Very Bad Year For Racoons.
Don’t know if it’s the drought we are having or what. We always put in a garden and lots of flowers every year. But this year it’s as if we are under attack. I’ve had to send eight of them on ahead here this year already. Talked to the neighbor down the road and he has got rid of just as many he said. They’re like rats anymore, no one traps or hunts them anymore, and I can understand why. To trap, skin, fletch and stretch the hide for $3 a hide, to much work. Back starting around 1973 to 1980 use to get $15 to $25 a hide, and the person I took the hides too didn’t want you to skin them, he had this machine that he built that did it. And in the 70s $15 was worth about four times what it is today.
Anyone else been having problems with them?
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Rocky Raab: 30122447101467/comments/30122458782363
I think you mean that it's a banner year for raccoons, but a terrible year for homeowners.
Raccoons aren't native to Utah, but we have them. I'm hoping that the very harsh winter we had will thin them out a lot.
My initial thought was that if it was a bad year for raccoons, then it must be a great year otherwise.
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Imagine this; I got another big boar Raccoon last night at 2:30 AM. The .410 worked magic in settling him down. He was also caught in the arm trap baited with marshmallows.
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Bubba Jr.: 30122447101467/comments/30122504913563
Yesterday was a good day. I trapped a young raccoon and also a young groundhog. I had 3 traps set out, but one of them was molested by a huge raccoon. He was on the outside and reached in to get the cat food, pulled it out then took off into the woods holding the cat food in his left hand while he ran. It was just by chance that I saw him doing it.
It's raining now, but if the rain stops, I'll reset the traps this evening. The buzzards haven't smelled the fresh kills yet, but they will.
Joe
I hear tell that .222 does wonders on ground hogs.................like "red mist"
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I think the proliferation of varmints, hawks, owls, and stray house cats are more responsible for quail decline than farming .In my youth almost everyone farmed / lived in the country. All had chickens. Any varmint were swiftly dealt with . Quail abounded . Now no chickens and increase in varmint equals no quail
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@pulsarnc I agree with you. Hawks and feral cats I think take just a big a toll on game as do coyotes and raccoons anymore, there are way too many. Not sure where you live, but around here land will go for $12.000 to $14.000 an acre for tillable land, so a lot of grass land has been tilled under to plant corn or beans. Can’t blame anyone for that, at those prices you got to make it pay for it self. My self, I think they should put bounty on coyotes and raccoons.
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"I think the proliferation of varmints, hawks, owls, and stray house cats are more responsible for quail decline than farming"
BINGO, we have a winner. I've lived on the same land since I was born and seen the good and bad but honestly modern 'game management' is a FAILURE.
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Grew up farming the family land and still live on the farm. In truth there is about as much cover for birds as there was 50 years ago ,just no quail. What we do have now that we didn't then are bald eagles ,coyote,and an overabundance of hawks ..We also have no quail .
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