Stowaway Onboard

[Cool Beans]

Went out to the boat this morning to work on the boat, and opened the glove box to have a rather large raccoon great me with a hiss and a snap of teeth at me. Apparently, he used his paws to push the sliding font cover open and then climbed up from inside into the glove box area. Well, this all happened after I was tinkering around with the motor, then got up opened the glove, then jumped overboard and back into the house. I then got one of the poles from the garage to push open all the sliding doors and slide the cover off of the center console, in order to brighten up the inside in hopes he would leave. Didn't work, banged around and tried to scare him out,, that didn't work either, but did get him to charge towards me a couple times. This guy probably weighs in around 25 pounds or so, pretty big coon. After trying to scare him out for about 45 minutes or so, I had to move up the ladder of force and broke out a can of pepper spray that I originally got for the wife to keep in her car. Opened up the can of spray on him direct shot right in the face, and that really got his attention..... he whined and rolled around a bit, then finally decided to find another home..... Has anyone else had a coon move into their boat? It definitely scares the hell out of a guy, opening the glove compartment, almost had a heart attack......

[MarshCappa]

Wow, you're lucky he didn't bite you. When I was in the army we used to kill them on our base all the time. We would take a cleaning rod and slide it down the barrel of an m16. Lock and load up a blank and spear the poor bastards. Had to get pretty close though. My sargent at the time would make hats out of them.

[BassDawg]

could've been a momma lookin for a sweet place to
lay some kits,,,,,,,,,,,,,good for you, to get her gone.

but it may explain why she was so reluctant to give up
her SPOT,,,,,,,,,,just a guess, it is that time of year ya know?
unless there was a food source there, they are usually skittish.

thanks be to God it wasn't a SKUNK!!

[Cool Beans]

Originally Posted by BassDawg

could've been a momma lookin for a sweet place to
lay some kits,,,,,,,,,,,,,good for you, to get her gone.

but it may explain why she was so reluctant to give up
her SPOT,,,,,,,,,,just a guess, it is that time of year ya know?
unless there was a food source there, they are usually skittish.

thanks be to God it wasn't a SKUNK!!

Yep, the first thing I did after it left was look for lil ones. Luckily there were none. And yes, Thank God it wasn't a Skunk!!!! I would never of been able to get that smell off the boat.

Hopefully after the pepper spray treatment, it won't return.....

[Jorge]

Better than a permanently stinky glove box like mine!

One winter of mouse colony! PHEW!

[CaptMike]

Yeah I've had momma coons with squeaky little ones in the boat before (and the attic) both were horrible experiences that I wouldn't want to repeat. I found that a boombox with loud rock put by their spot scares them out after a while. It keeps them out of your attic when you're away too.

[Pete F.]

A coon story but not a boat one.
I had seen a treestand out in the swamp near my house. It looked over a good run that went to a high spot in the swamp where I had jumped a big buck several days before. Got there just enough light to see, ya I was a little late, climbed up and stuck my gun in the stand. With that a big coon stuck his head over the edge right in my face and scared the s$%^ out of me. I screamed and fell out of the tree. Now I'm on the ground, the coons in the tree and he's got my gun.
I get up and dust myself off and look around the tree to see that the coon had fallen or jumped out the other side. We looked at each other and he ambled off, I climbed the tree and got my gun. Went home that was enough excitement for one morning.

[Van]

Two winters ago they set up camp in my boat and i never knew it.
Came spring and I uncovered to an absolute disaster. There was Sheit everywhere, bones, garbage and they chewed everything that was rubber. Ruined my electronics cable ends that were laying there, they ate bobbers, sharpie marker (ink everywhere) knobs, button breaker covers. and crapped all of it out in my boat.

Luckily the cabin door was latched and they could not open it that would have ruined all the interior, cushions etc.......

SInce then, I wrap it very tight by the outboard and they have not been able to get in....

Consider yourself lucky.