Need advice on how to trap a fox

[TwinWillows]

For the last month or so I've been loosing ducks @ my pond so I've been staking it out to see what's getting them. Last night (actually 4am today) I see a fox slinking in for another kill. It took off before I could get a shot off.

I can only keep up the dawn patrol for so long before exhaustion will catch up w/me @ work so I need to know if there's a way to trap this rascal & relocate him far away.

I have access to a friend with a big wire cage box trap. Does anyone think that might work? If so what do you bait it with?

Thanks in advance for any advice you have.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I could suggest a number of leg hold and drowning sets, but you risk catching a domestic animal. You might want to try a predator call and ambush the critter. Call him in with a dying rabbit call at night.

 

[shvl73]

Try baiting it with chicken. You may get something other than the fox though.

 

[tallyho8]

Bait it with a duck. You know it loves ducks.

 

[TwinWillows]

Tallyho8 - I knew it was only a matter of time before someone came back w/that sage advice... I'd like to try & bait it away from the pond & trap it if possible w/a live or leg hold trap & to get duck for that setup would require knocking of 1 of my last 2 which'd defeat the purpose of the whole exercise.

WCH - Several leg hold's came w/the farm in the old barn but I don't have the foggiest idea how to bait or set them up. Can you advise?

Thanks

 

[LMTC]

I am not a trapper....but I knew one once. Seriously, I hunted many years with a fellow who ran traplines, and I know it is an artform. One can catch possum and racoon easily enough in box traps, but if you catch a fox in one it is an idiot in the fox world. This fellow used to tell me that fox was the most difficult animal to trap in our area (SW Ohio), followed by mink. I too would suggest nightime hunting with a predator call, or asking around locally for a trapper. I have never heard this fellow talk about catching fox with anything other than leg hold traps. Body traps are more for muskrat, mink, etc. as I understand it.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Yep, body traps, aka conibears, are for mink, beaver, usually waterway sets or paths leading to waterways. I have also set them on top of problem woodchuck dens.

I could tell you how to catch the fox in a leghold, but, you need to make sure no domestic animals would get caught. If there are any dogs or cats around, I guarantee they would be caught first. For something as large as a fox, you also need a large enough trap to hold him, or he will become trap wary. Are there any markings on the traps? For fox, I would boil new traps, then dip them in beeswax, then hang them out in the woods for at least 6 months to loose any trace of human scent. Then to set them, I would wear large rubber gloves set in the stream for a couple weeks. Now maybe this fox is not that wary, but the longer that trap is set without catching him, the better chance you have of catching a dog or cat, or a skunk, or a 'coon. Fox are indeed a difficult animal to trap.

You don't bait the actual trap. To make a "set", you would place the bait in an area with one way in and set the trap in the path. If you would like some good reading on this, pick up an issue of Fur-Fish-and Game at a good magazine shop. This is my favorite, most practical outdoors magazine. Furs have been going up. Up high enough I may get a coon dog and dig out my old traps. I can remember getting upwards of $70 for a coon pelt 25 years ago. They're up to about $40 now. I just got a gallon of chicken guts from a local farm. I'm going to put them in a glass gallon jar and bury them until late October and use them for bait. Yummy.

I think your best bet is a predator call early in the morning. You can buy tapes of them and play them thru a portable tape player, or a boom box. There are ads for these tapes in the magazine above.

Good luck, Andy.

For the record, there is nothing more I hate than to see an animal suffer. I used to use legholds out in the open when I was younger. Now, the only legholds I would use would be drowning sets. All others would be conibears which when set properly, snap the animals neck and at worst suffocates them. I believe in quick, clean kills.

 

[Podunkadunk]

Yep, body traps, aka conibears, are for mink, beaver, usually waterway sets or paths leading to waterways. I have also set them on top of problem woodchuck dens.

I could tell you how to catch the fox in a leghold, but, you need to make sure no domestic animals would get caught. If there are any dogs or cats around, I guarantee they would be caught first. For something as large as a fox, you also need a large enough trap to hold him, or he will become trap wary. Are there any markings on the traps? For fox, I would boil new traps, then dip them in beeswax, then hang them out in the woods for at least 6 months to loose any trace of human scent. Then to set them, I would wear large rubber gloves set in the stream for a couple weeks. Now maybe this fox is not that wary, but the longer that trap is set without catching him, the better chance you have of catching a dog or cat, or a skunk, or a 'coon. Fox are indeed a difficult animal to trap.

You don't bait the actual trap. To make a "set", you would place the bait in an area with one way in and set the trap in the path. If you would like some good reading on this, pick up an issue of Fur-Fish-and Game at a good magazine shop. This is my favorite, most practical outdoors magazine. Furs have been going up. Up high enough I may get a coon dog and dig out my old traps. I can remember getting upwards of $70 for a coon pelt 25 years ago. They're up to about $40 now. I just got a gallon of chicken guts from a local farm. I'm going to put them in a glass gallon jar and bury them until late October and use them for bait. Yummy.

I think your best bet is a predator call early in the morning. You can buy tapes of them and play them thru a portable tape player, or a boom box. There are ads for these tapes in the magazine above.

Good luck, Andy.

For the record, there is nothing more I hate than to see an animal suffer. I used to use legholds out in the open when I was younger. Now, the only legholds I would use would be drowning sets. All others would be conibears which when set properly, snap the animals neck and at worst suffocates them. I believe in quick, clean kills.

Seems like an awfully long time, the fox will have probably died of old age by then.

You don't need fermented chicken guts to catch 'coon's! All you've got to do is put out something edible you don't want them messing with...they'll show up. Case in point, put out some corn on the ground like you would for deer. They'll eat it ALL. I have hundreds of deer cam pics to prove it .

If you want to catch the fox, or kill the fox (on your terms), find where it lives and stake it out. They are territorial and he/she has a den/honeycomb hideout somewhere...probably pretty close to where you're seeing it. I'd try the predator call also. They seem to work well for coyote's...I'm sure a fox will pay attention also. Good luck.

Podunk

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Seems like an awfully long time, the fox will have probably died of old age by then.

Maybe, but put them out sooner and you'll never catch a fox. Their noses are over a thousand times more sensitive than ours.

You don't need fermented chicken guts to catch 'coon's! All you've got to do is put out something edible you don't want them messing with...they'll show up. Case in point, put out some corn on the ground like you would for deer. They'll eat it ALL. I have hundreds of deer cam pics to prove it .

Put a trap by your corn, all you'll catch is deer. Now if you put a coon cam, the only thing that would show up is deer.

 

[farmbroke]

hard to catch yes but not impossible, years ago when we did some trapping to catch foxes we would dig a hole with post hole diggers at an angle, somewhere between 45 or 25 degree I guess. Place some chicken (leg or wing) in the hole then set a leg hold trap in the hole, stake to trap chain outside the hole. Only problem if not illegal in our County is catching non target animals. Just be sure to check trap every morning and evening. If the fox is coming into your area in the early mornings you may want to cover trap during daytime so someone dog or cat doesn't get caught when most turn there animals out. This worked for us in NC when we were having problems with foxes getting our chickens, in fact we ended up catching 9 foxes within two months, overrun with foxes.

Maybe this will help you.