I've always bought my trap wax. But now that I have bees I'll have a supply of beeswax. Do you use it as is. Or mix it with something else?

Garryowen

No No No

Bees wax has honey In It or at least the smell and you will have dug up traps. Try and keep your traps and the trap bed as oder free as you can.

Wax is a by-product. If I keep adding hives I'll have lots of it.

Garryowen

I mix three pounds of parafin with 4 or 5 ounces of bees wax and about an ounce of spruce or pine gum. No odor problems.

Ok I'm trapping In corn field In Iowa not a spruce tree with In a 1000 miles why would I want the smell of spruce at my set? In my opinion I don't want the animals atention where that trap is buried. I want the animals attention on the atractor.
But If you don't have problems that's fine.

Wouldn't the scent go away when the remaining honey is washed out before it's melted?

Garryowen

It might help but I still feel that there will be enough honey odor In the wax that you just might have problems. But the sure test will be to do some traps with a mixture of your bees wax and some with out and see what happens.

How do they get get parafin wax? Is it from bees wax and could you rewash bees wax till smell is gone? Don't have bees or know anything about them.

No. It will always smell great.

Go to a candle shop and offer a trade. Maybe five lbs of your bees wax for ten lbs of parafin. You'll both be happy.

Why not use it on water traps where odor would not be a issue.

Paraffin wax Is made from oil not bees wax. There are different grades of paraffin wax. Gulf wax has been processed down till It has less residual oil In it then other wax.

I buy unscented candle wax It has been refined down so you have less smoke which means It has less residual oil In It. It also has a lower melting point and when It hardens It Is less brittle then paraffin wax.

Yes your bees wax would be great on your water traps.

I do mostly water trap. Even my coon sets or on slide wires. By comparison paraffin is brittle and tends to flake off. Beeswax is softer and sticker. I think it would tend to stay on the trap and sort of smear instead of flake off.

Garryowen

1oz. powdered pine resin to 10lb. of parraffin will cure that. Most prepared trap wax already has it.
No bees wax for me ever...land traps will get dug like crazy with it on em.

where do you guys get the powdered pine resin and parrafin?

So if I understand this correctly, a trap placed in trap dip mixed with gasoline will be scent free by trapping season. But, a trap dipped in beeswax won't be and never will be.

Garryowen

Why do you wax your land traps anyways, maybe for salt purposes, i have not ever waxed land traps and if i use salt after pulling the traps rinse or boil them off, now water traps i can see to wax & dye them, but land traps no, a good dye job and for forget them but that is me, maybe other folks know better than me though.