Mink trapping advise please

[jimmy milnes]

Been asked by a local guy who is seeing mink knocking around his place to get rid of them.
Now I've got a cage trap that'll do nicely but was wondering as to a good easy to use bait.
Now this guys place is about a third of a mile from a water source so they must be coming up the fields an in so no rafts or anything like that to deal with building.
Anyone any advice they can offer please..
Cheers Jimmy

 

[Glade]

Fish heads hung by wire to the roof of the trap. Cat food on the treadle plate. Baits placed by glove so as not to leave human scent.
You’ve no doubt thought of this.
G

 

[countrryboy]

Never found mnk to be that bothered by human scent, well compared to some other species

We always just used rabbit as bait, they will run wee ditches or hedges or anything

 

[rem284]

I have used scraps of fish and bits of rabbits in the past. I once caught a mink in a cage trap and had ran out of bait. I dispatch the mink that was in it and removed the animal. I reset the trap without any bait. About 2 hours later the old estate worker told me there was a mink in the trap. I said yes, i dealt with that this morning. He said he had just came in from it. Sure enough there was another mink in the unbaited trap

 

[Mossypaw]

Once you catch the first one, leave it in the trap a while. You won’t need bait after that, the smell of another mink will draw them into the trap to investigate.

 

[rem284]

I think if i was trapping again i would keep a dead mink in the freezer to scent the traps. Thats what i used to do with moles

 

[jimmy milnes]

I think if i was trapping again i would keep a dead mink in the freezer to scent the traps. Thats what i used to do with moles

Ya single then

 

[countrryboy]

I mind the local fishery trust had quite a good mink trapping campaign for years, very few mink on the river now plus with the massive otter population they don't hang about long.

1 poor bugger had the job of stripping the anal? glands on them, never asked too much about it so not sure if was male or female.
But they used to scent the traps with it, said worked well

 

[wildfowler1]

I have trapped loads always used quality tinned cat food.

 

[Kalahari]

At the risk of starting another flurry of interest BASC and the GWCT have helpful information on mink trapping.

David.

 

[GWP]

The last ones i trapped where half a mile from the river in tunnel traps set for rats with mk 4 fenn traps caught three youngsters in a week and mummy two weeks later another was shot a few weeks later we wondered where all the moorhens had gone.

 

[A Guy Out West]

If you can get it, muskrat meat will draw a mink like nothing else.

 

[wildfowler1]

I always found when the Moorhens were disappearing the Mink were about. Wf1

 

[Mista Shot]

A piece of plastic drainpipe about 20 inches long, sunk vertical into the ground,
bait with fish heads or rabbit guts etc. Mink will drop in after the bait but are unable to climb out.

 

[wildfowler1]

Just for your interest guys. When the idiots first released the Mink from the farms in Gloucestershire we had them in Northants within a fortnight. They were found to be travelling 5 miles at least along waterways in a night. We caught quite a few around a Country Park. Wf1

 

[jimmy milnes]

A piece of plastic drainpipe about 20 inches long, sunk vertical into the ground,
bait with fish heads or rabbit guts etc. Mink will drop in after the bait but are unable to climb out.

Just normal 80mm pipe ?
Cheers

 

[hendrix's rifle]

Cat food, if near water then a raft on it with a plastic pipe cut in half over the trap. Should catch them

 

[Mista Shot]

Just normal 80mm pipe ?
Cheers

6 - 8 inches dia will work fine, hope you have success, best wishes.

 

[old keeper]

There was a big escape from a mink farm donkey's years ago where I live in Devon and they've been around ever since. A cage trap works well with cat food, rabbit of fish heads as bait, unlike some animals it's always seemed to me that if using meat or fish as bait they like it fresh.
Mink will travel very considerable distances, I once saw one in a part of Dartmoor one early morning miles from any water source, trundling down the road in front of me. I've also seen them on the beach just down the road from where I live working down the high watermark. I've also seen the damage the little sods can cause and I can also vouch for the fact that their bite is about 400% worse than a ferret!

 

[Roestalker39]

I’ve always used fish heads or rabbits as bait