How to get racoons out of a garage?

[paulschaffer]

I was working on my overhead garage door. The weather got bad, so I had to leave it open for a few days. I just repaired the door and found 2 large coons inside. I shut the overhead door, but have the walk in door open about a foot. The thing is how do I coax them to come out? Are they most likely to come out at night or the daytime? I know they will need feed and water so at some point they must come out. Actually they knocked over a box of hardware that I had by the overhead door when the door was closed, so thats how I discovered them. When I went inside they ran behind a pile of lumber in there. Thats the problem, they can go behind that pile and hide, and I am not about to move that whole pile.

A live trap comes to mind, but I dont have one. Shooting is not an option. I dont want holes in the walls, or a bloody mess to clean up indoors. I can probably get a live trap on Monday, but not till then.

I thought of putting some corn outside the door, but that dont mean they wont go back inside after eating it, and if I am around to shut the door, they wont come out at all. One of them actually went in the rafters while I was in there and was looking at me. If I had my rifle handy, it would have been an easy shot, but holes in the roof are not an option either.

This is on a farm.

Anyone got any ideas?

Paul

[Stormin Mormon]

And, how does one get back in, to turn off the car?

[ransley]

I got them out by lighting some damp paper in a steel bucket so it made alot of smoke, then with a radio left on they were anoyed and stayed away. After they go seal the hole.

[Evan Platt]

Lack of oxygen plays a part there too.

[Evan Platt]

Open the garage door. Wait.

[The Daring Dufas]

I think lack of brains is actually a bigger problem.

TDD

[Sheldon]

Kind of silly to use a car to produce CO... that's like using a 10 pound maul to drive thumbtacks... any small push mower will produce more than adequate CO to kill in an enclosed garage. But I don't know why it should be difficult to rid a garage of racoons, remove all the nesting places and any source of food nearby and the beasties will leave right away. That garage is probably chock full with all kinds of crap... the trash cans too. The racoons are living in that stinkin' garage only because it's a classier residence than the owner's house.

[henrypenta]

moth balls

[Ed]

When I had raccoons in my attic the animal control officer said to place a radio in the attic playing loud mexican music. I did and the raccoons were gone within 24 hours. Then, the test to make sure they are gone is to leave some chicken bones around and see if they get taken.

[sanity]

I tried that and it worked. Got rid of the raccoons but inherited 14 illegal Mexicans.

[Stormin Mormon]

Racoons steal tools?

[Stormin Mormon]

Do you mean NAACP? Or maybe as Rush Limbuagh calls them, NAALCP.

[Stormin Mormon]

Only works on Americoons. However, the next day you'll be invaded by Mexicoons.

[Stormin Mormon]

I read this after my other post. Honest.

[Jim]

is this your witness?

['nam vet.]

Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw; I Found Jesus... he was in my trunk when I returned from Mexico.

[AZ Nomad]

Maybe combine it with a bit from Joe's Garage:

Jesus: he was a nice boy he used to cut my grass.

[Stormin Mormon]

I like it... the other version is "I know Jesus is real, he mows my lawn."

[Stormin Mormon]

Bother. I got to read all the posts before replying. Second time in a couple days someone already wrote what I did.

As to racoons out of the garage. Loud rock and roll music is supposed to help. However, you may find the coons replaced by a rock band of teenagers, jamming air guitar.

[Stormin Mormon]

Doesn't need oil in the gas. That will just stink up your garage. Like you say, leave the mower running. Don't go back in the garage for 24 hours or so. And expect to have to haul out the racoon carcass. Or several carci. In case of walking mower, lash the handle to something like an eye hook in the wall. So the mower doesn't go vibrate and move and chop up something good.

No cat converters, but maybe racoon converters. Convert from live to dead. The engine noise may drive them out (still alive). They may return, still alive.