Fox Trouble....

[eggbert420]

Make a fur coat out of him.

 

[WillGriffin03]

Make a fur coat out of him.

Haha a great idea, I'll probably do just that!

 

[aart]

Quote: Absolutely.....and by culling, let's call it killing to be sure we're clear.
Culling can mean re-location, re-homing, etc.

Anything trapped should be killed, re-location is bad for many reasons.
Trapping and/or killing won't get rid of all of them, but it will decrease their numbers.
Best short term solution tho is to keep birds in secure coops and pens.
Fox population can ebb and flow, when they have kits they are teaching to hunt is the worst time.

 

[ejcrist]

Hi ejcrist,

No I'm not too familiar with for trapping but just a couple of questions on the subject. If I was to accidentally step in one, what would happen to my leg? In my area it's 'rubber jaws only on all traps' what does that mean? And finally if I was to catch a fox how long would it take to die?

I really want to get rid of these pests as if one of them got in my cage, I'd be ruined!

Thanks for all the replies,

William

If you were to accidentally step in one it would chop your leg off. Naaa, just kidding. I hear stuff like that from city/suburbia people practically all the time. They also think the traps have steel teeth in the jaws - I think that's because that's what they saw in cartoons when they were young. Another thing I hear all the time is that animals chew their feet off to get free - another bull-hockey notion which never happens with responsible trappers.

Anyway to answer your questions, the first thing I'd do if you're unfamiliar with trapping and want to learn enough to get started is to get a book on the subject and get in touch with your local trapping organization via email or in person. If there's none where you live you can go online and contact one of the many here in the US, such as the National Trapping Association or any of the state organizations. They'll be more than happy to communicate with you and help you learn what you need to get started. Also feel free to pm me or ask here on the forum and I'll tell you everything I was able to fit in my pea-brain.

The best trap I found for a Red Fox is a Sleepy Creek #1 1/2 Coil Spring trap (http://www.scmtraps.com/coilspring.html). I've caught literally thousands of Red Fox with them. I don't know how big a foot you have but if you stepped on a set and you were wearing shoes I doubt it could even fit on your foot, so absolutely nothing would happen except it would close when you hit the pan. Other, bigger traps like Conibear (body grip) traps are a completely 'nother story, but coil spring or leaf spring traps wouldn't even fit on your foot so no worries there. If by chance you accidentally trapped a dog it would bruise their leg where the jaws closed but you could easily release the dog and he/she would be fine. An important thing to note is that responsible trappers must check their sets (trap in the ground) at least every 24 hours. When I used to trap I'd check them twice a day - most of the time I could see everything from my truck and with a pair of binoculars so I wouldn't disturb the wildlife in the area. But yeah, whatever you do make sure you check the trap at least every day. As long as you do this you'll never have an animal chew his foot off like people say. The reason animals do this is because if they've been in the trap for a long time their foot becomes numb since the jaws holding them would eventually restrict circulation - like when your foot falls asleep. And then when daylight is upon them, being nocturnal, they get really nervous and desperate to get free. Also if they're starving because they've been left in the trap for days on end they'll do it. Since they can't feel their foot in the trap they'd chew it off since they can't feel anything there anyway. I've never had that happen to me, never even had one start to do it. I've read about it but in many years of trapping and networking with other trappers I don't remember anyone that had that happen to them either. So it can happen but is extremely unlikely if you check your traps every 24 hours.

Rubber jaws only just means the steel jaws have to be lined with rubber inserts which you can order from any stores selling traps. That and offset jaws are two things that happened when city people push for restrictions. Both of those, liners and offset jaws, are meant to cause the animal less pain. I don't see where offset jaws, which is just a space in the jaws where they close together, make any difference at all. The animal's foot still gets held at a point in the jaws just like with regular traps, The rubber liners may provide a slight cushion when they close but again, the animal's foot is still held at the point where the jaws come together. The point of any foot-hold trap is to hold the animal until the trapper can dispatch it, and all coil spring and leaf spring traps do that very effectively. They don't torture the animal like many people think. In fact, any trapper wants their target in the best shape possible or he won't get as much for the fur.

The answer to your last question, how long would it take to die, is that it wouldn't die. Foot hold traps will just restrain the fox till you get there to dispatch him. If you want to kill the fox you'd have to use a large conibear (body grip) trap or a snare. Snares are illegal in a lot of places and conibears are often illegal to use on land since you might catch and kill a non-target animal. With a foot hold trap you could simply release any non-target animal unharmed. Also large conibears, such as those used for beaver, are formidable traps and could easily break a small person's arm, so you wouldn't want to use large conibears until you got some experience.

Whatever you do, if you end up live-trapping the fox, do not release him somewhere else. He'll just come back a lot smarter. One other type of trap I didn't mention is the box trap, like the Hav-A-Heart traps that's out there. Some states only allow trapping with box traps due to anti-trapping politics, such as Colorado, and they've effectively eliminated trapping by doing so. Even my state of Arizona has banned foothold traps on public lands, and most land in Arizona is public land. Box traps are extremely ineffective because most animals are very skittish and won't enter the cage. Also it's totally unpractical to walk or drive your trapline and carry 50 or so box traps - can't be done. So I'd stay away from box traps altogether.

Anyway, sorry for babbling so much but I used to love trapping and love talking about it. I haven't done it for a couple years because I don't live near any place near where I'd run a line so I couldn't check my traps every 24 hours. If I could use foot hold traps on public land I would since I do live close to good trapping areas, but since foot holds have been banned on public land here I'm SOL. I plan to move somewhere after I retire where that's not the case and get back into it. It's one of the funnest things I ever did - you learn an incredible amount about your target animals that helps you come hunting season, and it's great exercise. Most people think I'm nuts for liking to get up early to feed chickens and when I used to run trap lines, but I always very much looked forward to it. Who needs drugs when you can just go outdoors and do what people have been doing for thousands of years - it's a lot more fun. Trapping is to an outdoorsman what crack is to a drug addict. Nothing like checking your sets in the morning and seeing a pair of eyes shining back at you - it's one of the greatest pleasures in life.

Anyway, there's a whole lot more to trapping than I can cover in a post but feel free to ask away if you want to try trapping the fox and have more questions. I'm guessing you're not interested in becoming a trapper per se, and you just want to learn enough to use trapping as another tool to protect your livestock - and that's totally ok. I only wanted to give you a good basic understanding so you have more info which could help you decide if you want to pursue it further. There's really not a whole lot you'll have to do to become effective enough to trap the one species to protect your flock - it's very do-able and well within your ability and budget. You will need to learn a few things like scent-proofing your traps (rust them, adjust them, and dye and wax them), and you'll have to learn to make a set for fox, but you can learn that all from a good book, like one of the books written by Hawbaker. Once you figure out how to make a good fox set you'll be a force to be reckoned with. Just don't be surprised if you end up enjoying the whole thing and taking up trapping later. But anyway I'll be glad to help in anyway I can so like I said, just ask.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

Hi ejcrist,

No I'm not too familiar with for trapping but just a couple of questions on the subject. If I was to accidentally step in one, what would happen to my leg? In my area it's 'rubber jaws only on all traps' what does that mean? And finally if I was to catch a fox how long would it take to die?

I really want to get rid of these pests as if one of them got in my cage, I'd be ruined!

Thanks for all the replies,

William

i just got my trapping license this year (so i can legally trap predators) but before you go out and start getting traps make sure you can legally do it, some places require a trapping permit to trap animals (on certain species, for example where i live weasels and foxes are fur bearing animals requiring a permit to trap them though as far as i can tell it is legal to shoot them if they kill or harm your animals, but on the other hand raccoons and coyotes are open game) but just make sure you can legally trap the animal with out any special permits needed.

but for your questions,
1. if you step in the trap it might sting a bit, not sure would not recommend stepping in it.
2.rubber jaws is just a more humane trapping way,
3. sorry but its in-humane to leave the animal in the trap to die, you need to shoot it.

but overall i hope you can fix your predator problem