I heard from an older trapper that I know that you can use ant hill dirt to keep traps from freezing. He said something about how something in the ant saliva makes the dirt not retain water. Has anyone ever heard of or tried this method?

I've heard that that was not true, but also that it works well. Maybe just because it is dry?????

It doesn't stay unfrozen anymore than any dirt for me. Certain kinds of ant hills are good for getting nice loose dirt that hardly needs sifting.

I don't use it to bed trap, but use alot of it as a cover dirt over my waxed sand. Juniper and sage brush duff also works very good for blending over waxed sand.

A lot depends on the dirt the ants dig up, they do seem to wax it (i suppose it keeps the rain off them?) but some ants in some areas make better dirt than other ants in other places. I reckon that some dirt is just better than other dirt. Only you can tell what you have, by trying it.

It might work if spread thin in light-freeze conditions. I too read that old time method.The few times I tried anthill dirt it froze rock hard.

Ant hill dirt is fibrous it is a poor antifreeze imo because it sucks up moisture then freezes.

Used to blend works some what if not to thick to get a plate made over the trap.
It all has its limitations ,
Wax dirt or wax sand is your best option imo.

Ant hill dirt will freeze just as hard as any other dirt in my experience. I don't have any pics of ant hills around my property but some of them get pretty sizable. Rain leaches down through them just as it does everything else surrounding them.

I use waxed sand to bed traps and then lightly cover with peat or a bit of debris dug up from underneath a spruce or fir. I fired off a few traps today for relocation and they snapped right off and that's after several snow events, rain and freeze cycles.

The ant hill dirt theory is an old wives tale.Test it yourself.Fill a paper cup with some and put it in the freezer and you will have your answer in a few hours.I don't know why this one still persists.I think it is mostly spread by people who heard but have never tried it.

i heard the same thing and yea freezes hard as a rock for sure.