Suggested Animal Trap Baits
The art of selecting and placing animal trap bait is worth all the attention you can give it.
Animals have a keen scent and this can be both good and bad. When selecting animal trap bait, take care to give your target animal what it wants and nothing it doesn't. Unwanted scents repel animals from your live trap.
HINT: For quick success, take care to minimize the human scent that scares off most animals from your trap.
Bait Tips:
- Always wear gloves when handling your trap
- Handle bait with rubber gloves
- Use the recommended animal trap bait for your target animal
- Set the trap trigger properly
- Place trap in known trails of target animal
To successfully trap nuisance wildlife or stray pets, besides choosing the correct trap, placing, baiting, and setting your trap correctly is very important. Learn the habits of your targeted animal...the foods it likes, the trails it uses, etc.
NOTE: Please check your traps often, about once an hour. Also, place the trap in the shade on hot, sunny days.
Prepare your trap before use. Place it outside in the elements and sun for a few days or spray it with apple cider to remove any unwanted scents. Again, always wear gloves when handling, setting, and baiting the trap to hide your scent from your skittish friend.
For general field setting, here are two natural animal trap bait solutions that will attrack most varieties of wild animals:
- Ear of dry corn and a smoked herring
- Peanut butter mixed with molasses spread on whole wheat bread
These animal trap baits will not spoil for a considerable length of time, so you can look at the trap from a distance without having to scent up the vicinity of the trap. See below for specific animal trap baits.
Specific Animal Trap Baits for attracting different animals
ARMADILLO:
Meal worms, other worms, or insects enclosed in a little cloth bag, maggots, sardines, fish.
BIRDS:
Sunflower seeds or scratch grain.
CAT OR BOBCAT:
Fish, oil of catnip, sardines, cat food.
CHIPMUNKS:
Prune pits, unroasted peanuts, corn, sunflower seeds, peanut butter, cereal, grains, popcorn.
COYOTES:
Old meat, dog food.
DOG:
Old meat, dog food.
FOX (RED AND GRAY):
Rancid fish or meat.
GOPHERS:
Peanut butter mixed with molasses, spread on whole wheat bread.
GROUNDHOGS:
Green vegetables, fresh string beans, sweet corn, lettuce, peas, broccoli.
MICE:
Cheese, bread and butter, small nuts, cherry pits, oatmeal, sunflower or similar seeds, mixed peanut butter and oatmeal, gum drops, flour. These baits are also good for rats.
MINK:
Chicken head and entrails, fresh fish, fish oil scent, parts of rabbit, muskrat, fresh liver.
MUSKRATS:
Vegetables, parsnips, carrots, sweet apples, or musk from another muskrat.
NUTRIA:
Muskmelon or cantaloupe rind, ripe bananas.
OPOSSUM:
Vegetables, sweet apples, chicken entrails, sardines, crisp bacon, canned cat food, almost anything edible will work.
OTTER:
Fish.
PORCUPINE:
Apples, salt, carrots.
RABBIT:
Fresh vegetables, such as brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, or apples. In winter time, bread is a good bait. Spraying the inside of the trap with apple cider has also proved effective.
RACCOON:
Anything of a fishy nature: Sardines, raw fish, etc. Smoked meat, sweet corn or fruit, molasses, peanut butter or honey.
RINGTAIL OR CIVET CATS:
Same as raccoon.
RATS:
Cheese, bread and butter, small nuts, cherry pits, oatmeal, sunflower or similar seeds, mixed peanut butter and oatmeal, gum drops, flour.
SKUNK:
Anything edible, chicken entrails, fish, fresh or canned, insect larvae, crisp bacon, eggs.
SNAKE:
Whole eggs (bantam).
SNAPPING TURTLE:
Freshly chopped fish or freshly chopped chicken entrails, also any whole fresh fruit pieces.
SQUIRRELS:
Cereals, nuts, popcorn, crackers, peanut butter or molasses on bread, field corn, oatmeal grains.
VOLES:
Peanut butter mixed with molasses spread on whole wheat bread.
WEASELS:
Fish, fresh liver, chicken entrails.
WOODCHUCK:
Any kind of green vegetable, fresh string beans, sweet corn, lettuce, peas.
I wish you quick success. Happy Trapping!
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