Word of warning with the live trap approach. Don’t do it if there’s any chance of catching something OTHER than a coon.
My father had some coons wrecking heck with the place so he put out some live traps. It was a comedy of errors.
Day 1: Go out in the morning, see dark shape in trap. Score! On further review, turned out to be neighbor’s cat.
Day 2: Neighbor’s cat proves to be a slow learner. Gets caught 2 days in a row.
Day 3: Neighbor’s cat now proved to be a retread. Bad news is that neighbor saw cat in trap and is now pissed off at dad for catching cat. Bringing up the fact that the cat was a retread and should have learned lesson after being caught 2 previous times did not help neighborly relations.
Day 4: There is an animal in the trap that, for once, is NOT the neighbor’s cat. There is a brief period of general elation.
But on closer inspection, good news turns to bad news as the animal in the trap is a skunk. Not good.
A general confab needs to be held and much internet burned up trying to research how to get a skunk out of a live trap without the obvious happening. Skunk is eventually eliminated without eliminating.
Day 12: More skunks in the area than previously thought. Skunk disposal technique put to the test again. Coons also proving significantly harder to catch than expected.
Day 14: Another day, another cat in the trap. Most likely coons not being caught because they get tired of standing in line for the bait.
And so it went for over a month.
Grouse
