My sister's better half called me yesterday and told me he had coon that was messing up his bird feeders. They live in a rural setting, and he has an old live trap, so he baited it with corn several days, but coon kept knocking it off and stealing the corn. Well, I took one of my Williams live traps and the only thing I had for bait was some doggy treats, that I use to stop the neighbor's yappers quiet.
I didn't know if they would work, but worth a try. There was only 8 pieces of the treats left... In Fred's trap I put one piece on the solid metal pan and 1/2 piece outside and another just inside the. In my trap I broke 2 of them put pieces outside and just inside the trap. the rest of the bag I cut into with about 5 pieces and a shiny metallic color, so I left that metallic color flashing in the light.
The first thing this morning I got a call and he told me there were 2 coons, one in each trap. I just came back from dispatching them 1 male and 1 female medium sized. I rebaited the traps this time with baby carrots with "Laughing Lady" coon lure from Dakota Line Lures.
But I do know that I am going to buy some more of the doggy treats from Walmart for next season. They are dry and you could carry them in your pocket if you wanted. They smell so enticingly like bacon... I keep thinking I might want to try them for myself. (photo below)
This reminds of some coon baits I concocted 50 years ago. It was actually the year I caught 360 coon.. My bait kept freezing and didn't have any scent to attract coon. I was trapping in an area that was closed to public so I was using old wood and screen drop door traps that weighed about 35 pound each. So I got the idea to try and create something would give off enough scent but wouldn't freeze solid. So I finally came up with 2 items... I melted paraffin wax in a can and mixed fresh bacon grease in one batch and the next batch I mixed in peppermint oil. You have to really stir it good to keep it from separating. At that time all egg cartons were paper type and would absorb some of the liquid. I poured the 12 cups of the carton as full as could be filled, then set them in the refrigerator. After they cooled and became solid, I cut them into 12 individual cubes and stored them in bread wrappers in the fridge. They stayed fresh and the scent lasted quite a while. It was cold enough that I left them in the car in box I carried for my bait and lure. When checking my line, to rebait after a catch, all I had to do was throw one of the cubes to the back of the trap and move on. These worked well for about 3 years and I stopped using them... I guess I figured it was too much of a hassle to make them.
Garry-