Posted: 1/14/2009 7:47:46 PM EDT
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A little background info, then I'll break into timeline format.
My dad operates a mushroom farm here in Minnesota - we grow oyster and shiitake. Mushrooms require a lot of fresh air, so we have a pretty elaborate system in place to condition the incoming air and vent the stale air to the outdoors. One of the egress vents happens to have a bunch of discarded bags of oyster mushroom substrate stacked beneath it - we sell these to local gardeners in the spring for mulch. Apparently a raccoon awoke from its state of torpor sometime between Saturday night and Monday morning, stumbled around until it found moist 65° air blowing out of a duct, and scaled the heap of mushroom waste in order to gain entry to our building. Monday, 8:00 AM: One of the employees is picking oysters and he hears a growling noise. Looks around and doesn't see anything, so he continues to the next rack and so forth. Monday, 3:00 PM: The same employee who heard the growl has now returned to the fruiting room to spray a pesticide solution. At some point, he hears a hissing noise, looks up, and is confronted by the raccoon staring him in the eye at a distance of approximately two feet, bearing its teeth. As the miscellaneous maintenance and pest removal guy, this would be my job; however, I caught the flu over the weekend, preventing me from returning to work until Wednesday. Tuesday, 8:00 AM: Everyone has heard about the raccoon and they're taking field trips into the fruiting room to view the "cute" animal, which is spending most of its time in a lethargic slumber, perched atop one of the racks. Tuesday, 12:00 PM: I offer to shoot the raccoon with a .22. My dad declines, then calls an acquaintance who is a trapper and arranges to pick up a live trap on Wednesday morning. Wednesday, 9:00 AM: A live trap and two cans of sardines arrive. Wednesday, 12:00 PM: I oil up the moving bits, get the trap working properly, then position a can of sardines directly in the center (side to side) against the closed end of the trap. I chase around the raccoon a bit with a stainless rod to find out where it likes to travel, then position the trap accordingly. Wednesday, 8:00 PM: The varmint shook the trap from the outside until the can of sardines slid to the side, then it tipped the can up against the mesh and cleaned it out. I clean up the mess, secure the second can of sardines with zip ties, and set the trap a second time. I waved my gun around a little bit to convey my next course of action should it evade me again. Pictures below. 
This is how I found the trap on Wednesday night - notice the can of sardines tipped against the mesh. 
Fresh can of sardines secured with zip ties. 
Look at that condensation! I left the AR in my van for a few hours at -20°F before stepping into the warm and humid fruiting room. 
Updates to come. |
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I had one that was part navy seal and part ninja raiding my trash for a few weeks last summer. He always cleaned out the food from our trap but never tripped it.
Thankfully he was found on a nearby road flat as a pancake because I was getting very close to "discharging a firearm within the city limits" Good luck in your non-firearm attempts to kill the little bastard |
for updates of course!
Apparently my coworker, Luis, has bestowed it with the name "Zorro." 
When I arrived this morning, the sardines had been eaten and the tin had been licked clean, the door on the trap was closed, and the raccoon was perched on a rack halfway across the room. I think the trap is too small. The rack upon which the raccoon was seated was the one directly in front of the outgoing air vent through which I believe it entered. I got a broken pallet board and smacked it in the ass a few times to corral it toward the edge of the rack. The critter climbed down the side and looked out the vent, then back at me. I poked it with the board again and it slipped out from whence it came. 
I proceeded to fulfill some of my mushroom farming duties (such as taking an inventory of our cooler,) then went back into the fruiting room. Sure enough, "Zorro" was back. 
I'm going to fashion a grabber thing out of PVC pipe and rope. It's sedate enough that I think I'll be able to get the rope around its neck. More updates to come! Colin |
Yeah, it got kind of agitated. I had to drag the pest on its back for ~40 feet to get outside - the whole time, it was thrashing around and hissing. On the way out, I tripped over a low cart that was left in the middle of a walkway. Thankfully, it was a slow fall and I was able to keep tension on the cable. 
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