Lets build a colony trap.

[thebeav2]

This Is just a Idea let me know what you colony trap users think.

I have access to tons of 6" aluminum irrigation pipe. I have a Idea as how to make the doors. Do you think a solid pipe like that would work?

Do you think the doors should be made out of wire mesh to cut down on resistance when the rat Is pushing It's way In.

I can see one bad point. You would have to pick up the trap each time to check and see If you had made a catch. But when a catch was made you would be able to dump out the catch easily since their teeth wouldn't be hung up In the wire mesh.

Thoughts?

[TurTLe]

If you use wire mesh for the doors, you'll still have rats stuck to them with their teeth, which is where they always seem to bite anyways. I've used colony traps for the last 15 years, and can't remember ever having a rat stuck from biting, anywhere but the door. It may happen, but if it does, it's so unlikely that I can't remember it ever being an issue.

To me, the rat biting the wire isn't even that big of a deal. I just break their teeth with my thumb, and take them out.

[FWS]

Beav, the value of that aluminum as scrap might exceed the cost of the welded wire mesh you'd use to build colony traps.

And if you build with wire it'll pay to use the good stuff, like we use for building traps for commercial fishing.

Riverdale Mills Corporation - Marine Products: Aquamesh®, Marine Mesh™ and Marinemesh™

[seldom]

Beav, most often I set colonies in runs so I'd think the majority of rats encountering the trap would need to be able to see through the trap so the wire mesh would be the correct thing to use for the doors.

[doyleflory]

Beave i have used them for a long time made from stove pipe,they will work fine but where i use them is culverts under roads.A 6" will fit in a 8" real well.
They are hard to carry verry many so that is the only place i use them.I make the wire ones for every all of the marsh type trapping.

[northof50]

One of the old design was to use stove pipe and place on a 6 inch board as a template top. Sorta gave up on that design cause I could count the amount of rats with one finger and a thumb.. touching one another.
Sell that irrigation pipe going rates for that are 1.10 pound T55 and buy some good........mink wire. Stuff I have has had 30 years of hard fall/winter/spring use made out of good wire. 16 guage Chinnessse junk is falling apart in 2 years..or one wayward ice chisel what ever comes first.
that 12 inch irrigation pipe does make for some long lasting wood duck nest boxes, some I have are 30 years old

[mustelameister]

that 12 inch irrigation pipe does make for some long lasting wood duck nest boxes, some I have are 30 years old

please describe or post a pic?

thanks

[mattduncan]

beav i don't know where you are going to use them but in a flood like we get in our ditches many times in the fall after hevay rains they would end up a long ways from where you set them

[northof50]

once the rat season is over , shall do.and I can get back into photobucket

[mustelameister]

Gary, got a buddy here who deals wholesale in fencing and we're figuring total cost in fencing alone for a 24" collapsible colony trap will be around a buck. Figure in small hog rings, clamps, and larger gauge wire to keep the cage from collapsing and extra fencing for the doors we maybe got a buck fifty or up to two dollars tops apiece.

Why not just make 'em that way, especially since they're collapsible?

With a big beaver basket a guy could slip in maybe a dozen or so and walk a shoreline filling in as he goes.

In a canoe you could easily fit a hundred.