Building A Homemade Box Trap

Fifty years ago every farm boy knew how to build and use this type of trap, now the skill has been lost to all but a few old timers. Today our population is much more interested in watching TV or playing video games, than learning any useful skill. Which is sad, because one day a simple skill such as constructing a homemade box trap could make the difference between going to bed hungry or with a full stomach…

Begin construction of your box trap by putting together a box using plywood, lumber or some other suitable material. Each end should be left open and should be eight to 12 inches square. The top piece should be three inches shorter on each end, which will allows room for the sliding doors. The box should be four feet long, and have at least a 12 inch doorway when build for raccoons, opossums and cats. Two foot works fine for rabbits and squirrels.

Fashion a slide way for the doors to fall though and lock in. How to do this is hard to explain in writing, but should be self-evident when looking at the illustration. Use the heaviest material that you can find for the doors, this will help in several ways, such as the doors closing faster and going all the way down and locking in place.

Most box traps are set with bait, if you are baiting for raccoon use peanut butter or fish guts, for opossums use cut up apples, peanut butter or just about anything with a strong smell, cats like fish, squirrels like acorns, pheasants and quail like wheat or crushed up dried corn. When in doubt and if available use peanut butter as most animals seem to be attracted to it.

Many of us that keep chickens know how frustrating it is to watch our prize hens disappear, one at a time to a seemingly invisible predator. Catching the culprit can be a vexing problem, since we do not know exactly what we are trying to catch, or when it will make its next raid on the hen-house. Set several of these homemade box traps against the outside walls of the hen-house, baited with chicken guts and you should have your chicken thief by morning.

A dandy rabbit producing method is to set boxes out in known rabbit country, pile brush on top of the trap to make the trap look likes a natural hiding place. Make sure that the brush you pile on doesn’t interfere with the trigger of the trap. These traps do not even need to be baited, the rabbits just seem to wonder into them. You should not expect to catch anything within the first couple of weeks, because the rabbits in the area will need a few weeks to become accustomed to seeing the traps, then they will start to come in.

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