everone needs a .22 you never know when your going to have to waste a rodent :D My ruger 10/22 (acutually a 25 shot .22 now) never failed me perfect for plucking off ghopers!

If you get them in the right spot a pellet gun will do the trick. I have a .20 caliber Benjamin Sheridan and I've killed a couple of big coons with it. There was one though in our pear tree that I couldn't get a good head shot on and hit him in the body. He fell out of the tree and I had to finish him off with a shovel. It was quite a gruesome scene. The wife wonders why I kill them, but with the possiblity of rabies and with all of the kids around, I don't think twice about putting a pellet in their head.

I vote for the death penality also.
And just for the record, racoon sloppy joes are very good. I fed them to my friends a couple months ago at our annual wild game night.

FishHog

Well, we had the .22 all loaded up and ready last night. We waited for hours for the bugger to come out of Wally's attic, but to no avail. I think she's birthing those little :cussing: rodents in there. Tonight we bait her out of there and then blammo!!! lead poisioning (in the head). The unfortunate thing is having to find out if she gave birth, and if so getting the little rats out of the attic then.

BTW the first estimate for the repair to my roof is $1200.00 :cussing: :cussing:

And, I loooovvve sloppy joe's.

Last Saturday, running a trial in Cherry Creek, NY, came upon a beat up nasty looking coon in the middle of the trail in the sunshine-I was thinking there is something way wrong-luckily it waddled off the trail before we got to it.

I could probably come up with a few good ideas for getting rid of them...
Send them to my place; we'll have some fun.
http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forum/index...showtopic=45968 (http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=45968)

Originally posted by Bluehaze@Mar 23 2005, 11:00 AM
Ok, so I'm lying in bed sleeping last night, when the Mrs. wakes me up with the proverbial "did you hear that?".* So, I sit up in bed and listen for whatever she heard.* After a few moments, I hear a scratching noise, but can not figure out where it is coming from right away.* I am assuming it is one of our cats screwing around with one of the kids toys, or something.* I lay back down, and now the scratching is getting more persistent, and more annoying.* Now I have to get out of bed, and per the Mrs. orders account for all of the pets (to ensure none of them has been locked in a closet).* With this brief task completed, I still can hear the scratching, and it is now worked in to a frenzied pace, and is quite a bit louder.* I throw some clothes and a jacket on and go outside to see if I can find the noise, as by this time I have determined it is not coming from inside the house.* I grab a flashlight, and head out to the front yard, look up and see a whopper (25 pounds or so) of a racoon trying to claw her way through my (brand new) roof into my attic* :cussing: .* This vermin must be terminated.* Herein lies my problem now.* I have two young boys at home, thus no firearms are kept in the house.* I do however know that my neighbor (who is a great friend and is moving away in a month* :( ) has plenty of guns and stuff.* So I give him a call (yes I am aware of the time (11PM), but also aware of the situation) and ask for his assistance.* He says he will be right over.* I meet him in the front yard and all he has with him is his son's pellet gun with a scope on it* :crazy: .* He has all of his guns "stored" for the move.* Anyways, I spot the 'coon and shine him while Wally "sights him in" and squeezes off a round right into her backside.* She lets out a grunt, jumps about two feet and waddles laterally along the roof line to the other end of the house.* Wally pumps up and shoots her again, but it is becoming obvious to us that the pellets are not phasing this vermin.* After another shot, she decides to slide down the downspout and make a run for it.* I am now thinking good, she's gone.* Back to bed.* 4AM rolls around, and I can hear her climbing the downspout again, but this time I just open the back door and make alot of noise and throw some rocks at her (yes quite lame, but it's all I've got at 4AM) to scare her off.* The racoon runs away.* Back to bed.* 5AM, and the phone rings.* It's Wally (my neighbor).* He is calling to thank me.* It seems the racoons (yes now 2 of them) have taken off a vent cap on his roof, and made their way into his attic.* Well, at least they won't bother me anymore today.* Now I need to repair my (brand new) roof* :cussing: , with rain forecasted for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and kill a no good racoon or two.* My question is would you live trap them, or kill 'em?

I vote for the death penalty (as does Wally), but my wife does not want me to kill them.
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CALL PERFORMEX=HE'S THE MAN IN SUCH CRITICAL SITUATIONS!! :lmao: :lmao:

had a coon in my attic also and man want a mess it made. not only did it chew through the shingles and ply wood it piled up all the insulation in one corner for a nest. man that had to be ichy. when cleaning it up, we found it also chewwed the insulation off some of the wiring. boy are we lucky it didn't cause a fire as the wires were bear. would have thought it would have shocked it to death, but oh no rezilant little buggers. stae farm was there for 1646.27 shot, shovel, and shut up.