Raccoons

**Jsaults** · 11-23-2011, 11:52

My feelings exactly. "Coons may look cutesy and cuddly, but they are disease carriers (at least in WV) and do much damage. Miserable animals IMHO. One sidled up to my cousin while she was reading a book while seated on her porch in Indiana PA. Rubbed up against her leg, and she thought it was her cat. She reached down to pet it, the 'coon scratched her, and she had to endure a series of rabies shots.

Jim

**Cookie** · 11-29-2011, 16:33

Originally Posted by Campdavid

A few years back while camping in Wisconsin, the ranger mentioned that the coons were very aggressive and persistent because some campers had been hand feeding them. He was right, our first night they were all over us. There was one that was huge, like a freaking dog. No matter how much we yelled at them and threw things at them, they just kept coming back.....well that is until I had had enough and shot one. Hated to do it but at some point it just gets ridiculous. I am not sure if it was the gun oil, the noise or their dead friend but they did not come back to our site that weekend.

FYI....I do not recommend discharging a firearm in a Wisconsin state park.

Friend of mine had a similar solution for a ongoing problem with a gang of raccoons raiding his cabin property. One night he shot the biggest one, tied it on the back of his ATV and drug its carcass around his property. Guess the others got the message and never showed up again.

**Acer** · 11-29-2011, 18:39

I watched my uncle jump into a small lake to save one of his coon hounds as a large coon rapped himself around the dog's head and tried to drown the dog as we were coon hunting, when I was a kid. His comment was as he was stomping on the critter,,its the easiest, best way for a coon,,,to ruin a good coon dog forever..scaring or almost drownding him in a good fight. They definitely do know how to defend themselves and are in no way afraid to do so and are very adapt at figuring out any situation, what to do in order to survive..super intelligent as far as animals go..and can eventually figure out whatever they set out to do as well. I have even seen them chew a foot off when in a trap..to set themselves free...this animal will adapt to man's living patern,,and outsurvive us.

**riverkeeper** · 12-01-2011, 17:24

No coon problems or even sightings or tracks in 32+ years in the Cascades or Olympics or the Sierras where I've worked...Cougars will take care of business.

**FLRider** · 12-02-2011, 00:11

I think my favorite 'coon memory was when I was in high school.

A couple of friends of mine--let's call them A and B for convenience's sake--had to stop at a local gas station to get a drink. I remained in the car while they were getting the sodas, listening to the radio at a fairly high volume.

Well, friend A comes out of the store. As friend B comes out, B pushed A into the bushes out front as a joke (still in high school, remember). A got up and started chasing B. As B rounded the building, a raccoon scurried out directly in his path past the dumpster.

He screamed like an eight-year-old girl (I could hear him over the music) and punted the thing without breaking stride. The 'coon didn't make a sound as it sailed up and over the six-foot security fence behind the place into the wooded patch beyond. The expression on its face somehow managed to convey injured pride rather than actual pain or fear. I'm still not sure how. It's look said something along the lines of, "Really, dude? I mean, really?"

Anyway, I don't tolerate the things on my property. I've got three cats, and I have no intention of letting a 'coon kill one of them (which is entirely possible). However, we haven't had much of an issue with them. Opossums, on the other hand...well, let's just say that underneath the shed is off-limits to the cats after dark during mating season.

**Jakerock** · 12-02-2011, 03:42

Originally Posted by Cookie

Friend of mine had a similar solution for a ongoing problem with a gang of raccoons raiding his cabin property. One night he shot the biggest one, tied it on the back of his ATV and drug its carcass around his property. Guess the others got the message and never showed up again.

Thats real nice. Your friend is a genius.

**Oms** · 12-02-2011, 07:09

One way to keep them out from under YOUR hammock, make sure you hang further away from the campfire and food then your buddy. Right Gargoyle?

**Jsaults** · 12-02-2011, 08:27

No smearing peanut butter on the hammock bottom!

Jim

**HamMike** · 12-02-2011, 09:15

Originally Posted by Jsaults

No smearing peanut butter on the hammock bottom!

Jim

On a tent camping trip I waited until my buddy hit the sack in his tent and then laid a big pile of cheetos beside the tent where his head was. He was kept awake for for awhile listening to the sounds of munching.