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04-01-2015, 17:33
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Elsewhere on the Water
Posts: 579
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Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
I have recently heard of a promising and safe means of dealing with offensive critters. A band of tenacious raccoons have been successfully dispatched by playing NPR (National Public Radio) for them to hear when human occupants are not present. For any who do not know NPR is talk radio. Human opinion will vary as to its appeal, but the raccoons seem to prefer to stay away from the varied human voices, and go elsewhere.
I am currently testing it on an offending River Otter, and wondering if it should be applied to my exhaust system to ward off the Muskrats.
Anyone have any related experience?
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04-01-2015, 18:01
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#2
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Long Range Cruiser
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
Offensive????????
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04-01-2015, 18:51
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bahamas/Florida
Boat: Solaris Sunstar 36' catamaran
Posts: 2,686
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
I believe that it is most effective on republican raccoons lol.
__________________
Sail Fast Live Slow
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04-01-2015, 19:10
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#4
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, cruising in Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 28,438
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
MarkJ:
What was left in the boot when the critter left???? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!
Yeah, baby creatures are too cute, but their presence in the cockpit is less than desirable.
Ann
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
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05-01-2015, 10:10
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Ontario, Canada
Boat: Challenger 32 1974
Posts: 523
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
Jack Russell, will kill anything . But leave the bodies for the wolves and Turkey Vultures, muskrat and otter taste awful, haven't tried racoon though.
Bill
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05-01-2015, 10:21
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 64
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
first, why would anyone listen to NPR? should be called NLR, national liberal radio! i`ve used kerosine in our boathouse to keep the critters away! get the cheapest, rottenest, stinky kerosine you can find, put it on with a brush around the edge of the floor where the boat sits...if you can`t do that, keep changing the station on your radio, till you find one they don`t like...an electric fence works too! [i`ve heard] or small boards with nails
in them, like the ones that hold the edges of a rug...clyde
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10-01-2015, 13:42
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Now based on Florida's West coast
Boat: Pearson 34-II
Posts: 2,541
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
St.
Coons are intelligent and very destructive. They are also fierce combatants. . . whether human or animal. They are frequent carriers of rabies. I occasionally hear them making a kill at night(usually rabbits and squirrels) and their growls are fierce until the cries of the prey stops. If they get in your boat, they will do tremendous damage and urinate/defecate on everything. If they have a litter of cubs/kits(they are related to bears) on your boat while your gone, you'll have a real nightmare. There are only two ways to get rid of them: 1.) trap and relocate and 2.) kill. If there is a coon problem where you keep your boat and the marina is not involved in eradicating the problem, I would find another berth. It only takes one time and the damage will be great. P.S. Never corner a coon as they will fight to the death if threatened. Good luck, good sailing . . . say hello to Daniel Boone for me, will ya?
__________________
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathrustra
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10-01-2015, 17:35
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#8
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Jacksonville/ out cruising
Boat: Island Packet 38
Posts: 31,351
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
A Raccoon will kill a good sized dog, as in maybe 40 lb dog? Full grown Coon would make short work of a Jack Russel unfortunately.
They are very smart too, I doubt the radio will fool them for long.
Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum
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10-01-2015, 18:08
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#9
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Resin Head
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Seattle WA
Boat: Nauticat
Posts: 7,205
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
You don't have muskrat bars on your exhaust? They are a must on big power boats in certain areas, I install many. Seen some big boats sunk by muskrat.
__________________
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.
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10-01-2015, 18:19
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Cruising the Gulf of Mexico.
Boat: 1980 Morgan 415
Posts: 1,452
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
Tent camped many places where coons were accustomed to people. Damn near took a broom across the butt to run them away from a cooler and they would be back before you could get back to your rack.
Owned a few rat terriers and am familiar with their deadly side. I wouldn't pit one against a grown coon. Many coon hounds have been ripped up.
Think American pit bull.
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Working on spending my children's inheritance.
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10-01-2015, 18:45
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#11
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Caribbean live aboard
Boat: Camper & Nicholson58 Ketch - ROXY Traverse City, Michigan No.668283
Posts: 6,356
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
Quote:
Originally Posted by rognvald
St.
Coons are intelligent and very destructive. They are also fierce combatants. . . whether human or animal. They are frequent carriers of rabies. I occasionally hear them making a kill at night(usually rabbits and squirrels) and their growls are fierce until the cries of the prey stops. If they get in your boat, they will do tremendous damage and urinate/defecate on everything. If they have a litter of cubs/kits(they are related to bears) on your boat while your gone, you'll have a real nightmare. There are only two ways to get rid of them: 1.) trap and relocate and 2.) kill. If there is a coon problem where you keep your boat and the marina is not involved in eradicating the problem, I would find another berth. It only takes one time and the damage will be great. P.S. Never corner a coon as they will fight to the death if threatened. Good luck, good sailing . . . say hello to Daniel Boone for me, will ya?
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The noise you usually hear at night is males fighting over territory and females. Here in the midwest, we find that lead poisoning works very well. Try a high velocity 177 Crossman or equivalent to deliver the toxin. In Miami at Mathesen Hammock we watched a mom raccoon displaced by a boater in one part of the marina transport her brood (6 pups) three docks over and 10 out and up into a cubby in the controls of a fly-bridge of another boat. Driving them away usually means they become someone else's trouble. We live-trapped over 60 of them at our Traverse City cottage in one season. The DNR conservation officer told us nobody wanted them relocated nearby & to shoot or drown them.
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11-01-2015, 11:46
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#12
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Now based on Florida's West coast
Boat: Pearson 34-II
Posts: 2,541
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
"The noise you usually hear at night is males fighting over territory and females." Nicholson58
Nic,
That's true, however have you ever seen/heard a kill/kill site in the aftermath? We were hauling out at Hurricane Cove Marina on the Miami River where a "glass man" (whose name will go unmentioned), had 15 to 20 rescued parrots and cockatiels in his workshop. They were professionally caged and well maintained. Several were released during the workday and sat on the man's shoulder when he wasn't working. One night, a single coon entered the workshop, opened the latched cages and killed every bird. The night watchman said the next morning that the screaming by the birds and the coons was terrific and in the morning, there was nothing left but feathers and some bloodied carcasses. The next evening the "glass man" set a trap and caught the coon that was responsible for the carnage. I was there and several onlookers wanted him to shoot the animal, but he picked up the cage, walked to the end of the pier(with a line attached) and threw it in the water-- watching as the cage slowly sank beneath the surface. Another story relates to duck hunting. If you have a dog that is foolish enough to chase a coon into the water, he will certainly die. The coons lure the dogs to deeper water and then climb on their heads, from behind, and drown the dog. I have never seen it personally, but a friend of mine I hunted with for years lost his
chocolate lab while duck hunting on the Illinois River in Peoria, Illinois. There was nothing he could do but watch as his dog disappeared beneath the water and the coon swam across the river to the other side. Racoons are intelligent, voracious predators and they could do untold damage to your boat. They are unwanted pests at any marina. Good luck, good sailing . . . did you know they taste like a mild bear meat?
__________________
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathrustra
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11-01-2015, 12:03
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#13
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,409
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
if ratcoons are intelligent and you tune the radio to the Rush Limbaugh show. They would probably drown themselves on purpose
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11-01-2015, 12:05
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,409
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
or if they are really stubborn you can use the heavy Amunition and tune to Glenn Beck
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11-01-2015, 13:08
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#15
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Long Range Cruiser
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
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Re: Critter Control - Muskrats, Otters, Raccoons
JK Rowling on Otters...
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