I have a raccoon job on a home with 18 acres. The raccoons have tore up the sod to the point the homeowner thought it might be hogs until a camera revealed raccoons. I set three cage traps in the vicinity of the tore up yard and four DPs in the woods (out of sight) on the side of the tore up yard. Yesterdays check yielded three possum in four dps. A game warden friend suggested caps for my DPs. Has anyone had any luck with caps on DPs for coons? If so, which brand are you using?

Thanks in advance.

I’ve used white cups or golf balls with succes, I just rub a little lure under them to entice them to lift it up. Golf balls are my preferred method tho

Do you know the path the raccoons are taking to the spot where they are digging?

With a little lure on the inside of the dp lip, the coon will just pull the cap off to get to the bait inside. I've used them when rain was forecast, to keep the bait dry.

There is an old woods road that ends at the yard and close to where the digging begins. I would assume they take the road as oppose to traversing through the woods. I was awarded a fat skunk in the dp on this mornings check. .22 behind the shoulder met with little spray.

I usually just use large Marshmallow's, but your gonna have to get rid of the trash ('Possums/Skunks) to get to the coon's. Any bait that will draw coon's will draw the trash too.

four possum and one skunk gone as of today

If you must use bait and have a lot of non target possibilities, I use 2 comstocks set end 2 end with the bait under a sheet metal nose cone between the 2. The more traps you have available the better. Something really stinky like sardines works well as the bait and is easy to find/cheap/easy to set out.

You want to make sure the traps are where the target will pass them though. Otherwise, you’ll get tons of non targets.

Golf ball on top with some grub stake worked last night

Nice job!!

golf balls worked great, but I kept having missing golf balls. I went with caps for this season on a dozen. I painted them metallic silver to reflect light. I read an article that said raccoons like the reflective properties and some guys were even painting their DPs metallic silver.

Tight Chains

that is an interesting concept and setup. I never thought to chain them to the trap. I'll definitely need to paint them. They were extremely beat up when I received them from the Ebay seller. Sold "as new".

I use a similar concept when trapping coon in a creek area. I'll put tin foil over the pan in the ripples of the creek. Coon can't help but try and grab the "fish" reflecting under water.