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Racoon Bandits are smarter than me

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MattCatlin

Member
I have wasted $150 in seed, $100 in fertlizer and $230 on a solar fencer to run 2 hot wires. They have eaten every dogone ear. This last one takes the cake, they made a bridge out of cornstalks over the hot wires shorting out my fence and letting them in. Sign is clear in the mud (bare dirt disced and round up to keep weeds from shorting the fence)no human tracks only coon. I take some solace in the 4 I managed to trap. At a loss here and mad as hell.
 


You gotta put cat food on your frt porch then set inside the door in yer underware and a .44................
 
My brother has a funny story. Big old coon was making noise on his porch late at night. He had gotten a bunch of 38 caliber hollow base wadcutters meant to be shot at targets at low velocity. He thought if he loaded one backwards it would make one hell of a hollowpoint. He then thought he'd load it in a full snort 357 magnum load. So he gets his fancy loads and shoots the coon. The backwards soft lead bullet broke apart on teh coon, not going in far enough to kill it. He ended up shooting it 4 or 5 times to kill it. His wife, not happy. Baby waked up, no romance for a week.
 
There is a corn field just a few hundred yards from my home. There has been corn grown on this field for over 30 years I have been told. And many years ago a guy was hired to kill as many racoons as he could, I was told he killed over 40 of them in a couple days. .22 rifle. I guess the racoons would knock down the stalks and take one bite out of an ear and move to the next one.
 
Same pattern I see. They don't eat the full ear till they have about cleaned your field out, then you will start seeing empty cobs. I haven't trapped since a kid in the mid 80s but I have a dozen traps still. I am going to put dirt hole sets all along the creek this winter. At least staking traps is easier now with the new cable stays and washers.
 

2 wires are not enough. The bottom wire needs to be close enough to the ground that the coons can't get under it, and the 2nd wire needs to be placed so that they can't just step over the bottom wire. The top wire needs to be high enough to stop the deer, and then another wire below the top so the deer can't just duck under the top wire. It seems that the wild critters are getting more desperate and less afraid of humans every year, so we humans have to continually get smarter and more determined at the same time.

I lost a few ears of my first planting of corn. I still don't know who or what the culprit was because I never did see any tracks even though it was muddy. I really think there must be a new variety of raccoons that have sprouted wings.
 
Matt, there is a remedy. It's a concoction that involves coca-cola and fly bait. They sip it, and don't get 10 yards before they're dead. Harsh but fair!
 
Amish neighbor has his kids walk through the patch every night, just before dark, barefoot, never lost a cob. When we had a problem, Dad walked the dog through ours every evening, problem solved. Another neighbor had his patch near enough to the buildings that he put a radio in the patch and lets it play 24/7. he has no problems ether. One day, I stoped by to see him, but he was gone for the day, so I went into the patch and changed the radio station. He still hasn't figured out how the coon did that.
 
Go the fly bait and Coke route. Every year we manage to gbet atleast 10 of them in our patch.

Only thing to look out for is to bury them the very next day, as the fly bait turns their insides into the worst smelling mush you've ever smelled....

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
I think if it were me, I would use the 3 beer system. Drink 3 beers and then drain yourself amidst the corn. I can't believe they would enter an area that smelled strongly of humans.
 
Have used the two wire approach for years. Family decided to not string the wires this summer. Thought there was no corn as it got very weedy. Intended to cultivate it, but rain put a stop to that plan.Well it turns out there is a good crop in the weeds, but absolutely no coon damage. Guess they must have remembered the shocks.lol.
 
I shot three in the barn tonight.

There used to be a lot of coon hunters. I don't know ANYONE who owns a hound anymore.

Paul
 
I ended up putting in a woven wire horse fence,2"x4" mesh, and then a 50 mile electric fencer with wire at the base and at the top all the way around. This keeps everything out but the birds. The electric fence controller needs to be the 10,000 volt model as the smaller ones they ignore. I sat out one night and watched the coons push right past my old one. The smaller fencers apparently don't have enough voltage to get through the fur. I did have one small coon get in the garden with the new fencer and couldn't get back out. He never did.
 

Never had good success with electric fence. If you want to save the sweet corn you must eliminate, not deter, the problem. That means killing every one of the masked bandits.

I have trapped (and shot) 28 raccoon this year along one edge of my sweet corn. They have still managed to destroy half of my first 3 plantings. About $1200 in sweet corn that I would have sold roadside, at market and to a couple of local grocery stores...

I run a half dozen of the mid sized live traps, staked to the ground with a rebar fence post... Coons will tip traps over otherwise and push the door open. Bait em with marshmallows. They love sweet stuff.

Get up at sunrise, grab your cup of coffee, handful of 22 shells and your 22 and take a walk...

Now that the field corn is pollinating the pressure is off of the sweet corn, the coon are attracted to the pollen scent. 4th and subsequent plantings have no coon damage. Walked the fields last night. Have not caught a single coon in a week and a half.
 
HAsn't been my corn...but was my chickens. I lost 9 before I stopped him with the "Golden link_disallowed and Coke" route...dropped him dead face down in the soda, and I haven't had a chicken issue since
 
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