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Is this wrong?

I am a woman and fond of critters and wild ones dont belong in civilized houses. They carry fleas and ticks and if they bite you they could have rabies (and they got wicked teeth). If they are in your house Animal Control should have jursdiction. If Oakland doesnt have the funds for a decent City Animal Control- do what you must.

I picked up some cheap cayenne pepper in bulk to spread all around the plants I wanted to keep the squirrels and cats from digging up-and it worked. I would sprinkle cayenne liberally around the attic- and find out where they are coming in and board it up!

I am sorry my grandma isnt still alive to consult, she would have happily supplied instructions(with diagrams) for a trap and a recipe to boot!

(I know this because when I wrote her at nine to tell her about the squirrels in the yard that is exactly what she did!)

My grandma had an 8th grade education and I never met a wiser woman.



Good luck with the wife!
 
Celeste, I'm fond of critters,too. I actually will share my garage with the squirrels. That's only because they don't destroy everything or defecate where they nest. Animal control will only deal with cats and dogs. The county Vector Control guy said for me to catch them and eat them! Apparently there's more raccoons than people out here. AND I LIVE IN A CITY!!! There's 18 vector people to work all of Alameda County, which most of it is the boondocks.... None of them have hit my chili plants yet... So I'll just keep the paint gun ready!!!!!!!

I would have loved to meet your grandma. My Sicilian great grandpa used to make pasta sauce from the black birds and crows and rabbits that he shot in his back yard!
 
Skydiver said:
If the babies are young, make one a pet, then slaughter everything else.

I've thought about that. These are pretty much teenager age. Is that too late?

But then, won't I have to get rid of the mamma and the rest of the family to make it work? Can they be litter box trained?
 
Actually, they can be litter trained, but you gotta get them early. Before they hit their teens cause now they'll act like them: possessive, territorial, tempermental, etc.

Let your wife read mine & Celeste's posts... then see what she thinks.

Good luck, and don't forget to seal off that attic.
 
Omri said:
Even when you're on duty here, you can't fire whenever you feel like it... with all that "right to bear arms", I thought you guys could.

Those rights are being whittled away little by little.
 
I used to be a member of the Coon Hunters Association of Chilton county in central Alabama. This being said, to train our dogs, we had to trap the raccoons. If you do decide to trap them, be very careful when you are letting them go... The bites hurt and so does the series of shots you will get at the hospital.

I say eat them too. It has a very unique taste, not unlike rabbit. Just be warned that the meat is really tough, so you may want to boil it first. It is really good in BBQ, veggie soup and chili.

Another option would be to find where they are getting in and put wire mesh over the hole. You could also lube whatever they are using to climb up lol.
 
i really don't think paintballing is the solution. I'd be very put off if I saw my neighbor shooting at animals with a paintball gun. Would that person do the same if other neighbors dogs/cats etc got into his lawn??

I say no go on the shooting. Someone had to balance out the other posts on here right??
 
scarpetti said:
I've thought about that. These are pretty much teenager age. Is that too late?

But then, won't I have to get rid of the mamma and the rest of the family to make it work? Can they be litter box trained?

I'm sorry, yeah, that's too late. Gotta get them when they're just out of the baby phase.
 
If you shoot - shoot to kill.

I don't know if one of those Ultrasonic Repellers work on racoons, but they work well if you want to get rid of rodents IME.
 
if you want deadly silence....

 
AlabamaJack said:
if you want deadly silence....


IThat kids kind of a dork, but I used to make blow guns out of various things and sell them in middle school school when I was a kid. They weren't pleased when they found out who was the source of all of them was, they proved to be quite popular.

If you can use a paintball gun, why not just use a pellet or some other air gun? But even if you do, I highly doubt any air powered gun will do any real damage to a raccoon. How about a crossbow?
 
Ballzworth said:
i really don't think paintballing is the solution. I'd be very put off if I saw my neighbor shooting at animals with a paintball gun. Would that person do the same if other neighbors dogs/cats etc got into his lawn??

I say no go on the shooting. Someone had to balance out the other posts on here right??

Balance? You don't know my neighbors! Most of them would love it. They destroy everything in their path. My next step is to use the paintball gun on the "other neighbors from down the street" that let their dogs crap on my front lawn and don't pick it up!

And also, Ballzworth, when you got raccoon urine and fecal matter staining the ceiling in your house, then YES! They need to be paint balled!!!!! They've tortured me, now it's payback time!!!

And it's also cooler to watch a green, blue or orange raccoon running away from me and my machete at 1 in the morning....
 
AlabamaJack said:
if you want deadly silence....


Thank you so much AJ! I used to make those at my old job. I broke off the tips of my jewelers rasp files and wrapped them in tape and had the perfect blowgun. It was a thick walled cardboard tube, maybe 1/2" diameter barrel. Thanks, for jogging my memory. Now my daughter and I have a new project for the rest of the summer.....

Bye, bye raccoons........
 
scarpetti said:
And it's also cooler to watch a green, blue or orange raccoon running away from me and my machete at 1 in the morning....

lol, probably is... I know you said nah on traps, but the live traps can be fun. My father's caught coons on his farm and dropped them off on his in laws property for over ten years now while he's on his way to work. They're always complaining about having them around, pretty funny.

Any painted coon pics?
 
I remember being on holiday a few years ago. We went to key largo FL and your not allowed to feed them IIRC - I supposed they are like the pigeon problems around town centres in Britain.

I think there was a poster in the hotel warning of fines for feeding them - they all came out at night so somebody obviously was.

Chris
 
MrArboc said:
If you shoot - shoot to kill.

I agree 100% !!!!! & make sure its in the sweet spot (both lungs or heart) theres no need to wound the animal & make it suffer!


AlabamaJack said:
if you want deadly silence....


IMO blowguns are a joke, unless they're dipped in poison or you shoot a very small animal (like rodent size or smaller) all you do is wound the animal & make it suffer.


Thanatopsis said:
If you can use a paintball gun, why not just use a pellet or some other air gun? But even if you do, I highly doubt any air powered gun will do any real damage to a raccoon. How about a crossbow?

giving scarpetti location (oakland,ca) I could bet shooting a airgun is almost the same offense as shooting a regular firearm, some cities still consider airguns as firearms because of the damage they can do. check your local laws.

as for airguns not being powerful enough to kill a raccoon, I say BS! it all depends on the airgun you buy, theres people that hunt with airguns & take down big game including buffalo! granted those airguns are not your typical daisy BB guns ;)
you could go to any hunting store like cabelas & buy a nice airgun with enough power to kill a coon. & they're quite!


if not guns then use a conibear trap w/ 5 gallon bucket w/bait.
 
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