How to Build Your Own Small Mammal Trap

While it is simpler and far more humane to buy a good animal trap, some die-hard do-it-yourself types prefer to build their own. Home-made traps have many disadvantages, and a commercial trap is a better option for almost anybody.

Make two perfectly flat 1' square frames out of either plywood or straight sticks (tied together)

Make four Y-shaped sticks, about 16" (not including Y part of sticks)

Make a bunch more 1' straight sticks.

Place one frame on the ground where you are trapping the animal.

Use the pocketknife to whittle the straight end of each Y-shaped stick to a point.

Carefully push the pointed end of each of these sticks into the ground at the insides of the corners of the frame on the ground, so there is about 12" between the ground and the bottom of each Y of each stick.

Turn these sticks so that if you drew a line diagonally across the square, the line would go directly between the two prongs of the Y (in other words, the Y is diagonal to the corner of the square).

Place the other frame on top of the assembly, so that it is resting on the four Ys.

Tie each corner of the frame to the Y it is on top of.

Place and tie foot-long sticks horizontally on top of the frame.

Do the same thing with most of the other sticks on 3 of the sides of the assembly to form walls.

• Make sure the rest of the foot-long sticks are lightweight and fairly thin, so they will be easy for the animal to push (you'll get what this means when the trap is complete).

Tie the top of each remaining stick to the top frame on the side that does not yet have a wall, so that the bottom of each stick is inside of the trap at the bottom of the frame, so that you can effortlessly put your hand into the trap, but if you try to pull on a stick, it will get stuck on the bottom frame.

Add bait (peanut butter works great for rodents) inside the trap in one of the back corners and your trap is complete.Then just set back and wait for the animal you are trapping.

Tips

• Animals are very sensitive to the smell of humans. When making your trap wear gloves and try to keep your smell off the trap.

Warnings

• Hurting certain animals is against the law in many states and countries.
• Most trap plans that can be accomplished by unskilled trap artists are dangerous to animals and unreliable for the trapper. Homemade box traps, can traps, snare traps, etc. are all insufficient for catching small to medium-sized mammals. Even pitfall traps don’t work well: what happens after the animal falls into the hole? How do you retrieve and transport it?

Things You'll Need

• roll of string
• pocket knife
• Y-shaped sticks
• Plywood
• Many straight sticks