Good afternoon Gentlemen,

I’ve got a question regarding waxed dirt? I’m a second season trapper so I’m new to everything and still learning. I live and trap in Western NC so our winters aren’t as harsh as the Midwest or Northeast but we still get a lot of freezing weather with snow and rain mix in the winters. I kept dry dirt, peat moss, and salt on hand last year to build my sets. This works well for me and I had planned to do the same this year but a couple weeks ago after watch several YouTube videos I decided to make some wax dirt. I gathered some good dirt, sifted it onto a tarp and let it bake in the sun for a few days before sifting it back into buckets. I then took paraffin wax that I purchased in one pound blocks and shaved them down to make flake wax. In a turkey fryer over a propane cooker I placed one gallon of dirt and continuously stirred it until it got warm before placing three cups of the wax. I stirred this until all the wax was melted and no clumps were left. I then transferred the wax dirt onto a large piece of cardboard to let it cool. After I finished making 12 gallons and let it all cool I transferred it into five gallon buckets for storage. Much like any other thing I’ve ever done I had to test out and the dirt sheds water very well. My concern is that when warming the dirt up I might have gotten it too hot as it was very slightly smoking. The dirt however don’t have the scorched smell I’ve heard about but rather a very faint sweet smell. It don’t traditionally smell like dirt so I’m almost weary of using it because I know canines have a much stronger sense of smell than I do and I don’t want to waste my time using something that’s going to hurt me. Has anyone got any opinions on this matter or maybe have experienced the same thing? Any advice good or bad ultimately helps, thanks in advance!

Probably steam not smoke.
Welcome to the forum.

If it doesn’t smell burned I bet you’re good. Welcome

Did the smoke or steam come when you first dumped in the wax? That is common with the little experience I have.

I noticed a little steam/smoke before I added the wax and a little more afterwards! It did however calm down once the wax melted.

So the sweet smell wouldn’t necessarily hurt my sets?

If there are no sealed lids on your buckets DON'T keep it in your fur shed where you skin/have skinned as it will absorb odors. Keep it in an area away from any odor/s which could create them to dig.

I think sometimes we over think how careful we need to be. My method of making wax dirt is put a hundred or so pounds of shifted sand on a 4 X 8 piece of plywood, add a five gallon bucket of sifted dry dirt, stir in 8 pounds of shredded wax and heat it all up with a propane weed burner stiring it occasionally until the wax has all melted and it has a moist look. It makes three 5 gallon buckets per batch. Maybe we have dumb animals out here, but we catch our share of coyotes and fill all our cat tags most every year. I don't have any reason to believe the waxed dirt prepared this way scares predators. I'm sure scent plays a factor. But I think we can get overly concerned about it. However, I've been known to be wrong.

I’ve been keeping it in a large plastic container under my carport but I’ve been planning on transporting it to my crawl space. I’m limited in places I can store my dirt in the dry without having contamination. I’m probably gonna just use it and see if I have any trouble down the road. I’ve got 5 more gallons of dry dirt that I’m gonna make some more with. Thanks for the info guys!

I wouldn't worry too much. A lot of us are dipping traps in paint, tar, and gasoline. I think you'll be fine.

Exactly made several hundreds of gallons this exact same way except all sifted dirt.

Two years ago my dirt got moldy and smelled, what I did was mix in very dry cow manure and at the sets I scattered dirt all around the area. I also sprayed either fox or coyote urine over entire set, it worked good.

So I made some wax sand today and mixed a quarter pound of wax per gallon of sand. It’s drying in hard clumps mixed with the loose sand. Is this because I didn’t get the wax melted evenly or maybe had the ratio off?

Do not store in plastic anything.

Somewhat is the best storage containers?

Something that breathes.
Cardboard box. Paper sacks. Crates.

I am new to wax dirt/sand this year. I got it bone dry--set it in the sun and ran it in the cement mixer on heat to make sure there was no obvious water content. Will it still mold if it was very, very dry? I know we covered it on the Strictly Trapping forum but I would rather not transfer 100 gallons of material into new containers. Next year I am going to ask the guy at the feed store if I can buy a bunch of empty/clean seed sacks.

The lids are cracked are cracked on my drums and buckets.

Wisdom

Mark June, what an honor man! Feels like I’ve been graced by a legend! What would be your thoughts on the sand drying in clumps? Have I got the ratio off or maybe it’s not melted enough?

Your ratio of sand to wax could be off (to much wax) perhaps. Can you break up the clumps? I sift my wax dirt after it cools as I'm putting it away for storage, the clumps I toss in a bucket and break apart with a maul.