Mink trapping advise please

[Sakoodin1]

I’m catching them here on tins of tuna!!!i used to use half rabbits and other meat but it’s a pain in the a**e getting it out the cage to refresh it after it’s past it’s best so I decided to try tuna tins and I just cut the lid 3/4 of the way round and pop it up around 1cm(anymore than 1cm and the mice will be away with it)I find it works well and lasts around 2 weeks before I need to change tins which it’s easy and clean to do

 

[countrryboy]

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.

Not sure how legal that would be??

Will all depend on how u then kill them humanely.

I'd just stick to using tried tested and legal traps, as well as legal methods to kill them, no longer can u dump them in the river to drown them. Quite rightly.

 

[rem284]

Ya single then

Ha ha, married at that time. Wife never new what she would find when she was searching for pork chops. Stoats, moles, rabbits, fox skins

 

[landkeeper]

Not sure how legal that would be??

Will all depend on how u then kill them humanely.

I'd just stick to using tried tested and legal traps, as well as legal methods to kill them, no longer can u dump them in the river to drown them. Quite rightly.

4"fencepost ! Slug the bore

 

[John Gryphon]

Do you skin them for the pelts? (winter)

 

[Mista Shot]

Not sure how legal that would be??

Will all depend on how u then kill them humanely.

I'd just stick to using tried tested and legal traps, as well as legal methods to kill them, no longer can u dump them in the river to drown them. Quite rightly.

I am not advocating doing anything that is illegal, a live trap is a live trap, always dispatch humanely goes without saying. Tried and tested 40 years ago
when I had a problem with mink. At that time the info passed on to me I found to be a cheap and effective way to solve a serious problem.

 

[Fair Hill]

I am not advocating doing anything that is illegal, a live trap is a live trap, always dispatch humanely goes without saying. Tried and tested 40 years ago
when I had a problem with mink. At that time the info passed on to me I found to be a cheap and effective way to solve a serious problem.

I've used that trap with great success as well, we used to have wire fixed at the bottom of the pipe and the bottom of the pipe touching or very near the flow of water, they don't think about how they are going to get out once they can get a free meal.
I was also told that when baiting the roof of spring traps with fish heads you should face the head to the entrance as the mink are attracted by the eyes.

 

[hedge hunter]

Ha ha, married at that time. Wife never new what she would find when she was searching for pork chops. Stoats, moles, rabbits, fox skins

Wife once pulled a foxs head out of the freezer thinking it was a pork joint.she went berserk. Promise I wont do that again

 

[Grannysmith]

Good cat food

 

[kenbro]

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.

Does the next one along open the door to get in?
Ken.
PS. I used to take cans of sardines and open then when setting the traps.
Set my traps by a river and sought out the best places for them, then covered them with twigs and leaves.
Mink love going through tunnels. Very easy to catch.

 

[Spix]

As you no doubt already know: https://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/threads/covid-19-humans-and-animals.186405/post-1849417

 

[monarman]

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

Thats what DEFRA did when we trapped in the hebrides..... we sent all mink to post mortem and and other research... and they sent us some stink nuggets back(anal glands squeezed onto cotton swabs and put in a jar).... they worked a treat and we could carry more nuggets than cat food or dead fish bits.

 

[norma 308]

Just set a few today prior to birds arriving I used pigeon guts hung from roof of trap we will see !

 

[devon deer stalker]

This is a very timely thread.
Hadn't seen a mink for years, not since the Otters returned, but my mate had a fish chewed on last week, the fish I left on the bench when I was Sea Trout fishing got nicked!
Then the other evening we were waiting to start fishing and the bloody thing came out of the bank and looked at us!
Once the hordes of grockles go home we will start to trap them.
Cheers
Richard

 

[dartmoordog]

This is a very timely thread.
Hadn't seen a mink for years, not since the Otters returned, but my mate had a fish chewed on last week, the fish I left on the bench when I was Sea Trout fishing got nicked!
Then the other evening we were waiting to start fishing and the bloody thing came out of the bank and looked at us!
Once the hordes of grockles go home we will start to trap them.
Cheers
Richard

There was a time when I didn’t have a working day without seeing Mink on the river, we used to trap them some 30 odd years ago, but thought we were flogging a dead horse.

Then, as you say Richard, the Otters made a comeback in a big way and bullied and beat the Mink in such a way, we just didn’t see them anymore. A Mink is no match for a European Otter.

Bloody annoying you have seen one mate.......Get busy!

As for skinning them, there is absolutely no market for it, and as someone who has been the victim of Mink spray on a couple of occasions, I don’t want to touch the stinking things. It takes days to get rid of the smell, it does no good for a mans sexual urges! I even tried Brut to mask the smell, but she wasn’t having it.

 

[devon deer stalker]

Thanks @dartmoordog the NT don't have a problem, any suggestions on traps?
Just found one online for £14, just need to get the club to buy a few!
Cheers
Richard

 

[Turkish]

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

If you have the stomach for this, it's the best lure you can get.
Baits of any kind draw in rats. If you want to catch rats as well, all well and good.

I kept the anal and musk glands in a glove, inside a bag, inside another bag in an old freezer i used for freezing vermin before incineration.
Strange that I never lost that bag no matter how full the freezer got. You will ALWAYS be able to find it.