| 8:35a |
Personal note; raccoon update...
Well, there's been a toddler raccoon in our trap every morning, and George has taken one away every morning and released it in thick woods near a small creek .... and there have nevertheless still been three toddler raccoons at our bird feeder every day -- one in the trap and two just doing their thing. Either this was a litter of six (or more) to start with -- which would be unusual -- or the ones that have been taken away have been coming right straight back. And this morning there was not only another toddler in the Havahart trap, and two toddlers under the bird feeder, the mother raccoon was also there, and she appeared to be not at all pleased about finding one of her kids shut up in a trap. George did some raccoon-threatening maneuvers with a long stick, and was able to convince her to leave so that he could retrieve the trap and take the trappee off to the relocation site .... but there are now some serious questions in our minds about the effectiveness of this strategy. [Still, a Google search says the only way to get rid of raccoons on your property is to trap them in a Havahart trap and relocate them. It also says -- unnervingly -- that relocated raccooons have been known to return from as far away as 75 miles.]
We may come back Monday to three toddlers and the mother .... or we may come back to a whole herd in residence. I'll let you know. |