2026 Problems With Raccoons
Raccoons, the criminals of the woods....
I've blogged so many times about raccoons this year. After six years of having chickens, the raccoons have finally discovered the location of my coop and have caused all kinds of troubles for my flock this year.
My first raccoon break-in happened this winter when that black-eyed bandit discovered how to walk through the chicken door while following a chicken on the chase. The raccoon killed four of my birds, and I had trouble getting him out of the coop. Thankfully he hasn't come back through the chicken door again.
Then, this spring, another raccoon was climbing up the chicken wire of my coop trying to grab chickens through the wire pulling handfuls of feathers out while they were perching. We rearranged the roosting bars in the chicken run to be further away from the outside walls of the coop,
In June, my chicken wire started bubbling out, looking like a raccoon was actively trying to pull out the wire to do another break-in. After all these incidents, I decided to become a raccoon trapper. They had to go...
I've used a live animal trap to trap several groundhogs before...another pest who likes to break into the coop. These traps are very easy to use.
In the back of the trap, I place food that will appeal to the type of animal I need to trap. For groundhogs, I add chicken feed for the bait. As soon as they walk through the open door, they have to step on a little lever to get to the bait. The lever than closes the door behind them.
This trap is amazing because:
The animal doesn't get hurt.
It's easy to relocate the animal and release them.
It's easy for a hunter to take out the animal with a gun for an up close shot.
I figured I would use this trap to trap my troublemaking raccoons. I also figured that I would start trapping raccoons like crazy and my raccoon problems would be done. Piece of cake!
Boy, was I wrong!
Raccoons are so, so smart! Too smart!
My Raccoon Trapping Diary goes something like this...
Night 1: Raccoon ate the cat food bait without stepping on the trap door lever.
Night 2: Trap worked! I caught an animal! Oops, I caught a cat. Meet Coral, my new barn cat.
Night 3: Trying new bait...Marshmallows! I found out that marshmallows are better for catching raccoons, because they are the only animal that likes to eat them. I placed the marshmallows in a bowl inside the trap. But, all marshmallows were eaten out of the bowl in the morning, trap door was not activated.
Night 4: Marshmallows were hung with care in the middle of the trap by a string to try to get raccoon to activate trap door. Morning after, all marshmallows are gone from the string.
Night 5: I placed marshmallows into a tall bowl that raccoon would have to lean up and over to get them, hoping this will help them step on the trap door lever. Next morning, all the logs to stabilize the trap have been moved out of the way. That stinky raccoon got to the marshmallows by sticking his hand from the top of the trap and pulling them through the small holes. I found marshmallow fluff all over the top of the trap!
If you are reading my raccoon diary with laughter at my extreme inability to trap a silly little creature, I'm glad at least one of us is laughing! After dedicating FIVE nights of trapping the raccoon trying to break inside my coop, I was QUITE frustrated at the clever little devil! How could I get him? I was quickly going down the Elmer Fudd Twilight Zone!
Like some damsels in distress, I leaned into my Prince Charming, aka my husband, to help me with my predicament.
Prince Charming had the excellent idea of using TWO traps to get the coon.
He placed a hand trap next to the live animal trap. The game plan was to add marshmallows to the live trap. When the raccoon climbed to get the marshmallows from the top of the live trap, his hand would get caught inside the hand trap.
Prince Charming and I left all the windows open on Day 6 of the Raccoon Diaries to hear what was happening outside. We wanted to know the second we caught something!
At midnight, SUCCESS!!! We caught our first raccoon!
Unfortunately, that raccoon met his doom that night, I didn't want him to ever find a way back to my coop.
Prince Charming and I aren't done with our coon trapping days yet....we keep seeing another raccoon walk across our deck every night around midnight. We've tried to trap him a couple times, but he is being quite tricky too.
We are back into the Elmer Fudd Twilight Zone!
Thank you for reading my Country Squawk,
Kelly
I’m sorry to hear of your racoon troubles.
You reminded me of another raccoon story. I was visiting my aunt and uncle, who have two kids who were about six and four years old at the time. It was winter, and they had a bird feeder. They didn’t have anyplace to hang it, however, so they just put it on a picnic table they could see from their kitchen window. Before long, a raccoon found the bird feeder and started to help himself. At first, my aunt didn’t care about the raccoon too much, because the kids liked to see it. The raccoon started to bother my aunt when he figured out how to pick up the…
Yes, raccoons are the smartest critters!! Would you believe Lamar allowed one to live in the barn all summer one year. He even made a small door for him or her to crawl in and out of! Geesh!!
Good luck with the rest of the batch!
I have one stealing my Baltimore Oriole jelly every night.