Darned coons.

[powderman]

Coming home from revival a few months ago we saw a coon under my bird feeder, it ran off. In the past few weeks something is tearing my feeders down to the ground. It has ruined 2 but hasn't hurt my metal one. Lately it has had a taste for my suet feeders. Yesterday I put out another cake of suet and ran a heavy  string from the bottom of the feeder to a full 5 gal bucket of water. This morning the feeder was on the ground empty. The darn thing had broken the thin chain it was hanging from, it had been pulling it up in the tree and wrapping it around a limb. Last night at midnite Patty and I both were shining lites up in the tree trying to find it, me with a 22. No such luck. I took the suet down for the night. If it messes with my big metal feeder I have some metal from an old pool in the barn. I will wrap it around the trunk of the tree, I see them do that in Indiana on the power line poles. How high can they jump from the ground up?? May not even be a coon, maybe a possum, don't know, but it really has me ticked off. POWDERMAN.   

[powderman]

One of the kids left the outside metal from an old 4 ft pool in the barn. I wrapped it around the tree and nailed it up. I put my other feeder back out today. We'll see. POWDERMAN. 

[hillbill]

them ole coons are pretty smart when it comes to getting into stuff.my brother used to keep his cat food on the front porch in a 5 gal bucket and he flipped on the light one night to see a coon holding the bucket with his back feet and pulling the lid off with his front feet.ive had trouble with them too and it seems if you trap the offending coon the prob will go away for quite a while.

[powderman]

I put it's favorite bird feeder back up and am leaving the suet out tonight. I'll see in the morning. I hope this works. I Hope I'm lucky enough to see the squirrel try to climb up that metal, then again a squirrel can jump pretty high and I don't really mind feeding the squirrel a bit, just that darn coon is so destructive. POWDERMAN. 

[Sourdough]

My hunting partner recently got married.  His new wife bought on of those beautiful glass bird feeders.  She had him hang it out from their deck, at the same level as the deck so they could watch the birds.

Now he drives a diesel pickup.  Squirrels have been tearing up the soundproofing in the engine compartment.  He has waged a war on squirrels.  He keeps an air rifle loaded and on the back deck at all times.  He got one of those new RWS air guns that shoot real fast. 

Squirrel came and climbed up to the new glass bird feeder.  Partner grabbed air gun, shot squirrel.  Pellet passed through squirrel, through bird feeder glass panels.  I had to sneak him into town so he could buy a replacement without her knowing. 

Now he owes me.  And it's gonna cost him.  He took advantage of me once in the past, now it's my turn.

[Mikey]

I have had problems with raccoons in the past, especially during rabies epidemics, but not so much in the past couple of years but, I have used greased poles, metal roofing like powderman, hung stuff in trees, you name it but the raccoons still get it.  So now I just shoot them.  If I see them during the day I take them for rabid and shoot them.  If I see them at night I take them as gettin' caught, and just shoot them. 

Raccoons are some dangerous critters and they carry a virus on their teeth that can blind nad later cripple a dog if the dog is bitten, and they also carry a spore type virus in their feces that can become airbore and attack your vision or that of your dog.

As hillbill said, when you trap the offending one they usually leave you be, for a while.  I believe that if you eliminate those you see, you will reduce the population, cause them to be wary of and avoid humans, and cause them to return more to their wild habitats for food than to burgle from humans.  just a thought.

[powderman]

SOURDOUGH. A friend of mines wife would not let him shoot the squirrels. Then one day she lost her temper with a squirrel and got her 12 ga and blew it AND her new feeder to bits.
MIKEY. With the exception of that one night I haven't see the coon, possums are here too. Nothing was touched last night but sometimes it would let things go a day or 2, time will tell. Been watching for the squirrel but haven't seen it yet. My main feeder is metal but a few years ago they ruined a wooden feeder I'd had for years. I got mad and shot 7 squirrels in 2 days, yes, we dressed and ate them. With the metal feeder I tolerate the squirrels, don't mind feeding them a bit. POWDERMAN.