I’d like to try a bait station for coon on a different scale by mixing apple, cherry, loganberry OR persimmon oil with cracked corn or other materials. My questions to you are: are these edible right out of the bottle? If not, how do you make them edible?

I have seen coon demolish bait with oils in it without offsetting the oil. Also have had the bait get them there but refused the bait, then tested in another base and they couldn't get enough of it. I've seen lots of people type that X ingredient wont work because it's bitter to the animal or isn't as good as whatever, but when I tested, I've had nothing but positive results with them. Base material is key for me, people can tell you what they want, but until you try it yourself to evaluate the product, you'll never really know.

Dilution is key. As is they are very concentrated and not particularly palatable.

There are many food grade available flavorings both oils and syrups that are of very high quality in odor representation and will not cause taste aversion in a bait or formula. Some have sweeteners enhanced in them. You can add your own sweeteners if you choose to enhance odor and flavor reinforcement.

Use some of these materials in areas that will give you your desired results. Chemical based essential oils are not the only choice that is available for this purpose. There are several excellent sweeteners that can boost any bait formula. You can also make your own bases from neutral base materials in this manner.

Lorann oils has good food grade products.

Many essential oils are not food grade that are sold in our industry and are chemical odor representation materials. Some may very well be sold that are purchased from the food flavoring industry and would work quite nicely in bait use.

Some whole grain products do not absorb liquids very well but will coat the material to a degree. In the case being discussed you may be well served in trying some taste friendly flavored powdered jello packets of your choosing.

Dampen the grain with some water / p. glycol or glycerin blended in a bucket. Use just enough liquid to coat the batch no more. Stir in the fluid well to just moisten the batch only. Once it seems wet looking add your powder flavoring and stir well. A done deal. Coon will eat it all if they find it and come back for more.

I have used pelletized floating fish food as a base for my ADC coon bait for years and have had very good success with it. I'm not sure what the pellets are made of but they hold they're shape well after adding the other ingredients. Coon, opossum, skunk and even ground hog consume it all when I come to remove them from the traps.

Most all fish foods whether flake or pelletized feeds are comprised of fish meal powder and fish oil primarily; Then other nutrients that are needed to complete the formula are added then they are formed for retail sale.

I have hauled fish meal from Memphis and blood meal from here in KS to a mill south of Houston making fish pellets. That blood meal came from cattle and so red it has a purple tint. They removed the plasma for human consumption and the red blood cells are flash frozen. They thaw then are meal at that point, really an almost purple dust. So I think the amount of fish meal is much higher than the blood meal as the pellets had no red in them I could see. The fish meal is whole fish, buffalo and carp, ground then cooked into meal. The cooking dehydrates it so it keeps. When your inside the building getting loaded the smell is pretty strong and not particularly pleasant. I've no clue what else is in those pellets. Any feed store can get you a bag of either one if you want to play with them.

Amazingly the only thing that doesn't seem to be attracted to my ADC bait is cats. I think I have only ever caught one cat using that bait in the last 10 years and that was because the cat was starving. The other ingredients combined give off a pretty sweet smell.

I use floating catfish food also mixed with pancake syrup and molasses. I’ve had coon, possum, skunks, Fox, and coyote all work DPs with this bait.