@#$% Raccoons!

[WA1GFZ]

I like to live and let live but I'm a bit bummed not having a garden for 3 years so need to take the varmits out.....again

[WA1HZK]

I suggest the standard Rat Trap. You really cannot use plate iron. The voltage is kinda high and they can smell the ozone. Stick with surplus TV transformers of around 800 volts. Put a suitable fuse in the primary or the high wattage light bulb. Construct the trap by using a sheet of metal and mount a 5" insulator in the middle of it. Make a 6 inch metal disk and screw it to the top of the insulator. Connect about 800 volts between the two sheets of metal and put the donut on the top one. Lower voltage equals a longer painfull death. This is just theory you understand.......

[WA1GFZ]

I need something that won't take out the cats who go after the smaller critters trenching the lawn.

[kf6pqt]

My neighbor, who feed their dogs outside, attract the rats... who poop on my walkway. And its ghetto to see them run along the fencetop as I look out my kitchen window in the morning

I'm envisioning a semi-gutted microwave oven, where the HV lead from the MOT (where one lead of the secondary is grounded, dontcha know) goes through to the "cooking section" with an old-buzzard ceramic feedthrough insulator... from this is a copper wire, to which is soldered a 1.5" square piece of copper... bait (peanut butter?) sits on this square, and is about 2 inches off the new, grounded bare-metal  floor of the cooking chamber. A hole about 1.5 to 2" diameter is holesawed out the back, so Ratty can get inside when he smells the tasty treat.

Back legs to ground, front paws to HV when he trys to get a bite of the bait. ZAP, power down, open microwave door and dump out freshly cooked rat.

Think it'll work? What are good baits for rats besides peanut butter? Has to be tastier than dry-kibble dog food!

I feel like a sadistic bastard, but I feel this is more humane (and effective) than whacking them out of the tree with a big stick and letting the basset hounds get them.

[K6JEK]

Why don't they eat the darned geese?   California is overrun with Canada geese.   Any green patch of land near water will be slick with geese poop and crowded with honkers.  Parks are particularly geesey. What every happened to flying home?   Where are the geese eating raccoons?   How about a coyote when you need one?   

[W1GFH]

For the rat problem, get a male cat, and when they snip offf his nads make sure they leave a little bit still attached. Makes them real aggressive, and that cat will be out all day and night hunting rodents. Mine used to leave the severed rat heads around as "warning" to the rat population of his "final solution". No problem with rodents here. They see him as the Josef Mengele of cats and fear him. We do have possums tho. Nasty little sh*ts with big scary teeth, and they fear no one.

[kf6pqt]

Yes, I've got a BIG possum that the crazy ol neighbor lady feeds. Quite frequently I'll hear him in the evening knocking over stuff in the yard, on his way up to my screen door. I think he wants in!

Shining a light on him turns him away, and plinking the objects around him with the soft-pellet pistol expedites his retreat.

[W1RKW]

What you need is one of these: http://rkwalter.home.att.net/fling.wmv

[WB3JOK]

That would certainly send them for exciting rides. But they are smart enough to trip them first, then eat the bait (just like they do with the traps).

My stepdaughter's boyfriend came over last night and laid out on the roof of the chickenhouse with his scoped .22 rifle. Successfully sniped two for two.  So far today, no sign of any intruders at all 

Wonder how many more there are... I'm still hoping to have a go with my microwave oven transformer (the "Rat Trap" mentioned above is exactly what I had in mind except with manual firing control. No ozone to smell until it's too late!)

-Charles

[WA1GFZ]

I head S.D. is infested with rats, two types the two leg ones and the 4 leg ones.
We have Geese bad here also. One morning XYL was at the bus stop with my son talking to a neighbor as the kids got on the bus. All of a sudden a flock taking off from a pond across the neighborhood was heading at them over the street. All they could hear was the plops of bombs hitting the street. They had to beat feet to get inside.

[K3ZS]

Try .22 shorts in the rifle.    Works good in areas when you don't want to make too much noise.   Once on a camping trip I discovered a coon had been raiding my cooler.    He actually opened up the latch, pawed out some ground sausage, then closed and latched it.   He did this several times before I found out what was going on.    He climbed a tree nearby.   My son and I threw some rocks at it.    Believe it or not, he started throwing something back at us.

[WA1GFZ]

I come home from work and changing my clothes as I notice one grazing in the blue berry patch. Too much of an angle for the rifle so sneak up on him. I kind of felt bad hitting it with a shovel but I've had no garden for 3 years.......one down.
Just looked out and another was in the same area. That one made a bee line for the woods as soon as the door cracked open.  He must have just come from the funeral.

[ka1bwo]

Charles:
Get the right tool to take care of those sons of Bitches.........12 gauge pump, 9MM, or 45ACP you won't have to worry about wounding them. Happy hunting

Joe

[N3DRB The Derb]

I have a full choke pump .410 for any varmints 2 or four legged here. Choice of 3" slugs, 3" 00 buck,or 3" #6. 6 rounds of goodness. Cant handle a bigger size due to the hand/arm troubles. The .410 is no prob.

[WA1GFZ]

Ah you really need a rifle with a scope to plink them right. Blast them and you make a big mess. .410 not a bad size. You don't want to take the sport out of it.
Shovel takes real skill sneaking up on the target. You don't get that lucky often and you don't want to miss.

[W3SLK]

Frank said:

Shovel takes real skill sneaking up on the target. You don't get that lucky often and you don't want to miss.

Just as a little safety note here, seeing a 'coon in the middle of the day is an unatural thing since they tend to be nocturnal critters. I would be wary of any raccoon I spot during the daylight. Seeing them out in the middle of the day is a good sign of rabies. I would shoot first, make sure its dead, then solve questions later.

[WA1GFZ]

I would never mess with a coon using a shovel...
The wook chuck comes out in late afternoon to graze.
My kids just saw the grieving mother

[WA1GFZ]

Tonight I'm headed to the shack and go into the bedroom for slippers and look out and another one is grazing outside the window. This one is a bit bigger. I sneak out the back door and right up to the little garden eater. Kabong got another. 

[Rick K5IZ]

I'm curious... How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

[The Slab Bacon]

Tonight I'm headed to the shack and go into the bedroom for slippers and look out and another one is grazing outside the window. This one is a bit bigger. I sneak out the back door and right up to the little garden eater. Kabong got another. 

It just goes to prove that NO ONE should ever get between an angry dago and his tomato plants!!

[WA1GFZ]

Frank,
Ah the art of stealth......and a big weapon.

[The Slab Bacon]

As the old saying goes:

Walk softly, but carry a big..................................

[WA1GFZ]

I actually felt bad nailing such a cute little creature as my daughter watched from the window. I'm a live and let live king of a guy sept for yellow jackets.

[The Slab Bacon]

Did ya make a pot of soup out of him afta ya kilt him?? If so he didnt die in vain!!

Ya know how us dagos are, we'll make a pot o soup out of just about anything. Or toss him into the pot of "sauce" cookin on the stove. One can naver have too much meat in yer "sauce"

[The Slab Bacon]

I'm a live and let live king of a guy sept for yellow jackets.

Bees, Wasps, and Hornetz are fair game anytime!! I have come up with many new creative ways to kill them!! However the best is the old standby: CRC "brakecleen" in the red can!! I actually keep a few cans of the stuff around solely for that purpouse. Dont use the stuff in the green can, it only pisses them off. The stuff in the red can kills them dead! One squirt! You can put the little red straw on the nozzle and play anti aircraft gunner and knock them right out of the air!!

                                           The Slab Bacon