Positive trapping?

Who utilizes positive trapping in their business?

What special equipment do you use?

For which animals do you use posi set techniques?

wow 13 views in about the first hour...but no one willing to share?

Ill start I use Positive sets for everything I possibly can!

I use Nose cones, of various designs to work with typical cages as well as multi catch traps.

I am starting to use them way more on ground sets for skunks

As often as possible.

Yes...as much as I can, from squirrel entry points to beaver lodges... More so with skunks , squirrels , and coons and such.. any positive sets available will be used first .. and then if needed, I'll bait

Almost strictly positive.....grey squirrel, beavers, armadillos, flying squirrels, raccoons in attics etc. I use double door traps exclusively except multicatch for flyers.

I did a positive on a coon entry on a gable vent 2 days ago. the coon blew out the other that night. I didn't want to do the positive but the customer wanted me to. I told her the coon broke into the house by the vent, if it is trap shy it will blow the other out it knows how. don't get me wrong I do them but not my first choice in high pressure areas where competition only method is exclusion or trap and release on property.

I use positive sets as often as possible. The only trap I use for my positive trapping are double doored Comstock traps. With positive trapping I save not using bait and I am less likely to catch non-targets since I'm not using the bait. Raccoons coming out of roofs, skunks under porches, all animals in trails. Positive sets are the way to go if you can find a travel way.

Jonesie, this is why trap and release on the property is such a great idea. Your DNR is seeing to it that you get up close and

personal with the animals that you catch again and again. Next year they're talking about making the ADC guys take their animals out

for dinner and drinks. Who knows where this relationship might end up?

In that situation we would have screened the second vent off... had the same thing happen once several years ago. Started screening off all other possible exits and have not had a problem since (knock on wood).

We are doing a power point on baitless trapping in Myrtle Beach in few weeks. Since I can remember I have been a blind set, trail set, positive baitless trapper for just about everything, all across the country, though beaver are the one critter that hit lure extremely well. I almost dipped into the lure and bait the other day to enhance a positive set, but it was about zero out, frozen solid, so back to positives as usual. The guy had red squirrels chewing through the wall in the garage. Put one on the inside and two on the outside, one going to the shed, the other to the garage. Cold for two nights, nothing, the third day he called, 3 for 3 in double door, flush mount, cages, positive sets with swing panel triggers, which made a believer out of the client. Unlike a pan to jump over, reach over etc., animals simply can not go through the traps without capture. They are great for chasing animals into them when cornered in a garage or basement. I have had stuff jump over pans in the past when trying to push them into a trap, very frustrating.

Bait gives animals options, simply to avoid or pass by a set, not so with blind sets. Positive and trail sets need only have the animal move and return. You own them. In California the competition used lure, they caught 'cats, but missed more, like "one cat, 3 visits." We had no visits, just 'cats, rarely a miss. Even before California, in Alabama in 81 I took 23 'cats in trails in my first stab at it.

I used modified #1 double long springs in the 70's in Virginia before they were made, for 'coon on the inside edge of the sandbars on small creeks, deadly. Did the same with 220's. Went to Vermont one year to show a fellow about blind sets in trails for 'coon on the high bank and along the creek, even in the creek in ways still not in print. For two days Dave's pocket sets did well, only one catch in trails while he had caught half a dozen in pocket sets. Day 3, of 7 'coon, 6 were caught in trails in blind sets in 220's.

Have done blind sets with snares of course, footholds, conibears and cages, all work great. The 220 was one of my favorite traps. Had a bunch of fur on the table one day, some 'coon, 'rats, a mink, an otter and a red fox. Realized the days catch had all be taken in 220's in blind sets, in water, under water and on land, hard to beat.

The point being, in ADC it's the same, just different surroundings. You know where the animals are and where they are going. You just have to get in between.

Paul not the DNR Just guys that read a book and think they know every thing.

This Positive set I made with my own AES gutter trap surprised me... I built the trap and thought at that time that it would catch ONE pine squirrel, I had to tap the gutter trap into this tight corner horizontally with a rubber mallet... then Set the trap with a wire tool in my Truck.
Within 4 hours of setting it I had caught 4 Squirrels in one trap...and made $55.00 x 4 plus set up fee of $90 and trip charge later that day of $35 to clear the trap... I did not realize that used this way my own Trap functioned as a multi catch trap. Not Bad for a trap I built and sold for $19.00 at that time.

Back when I used these traps, I was told that this was the First time the cage maker had ever seen someone use their trap this way...

I used a Double door wire trigger trap and added 14 ga.Gaw wire wings to the trap with hog rings. Then I attached the trap and wings with large washers over the torn up Vent hole.

I caught the Big Female within a few hours that night and did a cut out to get to her young the next day.




View through the trap

Large Female Coon caught within a few hours.

*** This was a great Job and a Fast capture of the animal...

As often as possible.

Those pictures 330 posted were definitely a first, breaking new ground, showing what can be done with positive sets. Very helpful for everyone to see something new and innovative to aid in their business to save time and money while making a friend out of a client by successfully solving a problem and completing a job so quickly. It's always nice to show up with new methods and equipment a client has not seen, especially after he has tried for days, weeks or months to catch a chuck eating garden with no success. Love it when they ask, "so what kind of bait are you going to use?" I just quietly say, "I don't use any" which leaves them perplexed and wondering until you explain your plan. They become believers pretty fast.

One lady last summer a lady had chucks digging under the porch and hired us to trap them, no bait as usual, but due to the location of the holes, I just set trail sets because it was easiest, on the edge of the lawn and in the woods between dens. The lady told a neighbor about "no bait" to which the neighbor said, "don't do that, (figuring it was a scam no doubt) we have a trap and bait you can borrow." I guess the neighbor just wanted to save her from what she believe was doomed to fail. Two days and 4 chucks later the client knew she had not made a bad choice.

For chucks I like to go early in the morning or late evening when its cool and the chucks are grazing. They will often lead you to a den you may not have otherwise found.

Anytime I can. If there is a hole or burrow, a positive set is first choice, except for gray squirrels which I one-way door and surround with tubes (unless juvies, then positive colony trap)

Coon getting caught in ChimTrap. No access to attic and didn't expect four coons total.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXc2OGr7GpQ

This one was nesting behind plaster and lathe wall in historic building. Cutting a hole was not an option. I could hear the pups, they were young. My ChimTrap was on another job, so I made use of a Safeguard. Attached nosecone and screwed to house. I think this one worked quicker than the ChimTrap (20 videos of coon in ChimTrap before capture). Once removed, I scared the heck out of her and released her on site. She went back in that night and removed the pups herself. Screened the vent and no further problems.

Brian Mongeau that is a fine looking set up!

If it was later in season and pups weren't present, I'd have used a 160.
The video above, I purposely wanted to watch the ChimTrap in action.

How was she getting in and out right there? Was there something there that I'm not seeing for her to climb on?

Whenever I can.