Coons in the corn-Help

[69bronco]

My sweet corn is just starting to ripen and for the first time I am infested with racoons. There eating it is fast as it ripens. I've been using live traps with marshmallows for bait, have caught 4 small ones in 3 days. The adults are the ones breaking the stalks and doing the most damage, but I can't seem to catch them. Thought about an elec fence but I have an underground phone line running along side my corn patch. Have heard that these two don't mix. Tried the radio and light thing to no avail. Anyone have any suggestions, different tactics or better baits? The ones I'm catching are getting lead poison, there are way too many around now.

[Magicman]

Those adult coons are smart.  Maybe you are using the wrong bait.   :-\

[bama20a]

I've had good luck using peanut butter for bait.

[yukon cornelius]

I hope you get them. they got all of ours this year. they destroyed it like ive never seen.

[drobertson]

They got my father in laws, everyone of them,  did not mess with mine but did manage to get two of our Wyandotte's,  good tame layers,
I got the momma still in the coop, have not seen any others yet,  not sure how to get them, unless you lay out and wait with a gun,

[sandhills]

Why would electric fence mess with a buried phone line?  Not arguing, just ignorant, but would like to know.  Everyone around here puts 2 strands around their patches, if you used electric rope you wouldn't need corner posts per say (if your worried about digging into the phone line) and a small solar fencer should keep them at bay.

[beenthere]

Some Malrin Fly Bait mixed with 10 oz of regular Mountain Dew makes a "cool-aide" that raccoon's can't stop drinking and usually found dead a few feet away.
No bloody mess, and has been a very effective raccoon control for me.
Farmers use this bait to attract and kill flies in barns. Works good for that too.

Does not attract dogs or cats to my knowledge... just the raccoon's.

[Chuck White]

Two strands of electric fence!

First strand about 2-3 inches above the ground and the second strand about 7-8 inches above the ground.

The electric fence should not interfere with underground wires.

[Klunker]

Some Malrin Fly Bait mixed with 10 oz of regular Mountain Dew makes a "cool-aide" that raccoon's can't stop drinking and usually found dead a few feet away.
No bloody mess, and has been a very effective raccoon control for me.
Farmers use this bait to attract and kill flies in barns. Works good for that too.

Does not attract dogs or cats to my knowledge... just the raccoon's.

Yes to the Golden Malrin. One of my uncles used it for coon in sweet corn and I have personally seen the results. He mixed his with root beer tho. You'd find coons with their face right in the stuff and the fathest away from the dish was about 10 ft. 1/2 dozen coons in a night easy.

[martyinmi]

Some Malrin Fly Bait mixed with 10 oz of regular Mountain Dew makes a "cool-aide" that raccoon's can't stop drinking and usually found dead a few feet away.
No bloody mess, and has been a very effective raccoon control for me.
Farmers use this bait to attract and kill flies in barns. Works good for that too.

Does not attract dogs or cats to my knowledge... just the raccoon's.

Almost the same thing we use up here, except we use Coke or Pepsi.
A good share of the time we find them dead with their heads still in the pie tin.

I will post some pictures of the damage they can do to field corn. In the next week or two it will be ready.
We usually plant an acre or two of refuge corn for them near our test plots to discourage them from getting into the test plots. >:(

[bucknwfl]

I would use a dog proof duke trap and some cat food and sardine mixture

[Pine Ridge]

If its a garden, run an extension cord and play an am-fm radio at night, might not work in a corn field though. bacon grease is good to bait with.

[Don_Papenburg]

This year I had to use an electric fencer on each wire . One on both would not cut it . I also added a ground wire on the ground that ran several feet past their point of enter.   One of the fencers is rated for 15 miles and the other for 20 miles.   I have never had any luck with the solar fencer.

[69bronco]

Thanks all! I picked up a 10 mile ac. fence charger. I ran a wire about 3" above the ground then ran a ground wire about 3" above that with another hot wire above that. Getting a little phone interference, but I put it on a dusk to dawn timer so it's not so bad. Rebaited the traps with tuna in a couple of them. Also made a tunnel with a bowl of antifreeze in the back where the dogs can't reach. It's war >:( Never heard of Marlin fly bait, going to try and find some. Will post back any progress, thanks again.

[stanwelch]

If you have a farm store in your area, they carry the fly bait.  My vet told me about it. It works quick

[GAB]

If its a garden, run an extension cord and play an am-fm radio at night, might not work in a corn field though. bacon grease is good to bait with.

The radio worked for me for two years.  The third year they feasted to the music.
I hope you win the war.
Gerald

[Windy_Acres]

When we bought this place ( 9 buildings ), it was infested with racoons, the ground had been rented for years, and the house and buildings sat vacant.

First neighbor I met, before we even exchanged names, he wanted to know what I was going to do with the coon problem I just bought, because it was affecting everyone around. We are all about 1/2 mile apart or more as far as neighbors go.

We keep Oats, Barley, Wheat, and Corn in gravity wagons for feeding the critters. We also keep about 500 birds that free range on the farm, we loose almost NOTHING. Or I should say, we loose nothing that we notice. We can only keep count on a handful of species, but the chickens/turkeys/ducks/rabbits run in numbers beyond keeping track of, but what is missing is carcasses, feathers, hides, etc. in the regular places that they turn up. Did have a mink pass through and get past the dog, tore up a boat load of birds, but the birds where in the barn, and the dog does not have access to the barn. I did get the little booger.

I trapped all the coons that where here before we moved in, and a very aggressive German Shepherd Dog seems to keep them off the 10 acres the house and buildings sits on. No coon poop, no coon tracks, no dead birds, nobody in the gravity wagons.. There is also a 1/2 acre garden that is on the 10 acres that goes untouched, and we grow heirloom varieties of sweet corn.

I didnt really know the dog would be that effective, but he is. We went one year without a K9 loose 24/7 and within 90 days we lost ALL of our birds and everything was getting torn up, but I attribute most of that too coyote/fox/wolf.

I should also note, in the past, I had a black and tan G/S that used to kill the coons/possums and leave them at the back door, dead. Just to let me know he was doing his job ? This one does not kill them, or at least I dont think he does, he usually "tree's" them, which wakes me up and I take it from there.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

We deal with this every year.
First off, no matter what method you use to control coons from stealing corn,  there will always be some Coon thieves that will still go straight to the corn.
We set traps every year and catch a good many. Using a piece of Honey Bun, left over scraps from supper or most any food, our Coons go right into the trap.
Beware....you will also catch, Skunks, sometimes a Squirrel and Possums. But over all, the Coon will be caught most often.
We then give the Coons away to a hunter that trains his dogs.

[LeeB]

My daddy told me they made coon traps with an old stomp or log. Said they drilled a hole down a little ways and put a few kernels of corn in there and then drove a finish nail in a little ways at an angle so it just stuck into the hole. Coon would grab the corn and get stuck on the nail because he wouldn't turn loose. Never saw this work but he told it did.

[Don_Papenburg]

My neighbor  has those little metal paw cuffs for the coons . He loads them with cat food . The coons will stick their mit in there and trip the spring hold and the coon will pull back but not let loose of the food till they get a 22vitamen in the head.

[jtmccallum]

Start trapping in the spring and don't stop.  Soda and fly bait works well.  I find empty pop cans in our hay loft that coons have ate down to the bottom.  We have used  radio but some years they just avoid the area next to the radio.

[69bronco]

Coon update. It's been two nights since I put up the electric fence(post 13). Haven't had any more coons in the corn patch! Hope they don't get wise to me and figure a way around it! Still trapping, will continue till fall and start early next spring as some have suggested. I'm giving the fence two thumbs up! I would suggest buying a bigger charger than needed and running the extra ground between the two hot wires. Thanks for the input everyone, most of my middle corn made it and my silver queen is safe!

[Tom L]

My daddy told me they made coon traps with an old stomp or log. Said they drilled a hole down a little ways and put a few kernels of corn in there and then drove a finish nail in a little ways at an angle so it just stuck into the hole. Coon would grab the corn and get stuck on the nail because he wouldn't turn loose. Never saw this work but he told it did.

I had a friend growing up who used to trap coons this way, just took a while to figure out the correct size hole
and the proper size nail, he would only trap them like this, dispatch them with a 22 as he walked his trap line.
he used to get a lot of coons so it must have worked

[sandhills]

Can't believe I can't remember the name of the book, but read it when I was probably about ten or so and the boy in the book trapped them this way, I think he would just use something shiny in the whole  ???.
Edit, I think it was "Where The Red Fern Grows"

[trapper]

got 3 last night in my sweet corn. 1 in cage trap and 2 in dogproof .  I like ztrap brand dogproof traps with their push or pull trigger. They will avoid catching dogs but it is possible for cats to get caught in them.