Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by rognvald

"The noise you usually hear at night is males fighting over territory and females." Nicholson58

Nic,
. . . did you know they taste like a mild bear meat?

That's the kindest description. I have several game cookbooks. Raccoon is generally ignored as a dinner guest. The best description is found in a pre-1950s edition of Joy Of Cooking. The short of it is that one boils a skinned, dressed raccoon immersed in water for 4 hours. Throw out the water and do it again. Remove the flesh and prepare in a heavy sauce with beef broth and lots of vegetables. In other words, double destroy it and cover it with many strong flavors. Why bother? Groundhogs on the other hand, are quite tasty.

To try to rehabilitate a raccoon is not much different than trying to convince a cockroach to be a puppy.

[St. Elsewhere]

So far - - so good. I have been playing NPR radio where River Otters have been residing under the deck of a beach house for the past six weeks. None have appeared since it started!

[NorthernSeaWolf]

Originally Posted by St. Elsewhere

So far - - so good. I have been playing NPR radio where River Otters have been residing under the deck of a beach house for the past six weeks. None have appeared since it started!

NPR would keep me away too! I'll opt for exhaust guards...

[Siberianhusky]

Trap and skin them, good money for the hide.
I was actually very surprised how much a good late season coon hide went for!
A father of an ex years ago left the windows down on his Model T in the garage, coon got in the garage and ripped the interior apart. Poor guy worked on that car for years, was his pride and joy.
I know quite a few people who also trap muskrat.
As other have said a coon will rip up a good sized dog, mean, viscious, destructive critters!
LOL difference in attitude between city and country dwellers! One thinks a coon is cute the other thinks it's a target before it destroys something.

[exMaggieDrum]

We have big problems with river otters here in all our marinas. They are a protected mammal and it would cost you a small fortune if you get caught trying to harm one. They are incredibly cute when a family of them plays getting up and off a dock and jumping around in the cockpits of boats.

However, they can make a mess of a cockpit. I had to clean up 3 gallons of their poop out of my cockpit this last winter. Luckily I got there within a few days and it did no lasting harm. Others have had very tight fitting canvas covers and it festers under there in the sun for a couple of weeks and they had to replace a lot of canvas, lines, and get a pro to clean it up - especially the smell.

What works best is to tie the boat away from the dock as far as you can. And if you need to, to put barriers so they cannot easily jump onto and climb over. They especially like whole covers that are nice and cozy where they can hide out. Mine was open except for a bimini so I didn't think I would have a problem. I was wrong. So I will tie my boat as far out as possible. My high free board will keep them from jumping up out of the water (I hope).

Racoons - they certainly would get inside a cage and kill things in that. But i don't think they go out and try to kill anything that can run very fast at all. They don't go after rats, cats, etc. but they are fierce if cornered or attacked by a dog. They will make a hell of a racket when cornered. I did that a month ago under my wife's car. I could see three of them under there and they were screaming bloody murder. I got my dog away from there asap. Luckily we don't have muskrats here and I have not heard of raccoons getting on boats here but it would be possible.

You do have to be careful with the seals on the docks. They can be aggressive. And the heron poop is another issue entirely. And then there was the beautiful wooden 50' sailboat that a bald eagle would come over and sit on from dawn through the morning except to fish. He whitewashed the whole boat. Nasty! But I loved to hear him wake me up in the morning. You'll never forget that cry.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by St. Elsewhere

So far - - so good. I have been playing NPR radio where River Otters have been residing under the deck of a beach house for the past six weeks. None have appeared since it started!

A pellet rifle pumped up with ten strokes works wonders as well.

I put one shot at the biggest one and it instantly chased all of them away.

That was six months ago and I've never seen one since.

[RaymondR]

This is not the joke thread but anyway-

A bunch of drunks were coon hunting and treed one. One of the said "hell I'll just climb up an knock the sumbitch down where you-all can shoot him" and climbed up into the tree.

Lots of screaming and howling ensued until a voice came out of the foliage crying "SHOOT, SHOOT". One of the drunks called back "We caant, we might hit you", the voice replied "Dammit shoot anyway, one of us needs relief".