~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:38:58 EDT, wrote:

My experience is that just as you begin to relax again, they return. At
first sign of a raccoon visit, I get out my trap, and then when they do
return, I trap one after another and relocate to a local park in the
Rockies. After a few weeks of cartching nothing, I place the trap back to
the garage.
John Darnielle
Zone 4b

I must be slow to relax. :-\

They were back last night. I was up at 4am to do a check. Only way I knew
they were back was one plant was at the bottom. Nothing else disturbed, no
fish taken. I think that 2nd sprinkler scared them off as they weren't
expecting that. Since it looks like they came from the street side rather
than the backyard we've got a new surprise for them. A 3rd sprinkler that
will hit them as soon as they come under the gate.

What do you bait your trap with, and don't you catch a lot of neighbor's
cats? ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Never a cat or squirrel. I bait the trap with an impossible to resist
concoction of blueberries, ketchup, saltine crackers and peanut butter. :-)

I use to try sleeping next to the window, then when they made the
characteristic "trilling" sound I would wake up and dash out the back door
at them like some kind of scary beast and watch them scamper up a tree. I
would then hose them down with the hose, but a few nights later they would
return, the whole family. The trap solved that. I would catch one after
another, they never seemed able to avoid the trap or learn from their
recently trapped brethren. Been doing this for 5 years now, they seem to
strike every other year.

John Darnielle