Who knows...just be glad! Possibly road kill. Might be a female nursing new babies now in which case she will be raiding day and night soon to feed the babies.

Great! More raccoons! Too bad my coon killing dog passed away - we never had any problems when he was around, and now the population is exploding.

I have good luck catching coons and possums with my harvart trap. I don't bother relocating them a 22 round is much cheaper

Ya never know.. maybe your coon got hit by a car somewhere...

Coons are great at cyclone fence climbing. I suspect yours either bit the dust or found a better garden to raid. Electrification of fencing works very well. Racoons HATE shocks.

I have a single strand electric wire about 6 inches off the ground just outside of my 8 ft garden fence. Before the corn gets ready, I bait that strand with peanut butter (the way you do for deer--and it works for deer too) and the raccoon are gone for the rest of the season. Of course, you can do it at any time in the gardening season.

Thanks, LoneJack - I just bought some at Rural King the other day, set out the Coke mix in 2 shallow bowls and....nothing. Maybe it has scared the coon away, but I'm keeping it out, baited every evening. I depend on my garden for vegetables through the year and this critter has got to go one way or another!! There are a LOT of coons out here and no predators any more to keep the numbers down.

Thanks laceyvail and daninthedirt - I will be putting up an electric wire just outside the fence as soon as I can get to it, and hope my yard cat won't run into it. In the meantime, I am just confused as to why the coon did so much damage then all of a sudden left, so maybe it did find another garden to raid for a while.

Thanks Karl - I don't have a gun (probably need one where I live) and I'm too much of a weenie to pull a trigger anyway.

It's getting harder and harder to have a substantial garden any more.....sigh.

Electric fencing works well, as long as it is activated early & the racoon hasn't had a taste of something it really wants (like sweet corn). Once they get a taste of sweet corn, they will tolerate the shocks to get back in.

Havahart traps will catch them, and you don't even need bait. Just leave the trap open, right next to the fence... they patrol the perimeter, and will walk right in. I just caught a ground hog today the same way. Be prepared, though, because an angry, snarling racoon can be a hard thing to turn loose safely. I caught an adult last year; while I gave it water (in a pan placed under the cage) I didn't feed it... after a couple days without food it became docile, and I was able to let it go.

in my experience, coons are VERY hard to trap. I tried repeatedly with a Havahart a few years ago, with the help of a very experienced, local person who grew up on a farm. We tied the bait to the trap, and even so, only caught a couple of possums. Never the coon. But I can tell you, that electric wire worked.

The one thing I DON'T want to do is trap them and have to deal with taking them off and releasing them. Way too many of those buggers around here for that. But I would love to give them a good shock to keep them away or kill them thereby reducing their population. They are a real nuisance in many, many ways.

Everyone in my area used to have gardens and now no one does because of the exploding population of deer, coons and other wildlife making it virtually impossible. We need more predators!

I wish I could send some coyotes your way, they have pretty much decimated the deer population around my area, also took out some of my chickens. We used to have more coons round here but havnt seen to many recently

In many ways relocating animals is taking/making your problem someone elses.

One farmer told me when he has one in a havahart he tosses the whole trap into a garbage can filled with water.

One year I caught 16 skunks while trying to catch a family of coons. Eventually caught 6 coons - who can damage a trap. One I found sleeping on his back with eyes wide open.

IF you catch a skunk don't panic they are very docile - just don't sneak up on them. Announce yourself and don't startle them. I never got sprayed once.

Skunks are one animal that is easily transported and just prop the door open to release they will just waddle out and away. They fear nothing.

Possums are the worse to get out of the trap as they just want to play possum.

So be careful what you bait your trap with but most are simply scavengers. IF you are trying to catch a woodchuck keep the trap closed at night so you won't have to deal with a scavenger.

Hey karl_tn - Please, please truck those babies right up here! We don't have enough. The deer around here are thick as flies, giving birth in my back yard, sleeping in herds around my orchard, eating anything and everything that isn't protected! They even challenge you if you walk up towards them! They're starting to scare me, but neighbors (ones who have no gardens) feed them, name them and think they're cute. Even the tick and chigger populations have exploded due to the deer! They need predators to maintain the balance of nature!

"Havahart traps will catch them, and you don't even need bait. Just leave
the trap open, right next to the fence... they patrol the perimeter,
and will walk right in."

Well speak of the devil... I reset the trap yesterday after catching the ground hog I mentioned in my previous post, in case there was more than one. This morning, there was a racoon in the trap. The trap had been placed open & unbaited against one of my garden fences. (I tried to post a photo, but Houzz wouldn't let me for some reason.) It was probably just looking for mice, so I'll let it go as soon as it calms down enough to do so safely.

Maybe we over-think how to bait traps to catch an animal, when all that is necessary is to place the trap in the right place... sitting right next to the garden fence, the metal is not out of place, and the open trap must look like a way in.

Ckag, I hear you about the deer... they are my most persistent pest. Anything not fenced off is eaten, and there is not a square foot of space that they have not investigated. Because I have apple trees, deer have trained their young for generations that my yard is the place to eat. :-( I'm putting up electric fencing around those trees this year, to see if I can encourage them to go elsewhere.

Please do not poison raccoons. Golden Malrin is an extremely potent poison that causes a painful death. It is for killing flies. Any other creature (bird, insect or mammal) that eats a poisoned raccoon will die the same way. It's best to trap them or even better to contact a professional or your local wildlife office. It is illegal throughout the U.S. to poison any wildlife other than rodents. Read this:Poisoning raccoons

I used to put a fence round my garden but just to keep my dog out. I have rabbits that don't bother my garden. The deer in the past didn't bother it either. I do have fruit trees and did see one eating some apples. I don't mind sharing and will let it eat as much as it wants. Hunting season for me starts in sept. :) as far as calling local wildlife around here for a coon they would probley laugh at you. I like my traps, but do what works best for you. I told the wife if I see the rabbits in my garden there Gona end up I'm my freezer