6 Best Raccoon Traps and Cages

When you’ve got raccoons scurrying around your yard and attacking your pets and trash bins, you’ll need an excellent raccoon trap to get them under control.

In this article, we’ll review the best raccoon traps so that you’ll know which raccoon traps are excellent at trapping coons and which will leave you with a population of mischievous coons.

What to Look For In A Raccoon Trap?

When you’re shopping for a raccoon cage trap or any large raccoon trap, you’ll need to look for a few specific features. These features include:

• Humane design
• Efficacy
• Pet proofing
• Childproofing
• Durability

The best coon traps are reusable, sturdy, effective, and harmless for the raccoon. Furthermore, they won’t accidentally trap or harm your pets or children. On the other hand, some coon traps are highly painful for the animal that gets captured — whether that animal is a coon or a pet.

Raccoon Trap Reviews

In this section, we’ll review the raccoon traps for sale with a particular focus on live coon traps.

Redneck Convent Duke Dog-Proof DP Animal Leg Trap

These Redneck leg traps are simple yet effective for trapping raccoons and keeping them restrained by the leg until you can show up to empty the trap. Unfortunately, this leg trap will harm the raccoon and leave them wounded, even when you release them.

You should be careful where you deploy these leg traps. If a small dog, cat, or child ends up near the trap, there’s a good chance that they could be maimed by activating the trap. You’ll also need to utilize an effective bait if you want these traps to work.

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Very durable
• Great at restraining coons
• Dog-proof for large dogs

Cons:

• Harms the coons
• Not child safe
• Not cat proof

HomGarden Live Animal Trap

This HomGarden animal trapping cage is perfect for surprising coons and keeping them confined in an ethical way. While it isn’t the most durable coon trap, it’s great for people who can’t stand the thought of harming a coon, even when it’s making mischief.

When you capture a coon in this cage trap, letting it go is as easy as tapping the release lever on the top of the door. This means that you won’t need to worry about the raccoon interfering with the mechanism of the door when they notice you futzing with it.

Pros:

• Highly humane
• Lightweight
• Easy-release door
• Minimal setup required

Cons:

• Not dog proof
• Difficult to transport
• Requires tempting bait

Duke 0466 Body Traps

The Duke Raccoon Trap is a violent and primitive trap that will skewer raccoons and kill them slowly and painfully. While it isn’t a good choice for animal lovers, this raccoon trap is capable of being reused many times thanks to its stainless steel construction.

If you have pets or children of any size around your home, you should reconsider using these raccoon traps because they are highly hazardous for any creatures which tread nearby.

Pros:

• Kills raccoons
• Won’t rust
• Easy to transport
• Minimal bait requirements

Cons:

• Highly unethical
• Dangerous for pets and children
• Hard to empty

Duke #2 CS Offset Traps

These Duke raccoon traps are capable of crushing any errant coons to death in a short period of time thanks to its spring-loaded set of jaws. Think of these traps as mouse traps, but configured slightly differently and intended for use against raccoons.

While the #2 Duke traps are marginally more ethical than other Duke raccoon traps, they still aren’t going to leave the raccoon alive. Similarly, while these traps are slightly safer for large pets and children than other Duke traps, they’re far from safe overall.

Pros:

• Heavy-duty construction
• Simple and logical design
• Good for harvesting pelts
• Easy to deploy on rough terrain

Cons:

• Dangerous for small pets and children
• Raccoons may not die immediately after being trapped
• May be difficult to push spring-loaded plates

Havahart 1045 Live Animal Two-Door Raccoon, Stray Cat, Opossum, and Groundhog Cage Trap

Havahart raccoon traps like the Havahart 1045 have a reputation for being humane and efficient raccoon-control solutions. This trap includes two entry doors, a very sensitive pressure plate, and a somewhat complicated release mechanism which might make it tough to free your newly-caught coon prisoners.

The best part about this Havahart trap is that you could ostensibly capture an entire family of coons at once if they walked inside of the trap from two different angles. Most of the time, having two entrances to the traps is not very useful, however.

Pros:

• Large enough to capture two animals at once
• Sensitive trigger mechanism
• Safe for all animals, including raccoons
• Convenient carrying handle on the top

Cons:

• The trigger mechanism may be too sensitive if heavy vehicles are driving nearby
• No easy release mechanism
• Two entrances don’t add much utility to the trap

Amagabeli Garden and Home Humane Live Animal Trap

The Amagabeli raccoon traps are high-quality live-capture traps which are notable for their ability to be collapsed into a smaller footprint for long-term storage when it isn’t set. When you catch a coon in this trap, you might need to clean the non-wired panel if they make a mess, however.

The dark sheen on the Amagabeli trap is helpful for keeping it disguised from raccoons, but you’ll still need to use a powerful bait if you want them to venture inside.

Pros:

• Dark colors blend in effectively
• Collapsible for easy storage
• Easy-release hatch
• Optional mounting mechanism

Cons:

• Animals may make a mess of the non-wired panel
• The locking mechanism is unreliable
• Carrying handle is uncomfortable

Final Thoughts

That wraps up our review of the six best raccoon traps and cages. In our opinion, the Havahart 1045 trap is the most effective at capturing raccoons humanely and effectively. Our choice for runner up is the Amagabeli live capture trap, as it’s extremely convenient thanks to its collapsibility.

Remember, treat raccoons ethically because they’re just trying to get by in life. If you’re not sure where to buy raccoon traps, check out your local outdoor store.