# effective way to keep racoons off my feeder



## flyingfish

After trying about every commercially available form of critter prevention I finally found a way to keep racoons off my feeders. The problem was always that the racoons would climb up the legs of the feeders so I used 1 foot lengths of all-thread to block their path up the legs. 

I cut the lengths into 1 foot lengths, bent the last 6 inches at about a 30 degree angle, and hose-clamped three pieces to each leg. At first the racoons would just push the pieces out of the way so I used some sea-going epoxy to keep them in place. Since I did that I haven't had one photo of a raccoon on my feeders. That's been over 3 months now. Give it a try if you're losing corn to the racoons. 

Photos attached. This cost less than $10 per feeder and took about 20-minutes total to set up.


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## Law Dog

Great idea, thanks for sharing.


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## texwake

***** suck! Any chance you have more pictures? I'm sorta getting the concept but it looks like they can just go in between the pieces of metal on the legs.


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## ITRIED

texwake said:


> ***** suck! Any chance you have more pictures? I'm sorta getting the concept but it looks like they can just go in between the pieces of metal on the legs.


yea that's what I was thinking as well..


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## snapperlicious

They'll figure how to get around that soon. Pretty smart little critters.


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## hog_down

Eliminator plate and a big varmint guard that covers the entire bottom of the barrel, and be done with it.


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## TX HOOKSETTER

hog_down said:


> *Eliminator plate* and a big varmint guard that covers the entire bottom of the barrel, and be done with it.


This is all you need to do.


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## Trouthunter

From looking at your picture I don't get it...what keeps them from going on up the leg? I don't see that working.

Just get a 12 volt system and the Eliminator spin plate. Cuts off their food supply and they finally just stop trying.

TH


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## Big Guns 1971

Just smear grease on the legs of the feeder from the ground to about 4 foot up. They just slide right back down. After each season you will have to reapply the grease.


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## wet dreams

Big Guns 1971 said:


> Just smear grease on the legs of the feeder from the ground to about 4 foot up. They just slide right back down. After each season you will have to reapply the grease.


If you have pigs you had better NOT go all the way to the ground, they will rub on it without fail. They love to rub on anything with oil, one of the best things you can use to draw pigs on a regular basis is a 'toe-sack' soaked in oil wrapped around a tree. I use grease also but on the top 2' of legs, I also have ruint a few shirts.....


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## Big Guns 1971

You are correct about the pigs but a quick bullet will take care of them. I T-post all of my feeder legs so no worries of them dumping them over. I don't grease the top of the legs because I kept getting it on my hands and shirts like you said.


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## burk09

hog_down said:


> Eliminator plate and a big varmint guard that covers the entire bottom of the barrel, and be done with it.


 Eliminator works wonders


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## Big Guns 1971

Yes the eliminator plate works good but you have to have a 1/4 inch motor shaft and 90% of the motor shafts used are 1/8 inch.


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## mgale

I started years ago switching all my feeders to crank ups with eliminator plates. lets just say I still get some funny picts of ***** . I think they know how to use a swiss army knife.


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## pg542

hog_down said:


> Eliminator plate and a big varmint guard that covers the entire bottom of the barrel, and be done with it.


...x2 on the oversize varmint guard. If they can't reach the plate, they can't spin it. When the "eliminator" fails, and it will fail, the guard will save you. I've seen "eliminators" stick in the down position, throw off one of the little master links to who knows where or get locked up where they don't come down at all. Just this past opening weekend we had to make a field repair just to get a feeder working again. Essentially making it a standard feeder plate w/o the closing function. Yeah and don't tell me about lubrication and periodic cleaning/inspection or that I must be doing something wrong.. Been there done that, and still had problems. When they work. they're great. When they don't, not so much. I've seen a single kernel of corn get into one of the links and jam the whole deal. I'm not a big fan of them. ....Greased legs are out for me simply because it's messy. Sharksteeth/tackstrip only gave me little bloody **** handprints all over the lower half of the feeder and didn't stop them. I've never tried pvc pipe on the legs but that certainly seems plausible just a PIA when the feeder is already setup and you're by yourself, but still seems like a good idea. I've had the best luck with heavy gauge varmint guards that are the same diameter as the drum and have the 1" mesh, not the little 14" fold up cubes like from Academy. They're good for giving the ***** a place to hold on to while robbing your corn. With the smaller mesh, the corn spreads just fine and the ***** can't get their little **** arms far enough to reach the plate.


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## Trouthunter

> 90% of the motor shafts used are 1/8 inch.


The 6 volt motors do but the 12 volt motors are 1/4".

TH


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## Wado

Recognize anybody?


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## BBCAT

Varmint guard the same size as the barrel. We haven't had any problems since installing them. They can't reach anything and move on.


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## Law Dog

They say a good mixture of Golden Marlin Fly Bait and some cherry soda in a nearby tree always works..


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## bobbyoshay

I haven't had a problem with ***** but had to install a cage yesterday morning because a cow. That huge b**** spun my feeder plate enough to dump out 150lbs of corn over a 3 day period. I'm gonna start using those paw traps for ***** because I have a huge family coming each and every night at the house hog trap.


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## flyingfish

Sorry for the delay in responding. Had some PC issues.

The center spike lines up with the top of the leg. The other two spikes sit so the ends are about 3" from the one next to it. The goal is to block the raccoons from climbing the leg. The clamps by themselves worked for a short time but they were eventually able to push one aside. Since I added the epoxy to keep them from moving about a month ago nothing but a squirrel has made it past

Last year I had up to 12 raccoons on or under a feeder at one time and was going through 100 lbs. or more of corn per month. Now I haven't seen any raccoons on the feeder and have used less than 100 lbs. in two months.

In the past 10 years I've used critter cages, sharp spike strips running up the legs and everything else I could buy. This is the first thing that's been effective for more than a month or two. 

The spikes are mounted on the third leg up near the point it meets the second section. That's high enough that the raccoons have to climb to get to them but low enough that they can't reach the feeder or anything else that they can hang on or tear up. It's cheap so nothing much to lose by trying

Good luck

Gary


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## teebo

***** proof*

https://www.allseasonsfeeders.com/ProductDisplay.aspx/1511_Evolution_Control_Unit

always had trouble with ***** and tried everything..spikes (carpet tack strips; sharksteeh strips) cages and all sorts of guards. then finally bought a couple of these and i haven't had a **** problem in 3 years. they finally just quit coming around. (know this by game cam pics).. not trying to advertise for anyone, but these work and work great.. little critters just can't pull em down evenly to get to the corn..best money i have ever spent on any feeder.

teebo

we did start using the paw traps to remove ***** this year for protien feed.. putting a trap tied to leg of bin with a piece of dogfood in it.. but the corn feeders don't even have ***** coming to em anymore.


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## Trouthunter

> but these work and work great.. little critters just can't pull em down evenly to get to the corn..best money i have ever spent on any feeder.


No doubt. The Eliminator has saved us a lot of money in corn over the years.

TH


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## Cody C

Trap them all year except deer season. 
Eliminator plates



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## 88shoalwater

Spintech brand feeder unit and a varmit cage.


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## Don Smith

Law Dog said:


> They say a good mixture of Golden Marlin Fly Bait and some cherry soda in a nearby tree always works..


This!!!!


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