Have a coyote family

[skipglo]

We have a coyote family that comes and eat table scraps we throw out. We put them in a discarded frying pan about 50 yds. from the house at the edge of the woods.. We have 42 acres and join a river. The usually come at night at 3 AM or early in the morning. I have their picture on a game camera. We are pretty much rural with houses generally a good distance apart. I can shoot safely. I do have some traps and A generation 1 night scope and could mount it on a custom AR, Wylde chamber 223. I would like to trap them but don't want to trap the opossum's, racoons, deer and cats. The scope would be decent with good moon light. Should I buy a caller and try to lure them in in the day time or try shooting them at dusk?

Just bang on the frying pan like the old time triangle to call the cowboys to lunch! I have had auto feeders for deer in the winter and within 10-15 minutes of the motor turning on and the feed ringing off the blades....the Deer are there. Put the scrapes out early and bring them in at dusk....you'll train them!

 

[Tulsa Reiner]

Opossum's eat ticks. I need all of them here the habitat will support. Coons are to me not a problem as far as I know.

Grant Woods (Growing Deer TV) recently explained why the "study" that purportedly showed that possum's eat ticks was severely faulted. He's a PhD wildlife biologist, and says it's all BS.
Go ahead and trap them. They prey on turkey and quail nests.

 

[justinp61]

Skunks, coons and opossums are nest raiders and given the opportunity I'll kill them, feral cats too.

From what I understand wildlife biologists don't recommend feeding wild animals, bears come to mind.

 

[APDDSN0864]

Just ask the Chevron Employee on a Permian Basin fracking pad about feeding wild critters.

His coworkers thought it was cute to feed the coyotes their lunch scraps and any other food items that they had. This went on for a couple of weeks on that pad prior to the fracking.
One bright morning, about 10:00AM, said victim went to the Porta-Jon for his morning constitutional. He stepped out of the john and started walking back to the rig when a coyote ran out from under the Super's trailer and grabbed him by the right hand and proceeded to heartily chew on it until another worked kicked the coyote in the chest as hard as he could.
Minding his own business, not one of the crew that was feeding the coyotes, and now he has limited use of his right hand and Chevron got stuck with the $15K ER bill.

Habituating wild critters, particularly predators, to human behavior and activity is only looking for a disaster to happen.

Please re-think feeding predators and scavengers.

Ed

 

[Ohlongarm]

Grant Woods (Growing Deer TV) recently explained why the "study" that purportedly showed that possum's eat ticks was severely faulted. He's a PhD wildlife biologist, and says it's all BS.
Go ahead and trap them. They prey on turkey and quail nests.

If you want the top tick eater get guinea fowl that's all they do is hunt ticks all day.

 

[Ohlongarm]

Opossums may eat ticks, but they are the primary carrier of EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeoencephalitis) which destroys a horse's nervous system. It's a fatal disease that has no treatment and is absolutely the most horrible way for a horse to die.
I've lost a good horse to EPM and I don't even want to see that again.
EVERY 'possum must die...

As to traps, I'm a huge fan if MB550's with cast jaws.
I also use Victor #3 longsprings because that's all I had before I found the MB550's.
When you first get new traps, put a cup of liquid septic line cleaner in a 5 gallon bucket of water and soak the traps overnight. Pull them out, rinse them off, and neutralize any remaining acid by dipping them in a baking soda solution (1 cup/5 gal water), then dye and wax them.
Minnesota Trapline Supply is my go-to for supplies.

I do predator control work for a living.

Not all traps come from the factory ready to go.
With the exception of the latest batch of MB550's, every trap I have ever used needed some sort of tuning.
The trap dog modification mentioned earlier with the notch in the dog and the pan is the best way to create that crisp letoff with sufficient tension to avoid rats and rabbits from setting off your traps.
To make sure you're getting the proper pan tension, pay a few bucks and get a pan tension guage.
I set mine with ~3-4lb of tension, depending on which trap I'm working on.

Ed

That mb is definitely a coyote trap it barely puts a dent in them but is tenacious in grip.PS 5 years ago I bet a fellow trapper that a number 1 double longspring would hold a coyote if set properly, we bet $100 I set it on his farm in Killbuck Ohio, and caught a female coyote 3 days later, about 6 lbs of tension on the traps pan, let me tell you that is one wicked little trap she was held 1105 secure. Not recommended for amateurs, I'm looking in the archives for the picture, just saying.

 

[motrapper]

In 2nd and third place are Duck Geese than chickens for tick removal

Guinea Fowl are the Undisputed Tick eating Champion

 

[justinp61]

In 2nd and third place are Duck Geese than chickens for tick removal

Guinea Fowl are the Undisputed Tick eating and noise making Champion.

Fixed! LOL

 

[Buck1970]

If they come every night, they probably are not that far away in the day.
Get to your edges where you think they will come from. Calling them in daylight is a little more difficult than the cover of darkness. You must be hidden and camouflaged. They are more leery In the light and they can see you better. Call for 45-60 minutes. This time of the year, vocals work well. Bird distress as well. I always finish with a pup distress if nothing has responded. Many times they are there but for some reason hold up. You see them run off when you get up to leave.

As far as trapping, my neighbor put cable snares on my fence rows about 10 years ago. Caught my dog and a whitetail doe by the leg. Have had none on my place since. Just sayin.
Good look what ever you decide. Best coyotes a dead one.

 

[Csbc4fun]

Feed them a lead core bullet and save all the good trapping information provided for another time.

 

[HRM Johnny]

Best of luck-I hope you get them. Post pictures when you do please.

 

[Jay Byrd]

Best of luck-I hope you get them. Post pictures when you do please.

I will. I can tell when they are close, the deer are jumpy.

 

[brentru]

Opossum's eat ticks. I need all of them here the habitat will support. Coons are to me not a problem as far as I know.

You might find this interesting reading. https://www.growingdeer.tv/transcripts/turkeys-opossum-and-ticks-episode-679-transcript/ Do a search on the word "tick" and jump down to the point in the discussion where they talk about the research project that supposedly determined that opossums eat lots of ticks.

 

[Jay Byrd]

You might find this interesting reading. https://www.growingdeer.tv/transcripts/turkeys-opossum-and-ticks-episode-679-transcript/ Do a search on the word "tick" and jump down to the point in the discussion where they talk about the research project that supposedly determined that opossums eat lots of ticks.

Thanks, all are a big help.