Wanted: Issues with stolent bait from trap (beginner)

[Akeld]

Why are you using a live capture trap? if you catch a Grey you cant release it, as an invasive species you must destroy it by law.

Ian.

If you still have reds in the area its advisable, if no reds, fenns all the way. To answer the original question, put whole hazel nuts in a small wire cage and attach it inside the trap, elevating the trap will also help

 

[shakey jake]

I lock the trap open and put a large pile of peanuts either in shells or not in the middle once the nuts are going reduce the number with bulk behind tredle and unlock the trap then check as often as you can but at least once in every 24 hours i expect to catch inside 4 hours multiple traps almost touching works well or 1 at the base of every big tree or bird feeder. I head shoot them in the trap and reset.

 

[ruby tuesday]

in the middle of a trapping session myself , fenn traps for me though, after seeing them braking their teeth off biting the cages to escape and the difficulty of then dispatching them think the fenns are more humane, twenty six caught the last two weeks. Pretty sure as has been said its mice cleaning your baits off.

 

[Pine Marten]

I've been using a cage trap in my garden using peanuts or hazelnuts as bait for a couple of years now and pretty successfully. Success is seasonal. Right now, with abundance of cover and food in the trees, they're not coming down to ground level so much. More to the point though the bait is stolen or the trap set off by unwanted guests. I was catching a lot of hedgehogs recently, all released without harm. Also a couple of magpies. However I've had a chance to observe more closely in the past few days and what is stealing the bait or setting the trap off without entering it are carrion crows! They take the bait through the mesh from the outside, often shoving the trap around to dislodge the bait. Clever birds that they are!

Right now I'm using a baitstation which is a plastic flower pot base nailed to the top of a low fence. I opportunistically shoot squirrels and magpies when they come to it from the window. I fact I shot a squirrel not fifteen minutes ago. It's a downward shot with the air rifle and the pellets hit the grass or the tall rear wooden fence should I miss.

Peak effectiveness for trapping seems to be autumn when they're running around the ground foraging, and the end of winter when they come to dig it all up.

 

[riverdog]

Surprised how many people are using hazelnuts or peanuts as bait; that's fine if you've just got a few traps in your garden but if you're running big trap lines whole maize is best for several good reasons. Here's two obvious ones; whole maize is about £6-8 for a 20kg bag, and secondly you should be doing bait analysis if you want to trap efficiently. Mice will chew whole maize into chaff, jays/jackdaws etc will remove maize without trace and squirrels will only chew out the kernel, leaving the husks present. While traps baited with whole maize will catch a few reds, greys actually like it, while reds only eat it when they're really hungry so by-catch reduces. Last year when I was trapping greys full-time in Kielder I'd have about 40 traps out, with the doors cable-tied open, this means that I only had to check them once every three/four days and analyse the bait. Only traps where squirrels are present and feeding need to be set live and checked daily. If mice are stripping the bait out so quickly it is reducing the effectiveness of the trap then move it to a different tree and mount the trap on the tree at chest height.

 

[JTO]

Half-full can of beer, sunk in the ground, will catch any slugs before they find the squirrel bait.