Trap # 2
Now this trap was built out of one quarter inch masonite like material I bought at Home Depot. It was light weight, so I added a little fire wood to make it drop faster and hold the animal. It was 2 ft. by 3 ft. The release was by a cable strung through eye screws into the office. I just had to pull the cable thus pulling the ice pick out of the 4 cable loops holding the trap. The trap drops trapping the animal. Then I slide a bottom under it and clamp it shut.
The trap hung by 4 cables.
The bottom and the clamps to hold the trap shut.
The very next morning after having built the trap and preparing it for operation, I was sitting in the front room when the cat made its usual entry along the arborvitae next to John’s place. I was excited, wanting to test my new trap. I stood up and watched the cat meander across the lawn, slowly making its way toward the north of the garage and the cat food in the back. When the cat disappeared from view in the front, I moved into the office to wait. Around the corner he came and straight to the cat food dish under the trap. There was only one problem. He was standing on an angle, coming in from the two foot wide side. I went to the kitchen window to see if he was completely under the box. Almost. I went back to the office and pulled the trip cable. The trap hit him in the butt and knocked him underneath. Yes. I had him. Woohoo! Finally, I thought.
On the patio I laid the bottom board next to the trap. With a screwdriver and crowbar I lifted the trap slightly and slid the bottom board under one end. Then I pushed the trap on top of the bottom board.
Using the same technique of screwdriver and crowbar I lifted each corner enough to slip a clamp under it. I removed the fire wood weight. Rosalind then helped me load the trap onto the wagon. We rolled the wagon to the front driveway and lifted the trap into the back of the pickup.
Then off to my favorite release point I drove. I removed the clamps from the trap in the back of the pickup. When that wary cat saw daylight as I lifted the trap he shot out of there like a rocket. I'll bet that cat might still be running. That was some scared cat, but I was glad to see him go.
With the cat out of the way it was time to focus on the raccoon. Since this was night work it required a little more attention to detail. I needed a dim light but still enough to see the raccoon. I installed a 15 watt light bulb and put a bowl over it, leaving only the reflection from the side of the house for light.
The dim light
I also dropped a plumb bob to mark the center of the trap where the food should go. An x was made on the concrete with duct tape. Next the bowl was taped to the concrete so it could not be dragged out from under the trap like they had done with the metal trap.
With trap No. 2 set up just like in the earlier picture, I started checking before going to bed. Somewhere mid to late April, I checked about 10:30 pm and there was a raccoon just coming down the patio towards the trap. He was wary. He circled the trap a couple of times, standing up and looking, checking it out. The trap had a shadow because of the dim 15 watt light bulb on the side of the House.
The raccoon picked up on the shadow right away as he circled. To stay in the dark of the shadow, he entered from the garden side of the trap. The problem was, it was the short 2 ft, direction of the trap. With the bowl in the middle there was only 12 inches of trap to catch the raccoon. I couldn't see the raccoon very well in the darkness but I knew there might be a problem. I was anxious though and decided to pull the cable. Down came the trap hitting the raccoon in the back. I could see him escape into the garden. I was dejected. "There goes my chance," I thought. So, downtrodden, I went to bed, leaving the trap sitting on the ground. While laying in bed it occurred to me that I should get up and hang the trap back up. I needed to know if the bowl would be empty in the morning, (or if the raccoon came back)
So out of bed I crawled and re-hung the trap. Then I went back to bed. In the morning the bowl was empty. He came back. "Yes," I thought. We are in business now. All that had to be done was rotate the trap 90 degrees so that the raccoon entered the three foot portion when he used the "shadow". The next night, with the trap rotated 90 degrees; I began checking around 10:30 pm. About 11:30 pm, there he was, in the shadow, lined up perfectly. I pulled the cable. Whump, the trap hit the ground. I had him. As with the cat I laid the bottom board next to the trap. With a screwdriver and crowbar I lifted the trap slightly and slid the bottom board under one end. Then I pushed the trap on top of the bottom board.
Using the same technique of screwdriver and crowbar I lifted each corner enough to slip a clamp under it. I removed the fire wood weight.
Racoon # 2 ready for transport
(The wet spot on the concrete is apparently pee.)
Rosalind didn’t much care for me waking her up to load the trap into the pickup. She did though, and I was off on my third trip to the drop off place in the country.
I wanted to take a picture of the raccoon but couldn’t because of the fully enclosed trap. “Maybe I can get a shot of him when he is released,” I thought
Racoon # 2 loaded into the back of the pickup
The bottom board of the trap after release
(This guy really did like to pee)
Now I really thought I was home free with the Racoons. Rid of them. But the cat food bowl out on the patio continued to be emptied each night. “What is up with this?” I thought. I re-armed the trap.
One night in late April I checked the trap to find TWO raccoons eating at the same time. The smaller one was lined up with the shadow and completely under the trap. The bigger one was not. It was under the short side and half way out of the trap. I could only watch them eat since dropping it would have hit the bigger one and maybe let them both get away. But I did time how long they ate. About 13 to 15 minutes. This information was useful later in knowing how often to check the trap.
Now it was time for a new, bigger trap. I went to Home Depot to scout for material. The best looking stuff (material) I could find was 1/2” cdx plywood. I bought two sheets of it and a couple of two by fours. Now, how big should this new trap be? I settled on 4 x 4 ft. I was building it on a Saturday when Rosalind was working in the garden. She said, “I think there is something wrong with you.”
“Do you mean physically or mentally?” I replied.
“Mentally” “Look at that thing. It is too heavy to lift and too big to get around to the front of the house if you could. I don’t know what on earth you are thinking,” she continued.
She thought I was “wacked-out” for building such a big trap.
I hadn’t thought about it being too big to get around the end of the house. I measured the opening. She was right. It was too big if carried horizontally. “I’ll just stand it on it’s side”, I thought. Then I got the bright Idea of putting wheels on it.
I began looking around the garage for some wheels. I found two of my old jazzy wheelchair wheels. Two was all I could find though. It would need three for stability. I went to Home Depot for an axle and a third wheel. I found a replacement lawn mower wheel. After cobbling the wheels together and installing them I hung the trap to see how it would work. The wheels made it not hang straight so I had to put the wood back on it for a counter balance to the wheels.
The only problem with this new trap was it was very heavy.
“At least I won’t have problems with it being too small,” I thought.
Trap # 3 hung and ready
With my new trap I continued checking for raccoons before going to bed and early in the morning around 3:30 to 4:30 a.m. When the next raccoon showed up I pulled the trip mechanism just like before but this time I failed to pull the ice pick out of the two by four. The trap was too heavy. He got away this time. So I adjusted the trap by removing the fire wood and taking off the wheels. I also applied some vaseline to the ice pick. Further, I drilled a one inch hole for taking pictures. One morning soon at 3:50 a.m. raccoon number 3 showed up. I pulled the trip and down came the trap. I had him.
Racoon # 3
I reinstalled the wheels, stood the trap vertical, wheeled it to the front and loaded it into the pickup. Then I headed for my favorite drop off spot. Releasing this guy was kind of hard because I couldn’t just lift the trap in the back of the pick up. I had to pull it off the tailgate at a forty five degree angle. When this little fellow realized he could get out, he sprung over the side of the pickup like a gazelle. He must have cleared the side by two feet. I couldn’t believe it. Wow. I didn’t know raccoons could jump like that.
I kept the trap hung in the air with the bowl full underneath, however it wasn’t armed. For a few days I just went to bed and checked the bowl in the morning. It was always empty. On May 7th I decided it was time to start watching the trap again. However it was still unarmed. I could only watch. At 10:30 p.m. a raccoon was under the trap but didn’t stay very long, or eat very much. The next morning, May 8th, at 4:00 a.m. a very spooky one came under the trap and ate till about 4:13 a.m., then left. I was just sitting there pondering at 4:16 a.m. when the mother and teen I saw earlier came under the trap. The teen didn’t stay long but the mom ate and drank water until 4:29 a.m. when she left. I was pretty wound up with adrenaline by now and continued to watch until 4:58 a.m. when the little one came back under the trap briefly but didn’t eat. What an Amazing night. I had no idea how many more raccoons there were but knew I had work to do.
The next night, May 9th, I set my alarm for 3:30 a.m. to get up and watch the trap for a while. I walked into the office just as a raccoon came into sight in the garden. He went right under the trap and started eating. I didn’t even have to sit down. I pulled the trip and had him.
Racoon # 4
Because raccoon # 3 was difficult dealing with the trap at the drop off, when I stood the trap vertical, I decided to reverse the clamps one at a time so I could load the trap upside-down, with the bottom board on top. This made the drop off very easy. I then delivered him to the drop off spot, came home and went back to bed.
May 10th I got up again at 3:30 a.m. to discover the trap tripped and sitting on the ground. I took a picture through the hole to see what was in there.
Cali the cat
Last night around 10:45 pm, I noticed the trap swing around a little like something had bumped it. It must have been cali being playful. She probably came back later and bumped it again, making it fall. I’ll bet she was surprised. I quickly re-hung the trap about 3:45 am. No raccoons showed up that morning.
The next night, May 11th, I didn’t know what time to check for raccoons so I started out on the only “all-nighter” I would attempt. Since I learned that they would only eat for 15 minutes, I set the alarm for every 15 minutes. The first alarm time was for 10:30 pm. I rested and slept in the bed in the office so all I would have to do is sort of sit up and look out. At 1:15 am I looked and there was a raccoon under the trap, pigging out on cat food. I pulled the tripper, went out to the patio, did my board under, clamp, stand it up, reverse the clamps, and drive to the country thing. Back home and back in bed by 2:30 am.
Racoon # 5
Racoon 5 liked to climb in the trap. When I tried to take a picture of him, with the trap stood up, this is what I saw. A close up of his nose and whiskers 4 feet up in the trap, trying to look out through the top hole.
The next thing I did was catch a feral cat that had started coming around and having breakfast and dinner at our patio.
I caught him early one night about 9:30 pm and delivered him to the country.
Feral cat # 2
For several days I quit putting out cat food at night. Then I noticed the cats were starved by the time I got out of bed around mid morning. I started putting out a small handful of food for them at night. Soon I was filling the bowl about half full. The same thing was happening as before. In the morning the bowl was always empty and the water dish was dirty. It was time to see if we had another raccoon. I set the trap back up. On May 25th I started checking around 1:30 am, and every hour till 5:00 am. This night was a bust. No raccoons.
May 26th, was the same thing.
The previous two nights were very light outside. We were approaching a full moon and the nights were cloudless. I had been leaving a 25 watt light bulb on each night on the patio.
On May 27th, I decided to leave no lights on. I could still barely make out images under the trap.
Again I started out at 1:30 am. Around 2:40 am I saw a raccoon image come under the trap. I pulled the trip and figured I had him but couldn’t be sure. Kaysha had the camera however so I had to check in another way. I opened the camera hole and tried to shine a light in. That didn’t work. So I lifted the trap about 2 inches and rested it on the flashlight. Then I looked through the cameral hole. Walla!!! There he was. Or maybe it was “she was”. This one’s tail looked like the one I called “big momma”. The one with the teenager I saw earlier. I put the bottom under the trap, clamped it in place and went back to bed till around 4:30 to start loading. I started for the drop off at 5:15 am. I stopped at Kayshas to get the camera. I took this picture with the top lifted up slightly, not through the camera hole like the others.
Hence, this picture makes the raccoon look much smaller than it really was.
Racoon # 6
Away to the drop off we went. I was back home and in bed by about 6:30 am.
Now the trap is in storage under the fir trees. I only put a tiny handful of food out for the cats at night.
Who would have EVER thought there would be 6 racoons coming around to eat at our house??? Where did they live??
Were they related? Was it mom, dad, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, cousin?
There can’t be any MORE of them, can there?
Racoon # 7
Racoon # 8
On April 10th I woke up and found one of my squirrel feeders broken.
