How to Build a Simple, Humane Trap
An unwelcome wild animal can be a terror on a yard or a garden, damaging your lawn or tearing up and eating your crops. Often times, trapping and removing the offending animal is the only way to rid yourself of the problem. However, commercial traps are lethal and will kill the animal once trapped. By fashioning your own trap out of sticks and mesh netting, you can trap the animal without harming it, so that it can be removed in a humane way.
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Things You'll Need
- Four sticks, diameter about two inches
- Hammer
- Nails
- Two long, flexible sticks
- Twine
- Mesh netting
- Thin sticks, longer than animal is tall
- Bait
Instructions
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1
Cut the four sticks to a length larger than the animal that you are trying to catch. These will be your frame, and must be large enough to cover the animal.
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2
Lay two sticks on the ground, parallel to each other, so that their outside edges are as far apart as the sticks are long. Lay the other two sticks atop them to form a square, then nail them together.
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3
Tie one end of one flexible stick to one corner of the square created in Step 2.
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4
Bend the flexible stick down and tie it the opposing corner, so that it cuts across the square diagonally.
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5
Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for the second flexible stick, connecting the two unused corners, creating an X shape, if viewed from above.
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6
Place the mesh over the X and secure it around the perimeter of the box using the twine.
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7
Place the trap on the ground at the chosen location, and prop it up using one of the thin sticks.
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8
Place the bait on the ground, inside the box.
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9
Place one end of the second thin stick atop the bait, then lift the box slightly, and place the other end between the first thin stick and the box frame. When the animal takes the bait, it will knock the first stick free, causing the second to fall out of the way of the frame, and the trap to fall on the animal.
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