I will make a positive set at every opportunity. ( I only wish that all the technicians, including my son, would do the same ) I'm not sure if all of you have experienced the really crappy feeling you get when you have spent more time than you should have making that perfect positive set, only to have the target animal make you look like a complete incompetent.

Example: You've got this female raccoon that ripped apart the air vent on the garage and has had her litter somewhere in the adjoining attic. You make a positive set on the air vent and the next day you go back with great confidence, only to find that she figured you out. She blew through the soffit and took all of her offspring with her. The customer is thrilled and you're sitting there thinking, "If the animals are smarter than me, why don't I just commit suicide and join PETA?"

I have had this happen with nearly every single species. ( Except opossums. Thank God for opossums ) So, if you're like me and sometimes find an animal that somehow outwits you, well that is exactly what this wonderful game is all about!

X2. it amazes me, the caution some animals show while others of the same species are so bold.

Thats one reason Ive never liked one way doors for squirrel and such.They will do more damage going around it than the damage that you were called to fix in my little opinion.

A female with young will be more carefull than any other time of year. Posative sets will work, but most of us are so complacent after achieving high catch ratios with dirty traps at other times of the year, that we neglect to remember how eviction liquid works. A dirty trap is a ball of odors, which make the mama coon real carefull. She may also be trap wise on top of it.
Use an odor free trap and I am sure you will see an increase in catch ratios.

Explain all the options you can think of. Then, when the one that you didn't think of happens, tell the customer you have to charge more.

My thoughts exactly Mike, how many times have you set a baited "dirty" trap at the entry point only to have the problem miraculously solve it self this time of year! Just as well smear some vanish on the hole and use the trap somewhere else lol

At some point in the set up I usually tell the customer that I want to concede right off that the animal is smarter than me so there won't be any need in pointing that out to me during this process. I'm going to get him/her with persistance and unless you run me off you and I will be here when he/she is gone.
I try to do the positive sets because it targets the house burgler not one walking thru the neighborhood and they let me know when I'm done.
I do hate it when I spend a lot of effort making something fool proof only to find a fool made it.

X 2 lots of experince in those words !

Boy Mike, you sure did strike the right chord there. It suddenly becomes very clear to me why I am more successful than my technicians. Clean traps is something I know about but simply do not stress enough with the guys. Thanks to you, that's about to change!

That is why I frequently get strange looks at the local car wash

Vanish = $39 per 4 ounce
Raccoon Eviction Fluid = $39 per 4 ounce
Boars delight = $12 per 4 ounce

Enough said?

The size of the adult mother will determine the success of an eviction. (I personally use coyote gland lure)A big old girl has probobly gone to war with every critter out there..... she aint scared of nothin. Thats where the eviction process becomes iffey.

I agree Mike, seems to work only on small or yearling sows on fri I put down my own mix in a attic on the way out of town customer calls and says he just watched the sow carry the pups down and in to a feild, this was in broad daylight !

I like to pick out a big boar coon ,one that's old and sticks like he spent all winter on the bottom of the pile . Now there's some good strong fresh stuff . I also included the first animal in my service call , so it really doesn't mader if I catch any to me . As long as the problem solved and I can do a good repair that will hold up . If they end up digging a new hole in a differnt spot that's fine ,just don't open my fix then that's a problem

Yea, I love the process when it works. I absolutly hate it when it doesn't

I honestly dont use eviction paste all that often as it seems 50/50 so half the time its making a return trip to set a trap when I could have just as well done that in the first place. The words written earlier were simply an analogy to acknowledge the point Mike was making. I do try it first in situations such as flat roof/ no attic, vaulted cielings and chimneys with no acess to the bottom etc. It still may cause an extra trip or two but usually its easier than cutting holes and repairing them. Vanish is the only product I have even tried, so I didnt mention any others as I have zero experiance with them.

I seem to notice the size of the young determins success of gland lures making the coon move the young. A big ol sow knows she can't be there all the time and she knows it. Now the size of the sow does cause the size of the fight in her to be bigger but she is also smarter. I like Travis have only used vanish. Sometimes I have went back and terrorized the coon family with a wildlife caller and occasionally I have thinned the vanish taken a hypo with a heavy gauge needle pushed it thru the dry wall and squirted it on top of the babies. It has never failed when I did that.

why don't I just commit suicide and join PETA?"
Well, you can't join PeTA after you're dead! But you can get a lobotomy and be a perfect candidate for PeTA.

PETA chicks would jump your dead bones.

A lot of comments are about how effective vanish will be. I suspect that it is not likely to work with male raccoons.Will coyote gland lure work with male raccoons or is it another product for female with young ?

thanks Bob

Im not sure about the other guys, but I have only tried it on female coons with pups. It is pretty successfull as long as she isnt a big old bruiser, with young that are not mobile.

Can not use it here without a pest control licence, but it makes a terrible trap lure.

This is a good one ,worked all day in the rain ,end up pulling something in my back , so get the call chimney coon , so now it's getting dark ,I climb way up this chimney with my loaded comstock with the nose cone on it , finally some how get that thing in there and it fires so start over , not a good trap for that kind of mission . So then after they just got done telling me there dog has been barking at the fire place all day , I grab my chimney poles and open the flue and there's no coon in the chimney , I go thought you said your dog has been barking at the fire place all day , they go well yesterday he was , what the flip people. What a crap day , that's why I charge for the first animal in my service call

So reading hindsight, Pesky, you could maybe change your procedures when you arrive to a chimney job. Maybe check from the inside and see if shes inside before you take a ladder down. As close to dark as it is, and a raccoon being a mostly nocturnal animal, could be that you just missed her.

Actually I think the vanish would be an excellent lure for male raccoons and females outside the birthing season. I believe coyote gland would be useful to make the safety of the young questionable. In my opinion coyote gland would only work to move nursing or pregnant coons.

A lot of coons are caught each year by coyote trappers who use coyote gland lure at their sets. I dont think it is much of a detterent. I personally use Boars Delight to evict female raccoons from confinement situations. A confinement situation being down a chimney, under a deck etc. I've had very little success using it in an open attic. She ussually just moves them to different place in the attic. But in confinement situations I have 95+% success. I actually used some on a hollow tree today, mom and kits in a hollow tree (just out of reach) in a busy courtyard (too busy for normal trapping procedure). Ive never heard of anyone using it for male raccoons.

Some have a much better % with it than your blackies blend stuff. There is a right way and a wrong way to apply it .

For a female raccoon with kits I see no reason why it wouldnt work. Ive just always had good luck with "My" way. For clarification so I know how to use it properly if I'm in a situation where I need to try something new, what is the RIGHT versus WRONG way to apply this product?

No it's a him he just didn't spend the day there today that's all . I new that when they said there dog was fine with the fire place , ya I should have checked the chimney first before i got out the big ladder . But my back is killing me , think its a nerve i must of twisted the wrong way or something . I was trying to save steps . And with them telling me the dog barked all day I figured he was in there . The trap is still in place ,I'll just go back in the mourning and cap the chimney . I was kinda forced into charging for the first animal and service call all rolled into one thing , when I added a new county to my adds I didn't know that every single pestcontrol company did animals out there . All I seen was a leader add open and two animal control company's in the book , I thought I'm going to make a killing not . When the add came out and I started getting all these calls but hardly any jobs I started calling around and found the problem ,the bug guys charge the service call and it comes with the first animal all in one , these pestcontrol company's will only come out and set a cage trap and that it , that's there answer for every animal problem , it seemed wierd at first but now it's normal and I love it , I get all my money at the start of the job it makes things simple I guess , if I do catch more than one I just bill them for it .if there needing repairs I charge them at the start , this way I don't have to meet them to get payed or wait for the mail .