this rascal ruined my garden!
 

Well, after getting 2 coons, I've bagged my first woodchuck. There are more
to follow I'm sure.
There's a whole colony of them near my garden. Used cantalope for bait.
This fellow is
now relocated and won't be coming back.

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/cwpflanze...=/trap&.view=t

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

in article ,
Charles P at wrote on 6/21/03 8:43 AM:

Well, after getting 2 coons, I've bagged my first woodchuck. There are more
to follow I'm sure.
There's a whole colony of them near my garden. Used cantalope for bait.
This fellow is
now relocated and won't be coming back.

In the good old days during the Great Depression, such creatures would be
relocated to the dinner table. They would not come back either.

Bill

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

holy #$@#, thats a big one!
i hate those DAMN things!

--
read and post daily, it works!
rosie
............................. thereafter I began to question what I had previously taken for granted
and to reason for myself. It was not pleasant, but father had taught me to think.
...........................................Margare t Sanger






"Charles P" wrote in message ...
Well, after getting 2 coons, I've bagged my first woodchuck. There are more
to follow I'm sure.
There's a whole colony of them near my garden. Used cantalope for bait.
This fellow is
now relocated and won't be coming back.

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/cwpflanze...=/trap&.view=t

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 13:00:46 -0500, "rosie readandpost"
wrote:

holy #$@#, thats a big one!
i hate those DAMN things!

You should see one when he gets a ping in the butt...that fat ass
really carries some momentum with it, especially downhill (light speed
all the way to China, never saw him again). I think I got him before
he tasted the garden, otherwise there might've been repeat treatments,
something both of us like to avoid.

Dan

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

Kudos to you for capturing him alive and relocating.

"Charles P" wrote in message
...
Well, after getting 2 coons, I've bagged my first woodchuck. There are
more
to follow I'm sure.
There's a whole colony of them near my garden. Used cantalope for bait.
This fellow is
now relocated and won't be coming back.

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/cwpflanze...=/trap&.view=t

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

"Seeker" wrote:

Kudos to you for capturing him alive and relocating.

Sure, pawn your problems off on someone else. Besides relocating is
illegal in many localities. .22LR HP works very well.

Ross.

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

In article ,
Repeating Decimal wrote:

in article ,
Charles P at wrote on 6/21/03 8:43 AM:

Well, after getting 2 coons, I've bagged my first woodchuck. There are more
to follow I'm sure.
There's a whole colony of them near my garden. Used cantalope for bait.
This fellow is
now relocated and won't be coming back.

In the good old days during the Great Depression, such creatures would be
relocated to the dinner table. They would not come back either.

Bill


The ultimate revenge lies in the pages of the "Humanure Handbook."

Eat the damned rodent (stewed with dumplings!), and when natural urge
arises, deposit one's nightsoil into the toilet container layered with
peatmoss, and eventually return it to the garden.

Thus, the pest becomes compost to enrich the garden. How sweet the cycle
of life!

Allen

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

"Ross Reid" wrote in message

"Seeker" wrote:

Kudos to you for capturing him alive and relocating.

Sure, pawn your problems off on someone else. Besides relocating is
illegal in many localities. .22LR HP works very well.

Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of an urban area a couple blocks
from the police station. I'd have to use a silencer, and I still
could get in trouble. My garden is surrounded by 12 acres of
woods on one side, and is next to a commercial office building
on the other. Animal control told me it was technically illegal
to relocate, but that's what they do anyhow.

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 15:43:51 +0000, Charles P wrote:

Well, after getting 2 coons, I've bagged my first woodchuck. There are
more to follow I'm sure.
There's a whole colony of them near my garden. Used cantalope for bait.
This fellow is
now relocated and won't be coming back.

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/cwpflanze...=/trap&.view=t

During the 1980s I trapped and relocated 50 raccoons and it did me no good
whatsoever, either they were finding their way back or others were taking
their place. I moved them 10 miles away to the other side of a major river
so I don't think that they were finding their way home, but if they were
you have to give them a tremendous amount of respect for accomplishing a
major feat of navigation. Eventually I gave up and just started to name
them. If you name a creature it moves from the category of pest to pet.
For example the woodchuck that lives under my barn is named Turing. BTW I
wouldn't set a trap today, there is a major rabies epidemic among
raccoons, you don't want to go anywhere near them.

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

"B. Joshua Rosen" wrote in message
...

During the 1980s I trapped and relocated 50 raccoons and it did me no good
whatsoever, either they were finding their way back or others were taking
their place.

If that's true, then it's bad news for me, it means I'll have to give up
gardening
or fence my garden. Fencing will be a major hassle and expense.

I moved them 10 miles away to the other side of a major river

I've moved a woodchuck to the other side of the Tennesee river.
No way he's coming back.

Eventually I gave up

If I give up, that means no more beans, brocolli, cabbage, and okra for
starters.

BTW I
wouldn't set a trap today, there is a major rabies epidemic among
raccoons, you don't want to go anywhere near them.

Well, it's impossible for them to bite while in the cage. If one
does attack, I suppose I'll be looking forward to the series
of rabies injections.

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

Sure, pawn your problems off on someone else.

Someone else as in deer? Maybe otters? Relocating to a non-populated area
is the obvious choice. It leads to the same end result with no unnecessary
violence towards the animal.

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 02:27:32 +0000, Charles P wrote:


"B. Joshua Rosen" wrote in message
...

During the 1980s I trapped and relocated 50 raccoons and it did me no
good whatsoever, either they were finding their way back or others were
taking their place.

If that's true, then it's bad news for me, it means I'll have to give up
gardening
or fence my garden. Fencing will be a major hassle and expense.

I moved them 10 miles away to the other side of a major river

I've moved a woodchuck to the other side of the Tennesee river. No way
he's coming back.

Eventually I gave up

If I give up, that means no more beans, brocolli, cabbage, and okra for
starters.

BTW I
wouldn't set a trap today, there is a major rabies epidemic among
raccoons, you don't want to go anywhere near them.

Well, it's impossible for them to bite while in the cage. If one does
attack, I suppose I'll be looking forward to the series of rabies
injections.

Raccoons are very smart animals. One of the things that I had to do when I
was trapping them was to put cinder blocks on top of and and on both sides
of the trap. My raccoons had figured out the latching mechanism on the
Havaheart trap. When one got caught another one would flip open the latch
and press the lever and free the trapped raccoon. The cinder blocks were
to heavy for the raccoons to move (although they tried) so they weren't
able to get to the latch.

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 02:27:32 GMT, "Charles P"
wrote:


"B. Joshua Rosen" wrote in message
. ..

During the 1980s I trapped and relocated 50 raccoons and it did me no good
whatsoever, either they were finding their way back or others were taking
their place.

If that's true, then it's bad news for me, it means I'll have to give up
gardening
or fence my garden. Fencing will be a major hassle and expense.

Or surround it by dogs...that works too.

Wherever I have lived, I have eventually found it best to
bite the bullet and get good fencing. Better to do it
sooner rather than later, IMHO, because it's going to come
to that eventually....

I don't know, however, what fencing would stop raccoons.
I'm not sure ANY fencing would, except maybe electric
fencing.

Pat

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 00:41:32 -0700, Glenna Rose wrote:

writes:


BTW I
wouldn't set a trap today, there is a major rabies epidemic among
raccoons, you don't want to go anywhere near them.

Well, it's impossible for them to bite while in the cage. If one does
attack, I suppose I'll be looking forward to the series of rabies
injections.

It might be a good idea to check with a good medical facility about the
rabies issue and how it is spread if it doesn't require a direct bite.
As I remember, they don't have to bite you directly if you have an open
cut or scratch and some of the saliva gets on it. Just for that reason,
please be certain to wear long, heavy sleeves and leather gloves to
ensure that nothing comes in contact with your skin.

Just one of those times when an extra precaution can go a long way.

Congrats on relocation. That looks like a good area to turn them loose;
they certainly have options as to where to go. The squirrels I have
been relocating go to a park on the lake; no homes nearby but still
"people food" in the garbage cans and lots of nut trees, etc., with
fresh water. I'm not so kind with the possums and turn them loose away
from the park, but near a lot of brush so they at least have a chance
with the hawks and eagles. Tonight, I caught a mouse in the smaller
trap so I guess he/she goes for a ride tomorrow if he/she doesn't manage
to squeeze out before morning. There's one more young possum out there
somewhere and I'm hoping it wanders in soon so it can join its siblings
and mother. The young ones were terribly bold, not old enough to be
afraid and were coming right up on my covered patio (and enclosed) and
going to the cat's dish with the cat right there in its bed asleep! The
first one we caught was sitting on the lawn furniture cushions looking
in my kitchen window! They are only about half grown, and I feel badly
taking them away from their "home" (wherever it is when they're not in
my yard), it's not their fault they were born there . . . but it sure
isn't mine either! I don't feel badly enough to let them have the run of
the yard and reproduce more of the vicious things in our neighborhood!
This last one was curled up asleep in the corner when I went out to take
it elsewhere. Darn it all, anyway, they should have been born
elsewhere, all the pests we must deal with should have been born
elsewhere.

Glenna

Is there any particular reason to relocate a possum or a mouse? Raccoons
will destroy a garden, a mouse certainly won't and I don't think a possum
will either. Trying to relocate mice is a hopeless task anyway, they
reproduce in the thousands. Possums also have a very high reproduction
rate, much higher than you would expect for an animal that size.

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

B. Joshua Rosen said:

Is there any particular reason to relocate a possum or a mouse? Raccoons
will destroy a garden, a mouse certainly won't and I don't think a possum
will either.

Meadow mice/voles can certainly *damage* gardens. Maybe not in one session,
like a groundhog, but they can be destructive. Relocating them is probably more
like delivering snack food to the local predators than it is a rescue. Tiny rodents
can be a problem in my vegetable garden because the fence that keeps out racoons
and groundhogs keeps out most predators.

Possums can destroy corn and will eat ripe fruit, but aren't as aggressive about
it as racoons. The ones I catch locally (when trying for groundhogs) I just let go.
They are very mellow when in traps, and easy to release. They can't make it
into my veggie garden so are not a problem for me.



--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

Congratulations. I know how you feel. They are the rodent from Hell. They
just eat enough of a plant to kill it, then on to the next. I plug them with
a .22 early in the spring when they are out on a rock sunning themselves and
BEFORE they get a chance to reproduce. I have had good results using a live
trap with apple slices or fresh carrots as bait.

Farmer John

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

"Seeker" writes:

Someone else as in deer? Maybe otters? Relocating to a
non-populated area is the obvious choice. It leads to the same end
result with no unnecessary violence towards the animal.

Most people don't live anywhere near a non-populated area large enough
to relocate a raccoon without giving it to someone else. I live in a
rural area with only 3 other houses within site of my place, and
there's nowhere in this county I could dump a coon where it wouldn't
be within easy range of another person's garden or chickens.

I have no problems with shooting them (better that than spreading
disease and passing the buck by relocation) but that may not help your
garden much. Other coons will soon move into the vacated territory,
so unless you're prepared to be a vigilant hunter all season, you may
have to resort to electric fence or dogs. I've heard of people around
here putting out poison and killing dozens, or even hundreds, of coons
within a matter of days. They cover a lot of territory.


--
Aaron

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

"B. Joshua Rosen" writes:

Is there any particular reason to relocate a possum or a mouse?
Raccoons will destroy a garden, a mouse certainly won't and I don't
think a possum will either. Trying to relocate mice is a hopeless
task anyway, they reproduce in the thousands. Possums also have a
very high reproduction rate, much higher than you would expect for
an animal that size.

Mice spread disease and are just generally filthy if they get into
your house. They should be relocated into the belly of a cat.

Possums won't bother a garden much except for ripe corn, and even then
not as voraciously as coons. But they'll kill chickens and other fowl
when they get a chance, and they're vicious critters when cornered. A
dog or small child that corners one could be in for a nasty time. If
I caught one in a trap, I certainly wouldn't dump it on someone else,
and I'd make sure it wasn't in any shape to bite me when I got close
enough to open the trap.


--
Aaron

this rascal ruined my garden!
 

All you assholes that relocate varmints "somewhere else" are just palming your
problems off on someone else. You are really no different than the kind folks
that cannot bear to take an unwanted dog or cat to the pound where it might be
destroyed so you dump it out in the country. I have had to shoot several stray
dogs in the past years. Several that were so sick and starved that I could not
tell if they were rabid and one that sat on my porch and snarled at anyone who
tried to come out the door. I stopped loaning my live trap to my city dwelling
friends because the coons and possoms they trapped were in someone elses garden
or trash cans the next day. If you don't have a rain barrel or pond to drownd
trapped varmits in or a .22 or pellet gun to shoot them just live with them.
Don't force them on someone else. If you have a big bag of smelly trash and it
is several days til garbage collection do you drive out in the country to "get
rid of it"?

this rascal ruined my garden!