Bobcats are everywhere!!!

[Fairview01]

@Howard E As i said previously i will post some pics of bobcats in a #2 Victor double coil spring, locking snare and a l live trap.

Trap selection is based on personal preferences, experience and environment. In your situation and your concerns a live trap imo is the only solution. When a box trap set is made to appeal to the bobcat senses they will walk into an unbaited box trap the same day it is set. It will be near impossible to catch fox or coyote in a box trap. It can be done but it is difficult.

A bobcat is really nothing more than a house cat on steroids with a severe case of ADHD. A successful.set will.always appeal to as many senses as possible to hold their interest.

The first two attractors i use is bobcat urine because they are territorial and a CD hung on fishing line. This appeals to their nose and eyes. The next i use is cat nip. They love that stuff and cant lay off of it.when they find it.

If you are intent on using your leg hold trap undetstand even a single spring trap has the ability to cause unrepairable damage by crushing fine bones of non target animals.

Creating a dirt set is more than just throwing a trap on the ground and having a bobcat in it the next morning. For bobcats a fresh trap can be used right out of the box. They don't care about foreign or human scents. It needs to be set in a shallow hole so it will not be above grade. A small piece of wax paper or similiar material is placed over the pan and lightly covered with dirt. Most importantly this keeps water off the trigger that that might seize it in freezing temps. Also a a trap shy cat can pull back it's paw when it touches the metal pan before placing enpugh weight on it to trip it.

The trap must be anchored. Firmly anchored to a t-post will more than likely result in an empty trap the next morning. A good drag

will allow give to the animal's leg to avoid pull out.

Finally are the diversions that guide him to the set. Immediately before the trap a few small diameter twigs a couple inches high will cause the cat to step up.and over the obstruction and hopefully squarely on the pan.

Now all thats left is to deal with whatevet highly agitated animal you've caught, typically a skunk or opossum.

The best investment i made to protect my flock was a decent and affordable game camera. Unless it's the first time a cat has visited they will have similiar entry and exit points. They have a route they usually follow. Make the sets on those paths.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Forgive me for saying so, but going from a process whereby a BYC person can buy, prep, rig and deploy a $12.99 trap in an hour......... to "go look it up somewhere" does not meet the criteria of a simple, out of the box, effective method for a BYC person to stop the carnage until they can get things in order.

But as luck would have it, I actually began that process a couple years ago when I began monitoring and occasionally participating in just such forums, including one devoted almost exclusively to ADC (Animal Damage Control) work. That was after watching the amazing success of an ADC guy who took 7 groundhogs out from under the house across the road. And he did it with cage traps.

It seems to me the folks doing ADC work come closer to the challenges BYC folks face than the average trapper does. Trying to pick off offending predators in an urban/semi-urban environment......and doing so with no harm or threat to non-targets, which are avoided at all costs. One of their biggest challenges is working for BYC folks with chickens....the absolute worst being the grower who wants the ADC guy to do his job amidst free ranging chickens. The most interesting comments coming from ADC folks who themselves keep chickens.....who recommend against trapping in that scenario at all, in favor of exclusion, and for the same reasons we often see cited here. It's more effective and avoids the need to be constantly trapping predators, who come after your chickens in never ending waves.

But as for the trapping, over time, while monitoring the ADC forums, I began to identify a few recurring themes.

First one is "time is money". These folks are basically professional contract killers and the faster they can catch and dispatch the problem, the more money they make. So they use the fastest, most effective methods they can. One of the tools of choice is an "unbaited" cage trap. A trap set in such a way the animal readily enters or even forces it's way in. Blocking a den entrance with a cage trap is a form of this. And even more funny, one of the most popular of the type is a double ended, pass through cage trap with the same wire triggers as used on the 330 body grip. Except this animal is caught alive and unharmed.....as would be any non target.

Another is their sensitivity to public perception to using traps. This out of fear of inflaming any anti-trappers. They will go to great lengths to avoid any perception of harming animals even if that is exactly what they are doing. They want to hide their traps from public view.....one reason being out of concern of perception.....another is concern over theft of their valuable traps. But perception is a concern. If they lose the ability to trap, they are out of business.

So back to simple, effective and safe trapping methods. Back to a "baitless" cage trap. If the target animal is small, then the ubiquitous Havahart cage traps might work. The problem being the trigger pan being set for baiting an animal. But that can be modified to fit the situation. But if the target animal is more robust or too big for the Havahart, then higher end traps are available. The only real downside is their cost.

At $12.99 vs. $80 to $150......cost difference might seem to be a factor. But $12.99 for a single coil spring is the starting point. Depending on the resources of each individual BYC person......it can go way up from there. At some point the difference in cost starts to blur to the point of no difference.

So until better information comes along, I'm going to stick by my conclusion that a cage trap remains the trap of choice for us BYC types the majority of the time. That is if we employ trapping at all. If we are good at exclusion, we certainly don't have to.

It sounds like you have it all figured out then

But if you have been a member of a trapping forum for a while now and know the resources that are out there, my question to you is what were you looking for in asking "what next" ... you seem like a bright person, are you not able to find the information on how to use the coil spring you purchased? This is the part that puzzles me.

In general I think we agree on the idea of exclusion, I think everyone keeps their birds a little different, but most folks and particularly those new to backyard poultry would do well to focus on exclusion.

But where I have trouble with the decoy bird setup is: how many nights are people going to stick one of their birds in a little cage next to the cage trap? I'd say for most two or three at most, and then they're not going to go through the trouble of catching the bird, putting it in the cage, taking it out in the morning, etc..

Now factor in rain, severe cold, the chance of a troupe of raccoons coming in and killing , injuring, or at least terrorizing the decoy bird through the cage, and on an on...

And then when you take into consideration that a bobcat is very likely not going to come back the next night, and the high likelihood of an initial trap refusal from the bobcat when it does return... the likelihood that the trap is likely to fill up with possums or coons each night before the cat comes in...

I think most backyard chicken keepers are going to have given up on the decoy bird idea by the time the opportunity to actually catch the cat in the cage comes about...

But could it work? Sure.

But this is where I'm saying the information is on the trapping forums... basic set making can be learned in a day... after that it becomes about knowing the behavior of the critter... anyone who has been trapping for any time, knows that the critters are the best teachers... but there is still a wealth of information to be learned from trappers discussing trapping on a dedicated forum to learn from them, what they have learned from the "best teachers" ...

Those folks can be ADC trappers, hobby trappers, trappers that manage hunt clubs, trappers that run big lines to supplement income, trappers that make and develop lures and other equipment, and even the slob trappers can teach us what not to do... but there is a lot of information out there from them all.

So while you might be hearing "go look it up somewhere", that is not at all what I'm saying.... I'm saying "what next" is either the wrong question, or here is not the best place to ask it

 

[Howard E]

Locking snares are also illegal to use in Missouri.....and for the same reasons as the large body grips.......so scratch those off the list too. At least my list.

Without elaborating on all the additional information, suffice it to say the $12.99 one pays for even a single trap is just the beginning. There is a lot more expense and skilled labor that has to be accounted for before it can be set to catch anything. And that is just the one trap. Depending on the personal resources we have to work with, the cost difference may not be as much as it first might seem. And none of this happens overnight.....at least for someone learning as they go.

So for inexperienced folks who see themselves in the same boat as the scenario I outlined, and are seeking a way to intercept a predator who has already scored a kill, an appropriate sized baitless cage trap of some type set in the pathway they are already using, still seems like a pretty good option.