Does anyone have any secret for keeping the damn things off of your tripod feeders and gravity feeders?

I have them climbing up legs , hanging from the spinners and spinning the blades to get corn out. I also have them climbing inside the spouts of gravity feeders and raking the feed out.

Before you tell me to shoot them, I live 150 miles away from my ranch. I can shoot a few but not enough to be effective.


I have put baskets over some of the spinners. I now see them on the baskets. I hope to go this weekend and should be able to judge how effective these baskets have been.


I have about 10 traps. Of course, I can only leave them out while I am there.


I am thinking about taking car wax and waxing the poles. Hopefully, they would become slick enough that the coons could not climb. I have also thought about using Vaseline. I fear it won't last long with the rain and the heat.


I am thinking of trying putting PVC pipes around the legs . Then waxing the PVC pipes with car wax.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

You might check into this product.

https://www.cabelas.com/produc...t-Strips/1332123.uts

I saw one set up where the hunter had drilled holes thru the legs on his tripod feeder, big enough to put a 1/4 inch eyed bolt thru.

The holes were about 7 feet or so off the ground. He attached about one foot of chain to the eye of the bolt, and then took a 4 foot or so long piece of PVC pipe that was 1/2 inch or so, larger inmside diameter than the size of the tripod legs.

He used a 1/4 inch bolt just long enough to go thru the wall of the PVC, head end inside the PVC and attached the chain to the part of the bolt sticking out via a washer/lock washer and nut.

With the proper diameter of PVC, squirrels and coons cannot grasp the pipe and if they do manage to get ahold, the chain allows the PVC to spin around the leg enoiugh to dump the animal off.

a lot of feeder motors have zappers on them. can you swap out the motor mechanism for ones that include that feature?

Larry, the baskets have worked well for me over the years.

Varmint guards/baskets always work but they do hinder the spread of the corn a bit.

.

I'll get graybird on here to tell you how he keeps them at bay from his feeder throwers.

What about the gravity protein feeders?

Maybe as early as Friday night I am going to put a bunch of traps out. I am sure I will catch quite a few. Probably not enough.

I electrified the cages on my feeders using a solar electric fence charger. No more problems with coon or squirrels for me.

Good old axle grease on the legs of any tripod feeder will keep them off, but I like that shock treatment graybird uses, LOL! Knock the piss out of those varmints!

With the heat and the rain we have, I am afraid that grease would not stay on long. I also wonder if deer would come around with the scent.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
With the heat and the rain we have, I am afraid that grease would not stay on long. I also wonder if deer would come around with the scent.

We never had that problem all the years I hunted on my Dad's leases in south Texas, but we never got the moisture down there you probably get routinely!

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
What about the gravity protein feeders?

Maybe as early as Friday night I am going to put a bunch of traps out. I am sure I will catch quite a few. Probably not enough.

The protein feeders are problematic. I have seen shields welded on around the spouts that the coons can't reach around......I have got to do something like that on mine. It's got to be very strong though the aoudads tear up all kinds of stuff.

.

Maybe these would help?

https://www.offsetfeederlegs.com/

Those are interesting. I have not heard of those before. Thank you sir.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
With the heat and the rain we have, I am afraid that grease would not stay on long. I also wonder if deer would come around with the scent.

Not only will grease not stay long, it is not effective even when it is fresh.

Placing a cage ("basket") around the feeder mechanism is the only way I know of to keep the little buggers off. Even then, it is difficult to build one which they can't reach through to spin the mechanism and dump corn.

One company once built an electronic feeder which was completely enclosed except when the feeder timer activated it. Great concept, but it was a POS which never worked.

A sweet little old lady I know who spent a lot of time protecting her garden from small mammalian pests once told me that she would just put out a few little shallow jar lids of auto antifreeze which seemed to negate her racoon problems. Just how legal/ethical this is and how much beyond the target population its effects extend are perhaps appropriate questions.

I am wondering about using car wax on the legs. Has anyone tried that?

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Those are interesting. I have not heard of those before. Thank you sir.

You're welcome. I've never used them but, I wouldn't be opposed to trying them.

quote:

Originally posted by cjfoster:
Maybe these would help?

https://www.offsetfeederlegs.com/

Interesting, but they seem kind of lightweight. I wonder how they would stand up to hogs pushing on them.

I'm sure that a big enough hog could still push the feeder over.

If I had a problem with hogs, I would use hog panels to try to fence them out.

I have a lot of hogs, a hell of a lot of hogs actually. Hogs can and do push some feeders over. Hell, I have one that knocked the spinner off a feeder that was 6'6" off the ground! The bigger problem than knocking them over is when the hogs learn to beat on the feeders and the feed falls out. I think those legs are sufficiently far apart that they probably can't knock them over.

The problem is that between the coons and the hogs, they wreck my protein and minerals. That has been pretty much a fruitless effort this year. I have had this property less than a year. I am still learning its unique nature.


I do have a solution to the hogs and to a lesser extent , the coons . It is work and expensive.

Here is what I am going to do in certain areas:


1- Fence a 100X100 area. The fence will be buried 6 inches under ground on the bottom The wire will be something the hogs can't get through.


2- I have built some "poles" from which feeders can be hung out of pressure treated 6X6 lumber. I will bury one end about 3 feet into the ground.


3- I will mount a boat winch to the "pole". Just below the boat winch, I will mount all the way around the "pole", an aluminum duct which is totally smooth. It starts about 2 feet off the ground. It is smooth and I have yet to see a coon or squirrel that can climb one.


4- Attach a cable to the feeder and winch it up. No way a coon can get to it.

5- Move my protein feeders inside the fence. The hogs won't get it. The coons might. I am going to try waxed sections of PVC pipes on the legs to see if that stops them. If it doesn't I can't trap some every time I go. I think I have 10 traps now.

6- I am going to move my minerals inside as well and put them in a covered trough.


I am going to do this in 4 prime places. We will see how it goes. it would be insanely expensive to fence all of the feeders. Plus, I like to hammer the hell out of the hogs.

A solar power stinger at the bottom of the fence will keep the hogs from rooting

I have done this before in other areas. if they start digging, I have a sure fire solution. I call it Viet Conging them.

I take a board and drive a bunch of nails through it. I put it in place where the hogs are trying to get through. It ends that problem rather quickly.

Larry:

Try putting a loose pvc pipe on the legs. so it turns and will make them fall off.

Have fun, the best part is the challenge's animals put us thru.

George

relative to corn feeders you might try some of those spring loaded spinners. I have heard mixed reviews on them. Just turning the spinner will not release the corn.
WE put as noted above about 12 hog panels around our feeders to keep the hogs out. they are 16' long each. We stand them up and ty just one end to one T post. Then stand them in a circle held together with heavy duty zip ties. Form them in a circle and then drive all the T posts and secure the panels to T post every 8 ft. A circle is better than a square as it is bowed outwards and keeps the cattle or pigs from pushing the fence in.
Prior to the panels I would put the bottom of a feeder leg In a cinder block and drive a rebar about 3' in the ground on the other opening on the cinder block and then fill both hole with concrete. Pigs will not push those over!
The panels are a much better option. Keep them away from the corm all together. We just use the cages to keep the critters off the spinners.

Larry:
I had the coon problem with the feeders at my farm. I used the razor teeth solution that CrazyHorse suggested on one feeder and left the others alone.... My cameras have not show a single coon on the "toothy" feeder and they are still screwing with the others. I'd buy one set and give it a try, if I were you. I'm ordering sets for all my feeders now.

For hogs, my only success has been 160 grains at 2500 fps. Alas!

I am trying to find the picture of a coon on a hogs back while eating out of the feeder.

It takes a lot more than off set legs to keep the bears up here out of them.

When feeders were legal here most people would but them on a pole and get the bottom 10 foot high and 4 to 5 feet out from the pole.

I just got back. I spent the weekend filling feeders, putting in protein feeders, planting, mowing, etc. Trapped a few coons. I didn’t have enough time to try out any of my ideas.

I have a couple of new problems. A bear tore up one feeder. I hated that one anyway. The water level is insane. Snakes are everywhere.

Thanks all.

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
Larry:
I had the coon problem with the feeders at my farm. I used the razor teeth solution that CrazyHorse suggested on one feeder and left the others alone.... My cameras have not show a single coon on the "toothy" feeder and they are still screwing with the others. I'd buy one set and give it a try, if I were you. I'm ordering sets for all my feeders now.

For hogs, my only success has been 160 grains at 2500 fps. Alas!

.

Thanks Ernest.

I thought about those. They got an awful lot of bad reviews. It made me hesitate. Given your experience, I will give them a try.

Just my opinion on the shark teeth strips, they look like a possible solution, but I would try them on one feeder to start out with and see what issues might arise.

We don't use anything to keep the coons or squirrels off of our feeders and hogs can't reach any of the spin feed mechanisms and we run 15 to 16 feeders.

First off let me say I know nothing about feeders. Do you guys think carpet tack strips screwed to the feeder legs would work? They're pretty cheap. They're thin pieces of wood with tacks sticking through the wood. They're used to secure wall to wall carpeting in place.

https://www.amazon.com/M-D-Bui...a-309932117006&psc=1

I don't think there are enough tacks to be effective.

It would not do any harm to try. One other possible weak point might be the wood strips and how well they would hold up with the weather.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Just my opinion on the shark teeth strips, they look like a possible solution, but I would try them on one feeder to start out with and see what issues might arise.

We don't use anything to keep the coons or squirrels off of our feeders and hogs can't reach any of the spin feed mechanisms and we run 15 to 16 feeders.

I am going to try a set. It certainly seem logical. The reviews are not good.

I trapped four with ten traps out. Rain killed the scent of my baits.

I wish I had kept the picture. I had a picture of the coon climbing up a cable.

quote:

Originally posted by Topgun 30-06:
Good old axle grease on the legs of any tripod feeder will keep them off, but I like that shock treatment graybird uses, LOL! Knock the piss out of those varmints!

The grease might work for the coons but the damned hogs would likely bend the legs of his feeders trying to lick the grease of of 'em. For some reason hogs like grease/diesel fuel.
I've seen the zappers and have thought about fence charges, just haven't done it. I've used a couple of different types of traps and they work pretty well but I don't have the time to check them every two days.
Another alternative I've "heard" of is Golden Malrin Fly Bait mixed with some sort of sweet liquid...7-Up, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Coke, etc. and put in a bowl or some open container screwed to a board in a tree near your feeders. Supposedly lays them out right then and there if they drink it. I would be hesitant to do this fearing collateral damage from tainted carcasses.

Kills any thing that eats it then kills those that eat those that were killed by it.

I'll second the carpet tack strips if there is an easy way to attach them. Beekeepers use those strips to keep skunks out of beehives. If they had some in a plastic strip you could spiral around the legs would help. I am not sure if the tacks in upholstery tack strip are as sharp.

Tom

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
I electrified the cages on my feeders using a solar electric fence charger. No more problems with coon or squirrels for me.

I love graybird's solution! I can't stand raccoons, they are the gang members of the wildlife world. Always causing vandalism and terrorizing everything smaller than them.

Off topic a tad, but I have a friend that worked as a wildlife biologist for Terxas Parks and Wildlife for years and he told me about seeing a big coon, dragging a less than week old white tail fawn that it had killed, at the Wildlife Management Area up at Canadian Texas that he managed.

It was far enough out in one of the units to not have been a road kill the coon had scavenged.

A few day old fawn at around 5 or 6 pounds, maybe, ain't got a chance with a big coon.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
I electrified the cages on my feeders using a solar electric fence charger. No more problems with coon or squirrels for me.

I love graybird's solution! I can't stand raccoons, they are the gang members of the wildlife world. Always causing vandalism and terrorizing everything smaller than them.

Yup. I have watched this over and over.

I got so damn annoyed one day with a particularly vicious male who had every other coon cowering in terror that I ended his reign by sending him a 180 greeting card.

Axle grease on the legs lasts a long time.
A little diesel fuel on corn a the bottom of a gravity feeder deters the coons, but not the hogs, and only slightly the deer.