Random Thoughts Thread

[old_gregg]

Don't shoot native wildlife, just secure your trashcans.

I get racoons and possums in my yard (and my trashcan) at least once a week. They don't harm anything and having to cleanup a little trash every now and then is a small price to pay for the benefits they bring to the environment, including eating rats and mice and ticks.

why shoot them when you can just throw the whole trap in a garbage can filled with water

[Northwestcoug]

Of course raccoons climb trees. I thought that was common knowledge. Someone didn't read Where the Red Fern Grows during their childhood.

I did read it, but I only remember sadness and death.

yeah honestly this was new to me and my wife. At dusk the raccoon climbed down that tree, crossed our driveway, and….climbed up another one. It was probably waiting for dark to eat my fish.

[BigPiney]

I did read it, but I only remember sadness and death.

yeah honestly this was new to me and my wife. At dusk the raccoon climbed down that tree, crossed our driveway, and….climbed up another one. It was probably waiting for dark to eat my fish.

I remember it having a upbeat ending.

[wuapinmon]

I remember it having a upbeat ending.

That was Old Yeller.

[myboynoah]

That was Old Yeller.

lol

[myboynoah]

why shoot them when you can just throw the whole trap in a garbage can filled with water

Ha. My father found a raccon had set up residence on an upper shelf in his shed. He wasn't a trapper, so he did the Dude thing and shot it with his 22 pistol. He then realized it was a mother. The kids got the trash can/water method. He gave us the "what is your problem?" look when we were aghast when he told us this. He grew up a farmer.

[Pelado]

Of course raccoons climb trees. I thought that was common knowledge. Someone didn't read Where the Red Fern Grows during their childhood.

Didn't read it, but did watch the movie a few times.

[Northwestcoug]

I remember it having an ol.upbeat ending.

Lol.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Don't shoot native wildlife, just secure your trashcans.

I get racoons and possums in my yard (and my trashcan) at least once a week. They don't harm anything and having to cleanup a little trash every now and then is a small price to pay for the benefits they bring to the environment, including eating rats and mice and ticks.

We used to leave our garage door open a crack so the cats could come and go. One day my wife went out in the garage and there was a big raccoon there. He had pried open our 5-gallon bucket of cat food and spread it all over the floor. He was 3-4 ft from the door to the house and my wife screamed. He just look at her and started to snarl. The cats avoided the garage for weeks. Happened 2-3 times before I got a live trap and started trapping the little buggers. Sometimes I would shoot them and one time I called animal control because I didn't want to deal with the carcass in the middle of the summer. The animal control officer came and administered a dose of something via a needle attached to the end of a golf club shaft. I asked him if he gets called out frequently for raccoons. He told me about a guy who I happen to know that lives a few blocks away near the edge of town. He said, "I just came from his place. He trapped raccoon #75."

Our neighbors got a family of raccoons nesting in their chimney. That might sound like an easy problem to solve, but it was a nightmare to get them out. They didn't want any of them to die in the chimney.

My brother on the other end of the valley built a chicken coop and had a nice flock of chickens and they were loving farm fresh eggs. Then the raccoons found the coop and killed every single chicken. He tried to trap them but they killed all the chickens before he could catch them all.

Racoons are an invasive species in Utah and they do a ton of damage. You say you like that the raccoon eat rats and mice. Raccoons are nothing more than big rats with puffy tails and cute faces.

[smokymountainrain]

We used to leave our garage door open a crack so the cats could come and go. One day my wife went out in the garage and there was a big raccoon there. He had pried open our 5-gallon bucket of cat food and spread it all over the floor. He was 3-4 ft from the door to the house and my wife screamed. He just look at her and started to snarl. The cats avoided the garage for weeks. Happened 2-3 times before I got a live trap and started trapping the little buggers. Sometimes I would shoot them and one time I called animal control because I didn't want to deal with the carcass in the middle of the summer. The animal control officer came and administered a dose of something via a needle attached to the end of a golf club shaft. I asked him if he gets called out frequently for raccoons. He told me about a guy who I happen to know that lives a few blocks away near the edge of town. He said, "I just came from his place. He trapped raccoon #75."

Our neighbors got a family of raccoons nesting in their chimney. That might sound like an easy problem to solve, but it was a nightmare to get them out. They didn't want any of them to die in the chimney.

My brother on the other end of the valley built a chicken coop and had a nice flock of chickens and they were loving farm fresh eggs. Then the raccoons found the coop and killed every single chicken. He tried to trap them but they killed all the chickens before he could catch them all.

Racoons are an invasive species in Utah and they do a ton of damage. You say you like that the raccoon eat rats and mice. Raccoons are nothing more than big rats with puffy tails and cute faces.

yup. if the critter is worse than what it is supposed to eliminate, kill the critter.

[Bo Diddley]

Our neighbors got a family of raccoons nesting in their chimney. That might sound like an easy problem to solve, but it was a nightmare to get them out. They didn't want any of them to die in the chimney.

Very same thing happened to our next door neighbors last year.

[All-American]

Very same thing happened to our next door neighbors last year.

They died in the chimney?!?

[Bo Diddley]

They died in the chimney?!?

Thankfully just stuck.

[wuapinmon]

We used to leave our garage door open a crack so the cats could come and go. One day my wife went out in the garage and there was a big raccoon there. He had pried open our 5-gallon bucket of cat food and spread it all over the floor. He was 3-4 ft from the door to the house and my wife screamed. He just look at her and started to snarl. The cats avoided the garage for weeks. Happened 2-3 times before I got a live trap and started trapping the little buggers. Sometimes I would shoot them and one time I called animal control because I didn't want to deal with the carcass in the middle of the summer. The animal control officer came and administered a dose of something via a needle attached to the end of a golf club shaft. I asked him if he gets called out frequently for raccoons. He told me about a guy who I happen to know that lives a few blocks away near the edge of town. He said, "I just came from his place. He trapped raccoon #75."

Our neighbors got a family of raccoons nesting in their chimney. That might sound like an easy problem to solve, but it was a nightmare to get them out. They didn't want any of them to die in the chimney.

My brother on the other end of the valley built a chicken coop and had a nice flock of chickens and they were loving farm fresh eggs. Then the raccoons found the coop and killed every single chicken. He tried to trap them but they killed all the chickens before he could catch them all.

Racoons are an invasive species in Utah and they do a ton of damage. You say you like that the raccoon eat rats and mice. Raccoons are nothing more than big rats with puffy tails and cute faces.

I didn't know that they were invasive; a half-assed internet search makes it seem that they expanded their range into Utah naturally as a result of human alteration of the landscape into suburbia. I assumed that their range went from sea to sea, since I know that they're native west of yall. As for your garage problem, your cats are far more invasive and destructive than any racoon. As for your brother's chickens, you might be SHOCKED, SHOCKED to learn that people in the native range of the racoon successfully raise chickens. Also, almost every house around here has a screen around the chimney to prevent racoons and chimney swifts from nesting.

But, I do recognize that nuisance species are nuisances. I have a BB gun to plink squirrels off my roof when they start damaging the fascia because squirrels.

[clackamascoug]

Racoons are also rabies carriers - they can go mad and foam at the mouth - like the one in our yard that I hit with a shovel - and then cut its head off by stomping on the blade.