Lady said 4 raccoons were visiting her deck and climbing on the roof almost nightly. I set two Tru Catch traps and caught a single raccoon on two successive nights. Then 3 nights with no activity so I pulled the traps. 10 days later she said two raccoons have started to visit nightly again and crawling on her roof. I set the Tru Catch again and only the bait (Cheetos, small marshmallows, sardines and even some fresh salmon pieces)outside and just inside the traps is eaten. Can raccoons really think that through and know those traps take their buddies away?

There is a multi stemmed tree next to the house being used as a ladder to the latrine on the roof! There is also a spot in the lawn where defecation occurs.

My next option is a 30" open cage trap. What next for bait?

If you did not put the coons down or turn them loose far enough away, it may be the same coons. If it is, you will have a hard time getting them in a cage trap again.

There was a recent post thread on baiting cage traps for raccoon, do a search of this site. Maybe a trail set with two door trap that leads to the tree. Or switch to a wire trigger trap and see if that works.

Kurt temple

Try a large plastic catch trap.

See, you guys are getting it. All good advice. Even if these raccoons have been caught before, using different bait and different

traps will catch them again. ( Especially this time of the year )

I like putting a little dirt, grass or something on the bottom of the trap so they do not feel the wire.
JMO

Getting There ain't wrong. I had two beautiful woodchuck holes right up against the customer's brick house. Boxed the holes in

perfectly and set two Comstocks. No bait, no lure, and fresh ground covering the bottom of the cages. My catch = 4 raccoons. Maybe

the woodchuck got tired of the doorbell ringing late every night and moved to a different zip code before I got there.

Raccoon's are eating machines, for the ones that don't like to cooperate, I throw in a little eye appeal. I like to use old hay that has been used in coops for flooring mixed with the vegetation that's already there. This set has no bait just lure with pieces of paper towel with a lure stick in the bait basket. Unless its dry dog/cat food any other bait is behind forcing the animal to cross the pan or under the cage. That's just how I like to set for them.

There's always the option for a DP if they won't take to a cage, no?

In some instances I would imagine the DP is okay. We don't even own one. Not a good trap for any area that has kids, dogs, lawn,

protectionists, or anyone with a cell phone.

Flavored Mini Marshmallows, with a sweet coon lure like the bosses Coon Candy works just great for us. We always put a corrugated plastic cover over the cage also.

Second that, I'd even go as far in saying any other style trap besides a cage/box/tube is too risky to use at homes with small children and pets. Cages work, little more work involved but they work well on coons. IMO

That all makes sense. And my learning curve has decreased even more.

A couple of "fresh" ideas there. Thank you.

I did a couple articles in the trapper's post on baiting cages for coon and Skunks also have a podcast show on Rednecks pride outdoors on the same subject. 80 20 10!!!! by changing the trap placement or changing up on the baiting strategy that can catch some of those hard coon, But anyone that believes that some raccoons will not get trap shy or trap smart, come on out here to me and in a short time frame I will show you a few. also if you put a camera on your coon cages around the towns you may be humbled on what you think versus what you see.

Jonesie, my son put a camera on the coon cage in his backyard and he definitely was humbled. He never would have believed he had that

many mice! The raccoon just ambled into the cage and got caught. Of course you guys can afford to send your raccoons to finishing

school. We prefer to keep ours dumb.

do it 20 times LOL of course your in Wisconsin LOL

This time of year when the persimmons are dropping I like putting them in the cages. I also like a section of thin plywood that fits inside the trap and covers the pan. For the trap shy ones, the further in it goes the more pressure on the pan without it going all the way in.
I believe in Jonesie's approach, give them something they like that tastes good. And I use a little fox gland and/or castor also to give them different smells.

Leary's thin plywood or stiff cardboard is also an excellent idea that I had to use on a couple of raccoons that someone dropped off

here from New Jersey. I did test it to make sure the raccoon was all the way in before the door dropped.

smart a double scribble LOL