Summer Raccoon Bait?

I am cage trapping raccoons in a big city residential neighborhood for a housewife who has small children and is not pleased with the large bold raccoons she sees using her yard in broad daylight. She said when they had a raccoon problem a few years ago the ADC pulled 14 raccoons out of the neighborhood. So far I have only caught two in a month (big ones). I'm currently using sweet stuff (marshmallows, raspberry Jello powder), and eggs for bait so that I don't catch cats. What other summertime baits would you recommend ?

Are your coons that picky,where as they are not hitting on the menu you're
serving ?

I envy you guys that have nothing but stupid coon, that go into every trap like the pid piper is sitting in there. Fact is, here in my area the coon can get pretty hard. and summer fish baits that every one loves to use, just don't cut the mustard here. WaUrbntrapper I use sweet food baits 90 percent of the time in the summer, something that is not going to change in the high heat or go bad. In Urban and sub urban areas, with all the food that is out there why would a coon want a hard smelling nasty bait, when they can find tons of food every where this time of year, that is fresh and just off the table. also this time of year eye appeal, smell and taste in combination is a deal sealer. at least in my area.

90 percent of the critters are easy, it is that 10 percent that we HAVE to catch, that are real hair pullers.

What Ron Jones says.He knows the ropes from one end to the other.

Coon are easy once you understand what they are or not responding too. If they are trap/cage shy just change the presentation of what they see. Baits are many that we use and I make can the bait/visual fit any scenario we encounter. It is a learning process like many things we have to deal with.

Gotta love the catch and release consumers out there that make our work more challenging or the wet female coon that wont pay any attention to the average cage trap offering.

they are eating plums here as there are an abundance of them at this time of year.

I've mentioned this before. When mom is breast feeding her babies she is ten times harder to catch than when the babies are able to

go out and can eat by themselves. Today is a good example. I was just told that I have a mother that we have been trying to catch for

weeks, in one of my cages. ( We have already caught two of her young ) I also have another mother with baby at another job. Sweet

baits and marshmallows are our best bet this time of year.

I use dry cat food with molasses and anise oil. I have been very lucky (Knock on wood) that I have been able to catch every offending coon I have been hired to go after so far. I have had a few issues with educated coon not want to enter my cages, but have made it almost impossible for the coon to reach the bait without entering the cage. I have to agree with Mr. Jameson on the people catching coon and releasing them to be someone else's problem.

For lure I like Bobs peaches and cream Ron probably has a similar lure. I might throw in som food. one that holds up well is little debbies oatmeal cookies. For a visual I wad up fast food bags with their leftovers maybe look in the garbage for som leftover wrappings. A tennisball holds lure very well gives eye appeal and give him something to play with instead of your trap and the grass. Tennis courts have plenty of dead balls. I would also set up a trail camera maybe she doesn't have as many coons as she thought especially with adc taking that many.

Diced apples have been my go to hot weather bait. Diced apples give off more smell than whole or quartered apples. Ants can be a problem, but they don't eat much.

Think about it, if you're using berries, fruits, or vegetables, you don't have anything that's attractive, because they can travel usually less than a couple hundred yards and get an almost unlimited supply of those foods. I try to use baits that aren't going to compete with big food sources, something like peanut butter or peanut butter based baits

It is kind of amazing that I will sometimes use peanut butter as a bait for rodents because most of our raccoons will leave it alone.

I do, however, use baits that are specifically blended for raccoons. Cooner22 lives right across the lake from me so that is kind of unique.

Trying for g hogs in a garden with chunked apples, along with positive sets next to shed, 2 nights, 3 coons (2 in one cage) 0 hogs. I'm with 52Carl!