I need help with a d*#n coyote

Uncle Timbo

Uncle Timbo

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Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Messages
5,182
Okay, here's the dealio. I live in the city limits. Our place buts up to some trees. For decades our kitties have had free range in the woods doing what God and Mother Nature designed them to do. Hunt. Now we have at least one coyote that has killed two of our cats and please don't say something like, lucky you. We love these guys. I realize the coyote is doing what God and Mother Nature designed it to do. Hunt. Only problem is, it's hunting our kitties. I can't set up a leg hold trap, might catch a cat. It'll have to be a Have-a-Heart TYPE trap and then put it down after it's caught. I hear they're hard to catch in such trap. Has anybody here ever caught one this way?

I'm about ready to put a ghillie suit on, stick a knife in my teeth, climb a tree and play Rambo on this sucker. Oh, I'm considering a crossbow.
 
I've caught a couple using a 8"-10" PVC pipe buried 4' on a steep angle with bait in the bottom. May make for a difficult dispatching in your case though.


Sent via telegraph with the same fingers I use to sip whiskey.
 
Almost willing to bet you catch everything you can imagine in a trap other then that Yote, specially if there are tons of kitties around. Yotes are KOS around where I live, but for your case I might try playing the wind in your favor if you can, sit in a tree right on the edge of the woods, get a cheap piece of beef or something from the store and bring the crossbow. Have a pistol of some sort on you as backup if you are allowed to legally carry in your state and DO NOT get within 20 yards of it if it is down and you can see it is still breathing. They are lightning fast. Good luck.
 
I'm going to apologize right up front for my lack of a suggestion. I've been running this over in my mind, but being in city limits is really going to make this task difficult. Coyotes are hard enough when you're out where you have every option available to you.

Having said that, you've got two problems with a live trap in this scenario IME. One, although I have seen fox enter a live trap like the Havaheart, I have never seen a coyote enter one. Two, your cats are going to love that trap, and you're going to be pulling them out continuously. Even if you keep your cats put up, there'll be no lack of strays in the city limits to fire the trap off. From what I've seen they don't ever learn to stay out of it and you can't get much time for the trap to 'work.' Given your lack of options, though, I would love to be proven wrong, and it will certainly do no harm to set it. 'Luck my friend.
 
Hang a treble hook from a line that is baited, hang it high enough where the critter will have to leave his front paws by quite a bit. Not very humane but effective. You'll have one pissed off coyote when you check your trap
 
He'd more likely have a pissed off neighbor when he finds his fifi dog dangling off that treble hook.
 
I farmed for years, and coyotes could be a real problem. They are exceptionally clever, fast, and ya, they've got a mouthful of razors! Friend of mine sliced the heck out of his hand on a dead one as he was throwing it in the pickup.

If you really want to stalk coyotes, get a call. They make ones that have recorded distress calls of prey, like whining little bunnies, along with an attachment that flops around making a commotion. You still have to be a good hunter but those calls can help a lot.

I had a coyote work alongside me once while I was cutting hay. She would dive in a collect all my kill (rabbits, birds, mice, etc) and stashed on the edge of the field. She did this for hours. If you've never cut a big hay field, there's mass death out there of little furry stuff. Usually the crows and vultures swoop in from great heights to uncover a mangled mole or rabbit with great precision, from underneath a heavy swath of hay.

Animals get desensitized to a tractor doing continuous laps.

I've got experience dealing with these animals in a rural setting where they are destructive to our livestock, but there's an open season w no bag limit here, and we're all armed to the teeth. Calves on the last operation I managed were worth several thousand dollars each, which still made for tight margins. Luckily we had very few problems with coyotes, but we kept nipping at their heels.

In your setting, I'd consider a wildlife camera for starters. Learn what the habits are and you may find some leverage. If you kill a coyote with your new crossbow, post a pic please. I've got a caddyshack image of some dude with a sebenza in his teeth crawling through the briars.

Sorry to hear about your cats. Best of luck with your new mission. You may find that kitties in the wild are part of the food chain, and that the cats need to stay in. Or they need a guard donkey to protect them! Hope you can sort it out.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
never seen a cat get caught in a live trap twice, but, my suggestion would be call a nuisance animal trapper.

no idea what state you live in, but here in Ohio, snares are the way to go, not those survival type para cord contraptions, but steel cable, and a stopper.

domestic dogs don't usually have an issue with them as they know not to yank them selves to death but coyotes will rap them selves up and die in pretty short order if its set right. If you've never done it, get an actual trapper to do it, theres a learning curve.

being close to your house, you'll know almost immediately that its been caught.
 
What makes you think it's a single coyote? They're pack animals. They hunt alone, but they live together. You might be seeing 5 different ones and think it's the same coyote. Your best bet is to now have "indoor cats".
 
Does the city you live in have Animal Control?????
If they do, then they can set traps or get someone who does that type of work.
You may also want to check the city ordinances concerning nuisance animals.
I bet you'd be upset if you got fined or arrested for doing something you thought was okay to do.
 
Ajack60 said:
Does the city you live in have Animal Control?????
If they do, then they can set traps or get someone who does that type of work.
You may also want to check the city ordinances concerning nuisance animals.
I bet you'd be upset if you got fined or arrested for doing something you thought was okay to do.
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This is a good post and the reason I didn't start suggesting steel traps or snare sets. Not only the risk of non-target catch (ethically) with neighbors close, but also the risk of breaking city ordinances (legally). If it weren't for those factors, I'd imagine there'd be pinch points or fence crawl-unders around the property that could be easily snared. I'd go with Ajack60s advice....check the laws or call a professional.
 
This^^^ yes, keep the cats in at least at night anyhow, Coyotes are very smart and odds are your not going to get it. Best bet report it to the authorities and see if they will hire a professional exterminator to take care of it. You can then spend your money on something more useful than a crossbow.
 
You shouldn't think you can let cats roam free and not have anything happen to them. My distant neighbors moved here from the suburbs and have cats. They will not keep them up and think that it's inconceivable they're always going missing. Between all the coyotes, bobcats, dogs and people who won't tolerate cats on their property, it's easy to see why their cats are always missing. Yes, many people don't like cats roaming about on their land killing wildlife. Many of them will shoot them if they see them. Some people will live trap them. If you love your cats and won't keep them up then you're always going to run the risk they're going to not come home. Same goes for dogs. When a pet leaves it's property there's absolutely no guarantee you're going to see it again. Coyotes are just one risk of many.
 
Kootaga13 said:
Okay, here's the dealio. I live in the city limits. Our place buts up to some trees. For decades our kitties have had free range in the woods doing what God and Mother Nature designed them to do. Hunt. Now we have at least one coyote that has killed two of our cats and please don't say something like, lucky you. We love these guys. I realize the coyote is doing what God and Mother Nature designed it to do. Hunt. Only problem is, it's hunting our kitties. I can't set up a leg hold trap, might catch a cat. It'll have to be a Have-a-Heart TYPE trap and then put it down after it's caught. I hear they're hard to catch in such trap. Has anybody here ever caught one this way?

I'm about ready to put a ghillie suit on, stick a knife in my teeth, climb a tree and play Rambo on this sucker. Oh, I'm considering a crossbow.
Click to expand...

First off, do NOT let your poor cats outside at all!. Especially when you know of the predators. We have the same ongoing issue in my area here with a pack of coyotes roaming. Started showing up only late at night but they've gotten more brazen and began showing up earlier like 6P/7P. I never let my cats out because of the predator activity. They walk right up onto the driveway, I can hear them howling right near my bedroom window & then the huge pack of them answers in the near-distance.

That being said, for your situation I don't think the live traps are very effective for coyotes, they outsmart it. We've had them all over this town and it never pans out. Usually just ends up getting someone's legitimate pet caught in it or other innocent passers-by and then they're perfect dinner served up for the coyotes.

Best bet - I would try animal control if your area has it, but only contact them when you actually see/hear the coyote on/near your property at the time of your call. Otherwise, they'll probably just come in and dump a bunch of traps and go...that's how the useless AC was in my area that's all they did. Local PD was actually of more help.

If you have a rural enough property, of course I would recommend luring it & shooting it as suggestion #1. We had to obliterate three of them on my property with 12 gauge shotguns about three weeks ago because they kept coming back, even during the early evening - 5:07P the earliest one - and attacking the neighborhood pets & humans. More brazen, more dangerous.

I called the PD, told them what was going on, and I told them that I would be discharging several shotgun blasts. They already knew of the coyote problem because of ongoing reports, and the dead deer/pets found everywhere over the course of three or four months from residents all over town. It was not an issue - they came over to assist me & get a report filed. They even helped with the clean-up. I have neighbors (unfortunately)fairly close by but since I called the Police prior to shooting, they minded their business.
 
Like has been stated, there no doubt is no one it. Coyotes used to be nonexistent in the east. Now they've moved in, following the deer that have been stocked for hunting in areas where no deer lived for decades. Same with mountain lions. They have moved in too, not to the extent of coyotes, but we're seeing some. Coyotes are very numerous, impossible to eradicate, very adaptable animals. If you let your cats roam, these days coyotes are out there. Killing one or two won't solve anything. Coyotes are around where I live and many have been killed. Yet, I still see them regularly. They come right up to my dogs 2 acre pen, even in the daytime. Bark at the dogs, the dogs go nuts and the yotes will run back in the woods a bit yipping at the dogs. They come around at night right up in the the front yard. Deer that are killed on the road, are dragged away and devoured. Coyotes are smart, numerous and impossible to wipe out. They've been at them for years out west and they're still a problem for ranchers.
 
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