Stupid LIVE TRAPS!!!!

[JackE]

This is what I do with the bait for my live trap. I took some extra hardware cloth I had laying around and made a little bait holder. Basically a little cage to hold the bait. Then I use bailing wire and tie the bait cage/container to the back wall of the trap. The animal gets so intent on getting to that bait, they stomp all over the trap's trigger and get caught. Then you can "Relocate them", with extreme predudice.
Jack

 

[akashia26]

husband skins (and cuts open but doesn't clean) and boils possums, fox, rats, and most other predators and feeds them to the chickens. calls it free feed and thinks it's ironic. he has a strange sense of humor.

coons are the only predator we eat.

 

[CCreech]

File the hook down a little bit at a time until it slides off very easily. Also don't fully engage the hook, just enough to hold the door open is all you want.

 

[Mattemma]

I use a havahart 1089 from home depot for $46. I zip tied the back.The front locks well.Held up to some VERY strong coons.Just one bent section,but not enough to not be able to use it. I heard the traps from TSC are not that good.

 

[ub1243]

keep tweeking that cheap trap. if you get it to fire, hope it holds the critter.
i am a fur trapper in the winter. i tried those cheap traps. they saved me money on the purchase, but lost me critters=money.
get a hav-a-heart. they are the most popular decent trap available.

place your main bait, UNDER the trap. give them a taste out front, halfway, then behind the treadle, the bait under will keep them working it.

you could also get a dog proof trap, 1/2 the price of a cage. if you are not releasing the animal. Lil-Griz is one of the best.

 

[OHSpartan]

akashai....I never thought of feeding predators to the birds. I do not eat most of the animals that get caught in my trap, unless I happen to catch a squirrel. I have only eaten raccoon once when I was a kid, and didn't like it. A friend of mine has an almost steady diet of groundhog, but I have never tried it. As far as racoons are concerned, I just want to get their parasites away from my kids as quickly as possible. I carry them by the tail, with my bare hands to the back of the woods. I then go straight to a surgeon's scrub down of my hands (I don't even touch door knobs). I don't use gloves because I don't wash gloves and I do want parasites on the gloves. I also bleach the trap if I catch a coon that leaves scat in the trap. Yes I am paranoid, but I am so without apology. Baylisascaris is a nasty bug!

 

[1muttsfan]

I was live trapping some rabbits once and couldn't figure out how they were getting the bait without being trapped. I finally set up the trap where I could watch it, and found that the rabbits had figured out how to push the door open and get out after triggering the trap - the part that holds the door shut needed to be bent a little.

 

[aprophet]

dig a hole for the bait then center the trigger over the hole with the bait in it I stake any cages I use with re bar rod 30-36 " I have seen guys use cinder blocks to weight down the traps too Willaims brand cage traps are a good one too

 

[OHSpartan]

Well....the last 3 weeks have been pretty productive. I greased the trigger of my TSC trap and caught one coon there. I put the really-bad-latch-trap outside my window on a night I had the window open. His chattering woke me up and I took care of him before he got himself out. Then, serendipitously, my neighbor harvested his hay and I saw a coon in the field early one morning and was able to take care of that one too. 3 raccoons later, my traps have been set for a week and the bait hasn't been touched (and neither have my chickens

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