Trash? That's all I ever see them eat this time of year. I think some of them also fish in the creek beds.

You would be surprised at the abundance of food available even with the snow cover for all kinds of wild animals. Many can suppliment wild berries and other food sources with the bird seed we put out. Raccoons are omnivours and will eat just about anything they can find.

In zone 6a like me, they have to be hurting from food somehow.
Maybe in zone 8 they are having a party, not around these parts. It's been a cold month.

The average temperature around here has been 5 degrees colder than the 10 year average but the Raccoons are still active.

No mystery - Similar to animals that hibernate, they will put on a fat reserve in late summer and fall to see them through the leaner months. With that reserve, they don't need to eat the same amount in winter.

What is a mystery, how they are still getting onto my roof - I've pruned anything that looks like a possibility.

morz8 is it a brick house or wooden panels on the side?

Cedar shingles painted, just like everyone else in the neighborhood and they don't seem to be going up on any others that we can tell, they've clawed at some roofing shakes here and done some damage, have not gotten in or even come close - they've just done enough to require some repairs.

It's a little weird opening eyes in the middle of the night to find other eyes looking down in from the over-bed skylight :) Had never happened before this fall and skylights were installed with an addition 23 yrs ago. I can't find muddy footprints or scratches on downspouts either so I don't think climbing those.

They may be able to make a jump from detached carport roof to the house roof, I think it could be possible if they were motivated enough but don't know what the motivation would be.

morz8, have you checked for zombification? :P

I'll consider anything :)

I know they appear to be smarter than me, I have a live trap and am having no success at all (in weeks). Savory baits and I catch the neighborhood cats, fruit and sweeter things and I catch nothing. Dept Wildlife said marshmallows, maybe they meant toasted with graham cracker and chocolate bars, still warm and with camp songs.

Could be a very good chance those coons are someone else's catch and release problem. They have been trapped in those live cages before and will not go near them now. All coons enter those traps, no matter what, they will not turn down a free meal because the space is confined for them. Time to think of plan B....shoo to kill, know what I mean?

I do know what you mean, and half of this household has been that angry more than once, but we're within city limits. Well within, play park a block one direction, grade school four blocks in the other. Location is why I'm getting advice only and no hands on help from Dept Wildlife, and our animal control has no license/liability for raccoon unless delivered to their door in a live trap.

I don't know what to tell you....if live traps don't work and those are the only "humane" traps allowed in a city. Then it is pretty much all you have to work with at the moment. What city is this? I thought the U.S. was more liberal in their approach of dispatching these vermen?
I really hate these environmentalists that disrupt all of our pest control methods. They lobby the government on useless legislation.

A simple live trap is a board and a 55 gallon barrel with dog or cat food in it. Use the board as a ramp so they can reach the top of the barrel. They will jump in but can't get out. If they are part of a catch and release program and that program won't cooperate by releasing them elsewhere I would put the lid on the barrel and fill it with water or attach the exhaust from a car to it. I'm tired of hearing about people who don't take care of their own problems and push them on someone else. I'm also tired of these activists protecting common vermin. I have no problem giving pest animals lead poisoning. Endangered animals are a different story altogether.

Washington state is not liberal in any sense by 'vote of the people' when it comes to trapping - any type and style of body hold trap to any animal wearing fur is illegal. That includes our lawn moles, but enforcement against persons using mole traps isn't common....the legislation wording made it applicable to even moles, it wasn't well thought out on more than one level. And yes, what looks good on paper to the voting public in the larger urban areas doesn't often work out well for those of us who actually interact with the issues in less populated areas.

We're free to live trap them ourselves, or pay a professional to do that and it could come to the hiring, I was hoping to resolve the problem without spending money on raccoons. I can only relocate legally as far as our animal control facility site, no permit is available for relocation of raccoon.

Taz, a barrel type trap might be something they haven't encountered and could be worth a try. That could make more sense than anything anyone of authority has suggested to me yet :)

I understand your frustration my friend. I too do not want to spend money on raccoon issues. People throw out ideas like: Electric Fencing, spikes on fences to prevent them from walking and climbing onto or over in your yard. But, all these things are expensive.

Do yourself a favor... buy/make your own humane trap yourself, catch the buggers and do a shoot to kill....far, far away in a remote area where no one will see you. Licensed fur hunters and pest control people can legally do a trap/kill. I will be able too also very soon, I'm almost finished my licensing course from the Department of wildlife. If you relocate the coon, than that is going to be the same issue someone else has to deal with, then he will trap it and bring it to your area again or someone else's. Coons will track back into their home range. They can go 3 miles a night.

None of the folks on here are cruel to animals...but coons are so plentiful because people have let their numbers get out of control.

by the way....I have really thinned out the populations in my area. I used to find 3-4 coons a night in my property. But after DAILY aggressive trapping over the years it has weaned out. Trap and relocate that is...but I released them quite far away. Which is not right but it is the only option I had at the time and did not know any better. Nothing less than a 30 Mile away trap and release.

Now the coon traps have been out for over a week and nothing.

Caught a coon early this morning. Incidentally, I had to go to a friends house way out in the country and took the coon along. I told my friend I had a coon in the truck. My friend volunteered to put it down humanely. I think he did not want me to release it near his area. He is a fruit grower, grapes, apple, pear. Didn't matter to me because I was 50 miles out from my house, so I let him. A .22 shot to it's ear put an end to the coon.

Not really happy with the Hava Hart traps that are availbale from places like Lowe's, Home Depot, it was a brand new cage and the coon bended the metal cage in some spots. The cage won't hold up in the long run. The professional metal cage traps that contractor pest control people use are much more long lived.

While cleaning up some of the 4 inc hes of snow that fell Tuesday night yesterday I saw Raccoon tracks in that snow, telling me they are still out and about around here.

I saw them monday night and it was cold, and plenty of snow. At 9 PM 2 big coons were hunting together in my yard and climbed over my fence to knock my garbage can over. I went outside to chase them away. It was a coincidence, I took a peek outside out of curiosity and caught the coons right in the act.

2 nights ago there were about 8 raccoons chippering in the big tree toward the back of my house, there was fighting, lots of noise. It is mating season now. It was 34 degrees F that night and the other nights were all freezing, with very little Raccoon activity. Raccoons don't really move around in cold temperatures. But there activity dramatically increases after a slight warm up of 2 degrees above freezing.