Swim thru trap on land?

[bob maier]

Anyone use homemade swim thru cages in beaver trails? I have several areas with good slides but I'm not sure how swim thru cages will hold up used on land. Getting away from the water would also cut down on theft. Sure an otter would likely beat a trap up pretty good. I remember Karen using havahart 1080? Size traps on land w good results.

[Humptulips]

I set three last year that way. I caught one otter and two civets. The otter damaged the wire to the point I replaced about half of the wire on the trap. I have caught several beaver and a couple otter in traps that were half out of the water due to water drop. I didn't see much damge from the beaver but the otter are hard on a trap. I think if you set intentional land sets and were checking every 24 hours it would be OK but I would want to use 1x1 wire on the trap.

[kirkdekalb]

I have found:

If the trap has bar doors that helps to make the otter or animal to stay off the wire.

The animal will work the largest openings first.

I believe one of the reasons guillotine doors work so well is that they move, rattle, and are strong. The movement and slots make him want to work the door more so than other parts of the cage. If you have to release one in most cases a sliding door saves the chance of a bitten finger.

That was one of the reasons for coming up with a trap that has a swing down door on one end and a guillotine door on the other. They tend to work the guillotine door more than the swing down door. You can also still stick one end up in hole and still have the benefits of a swing down door.

Whatever an otter eats is run through him in about 4 hours. So he is going to get pretty yancey, pretty quick.

[kirkdekalb]

I think if you set intentional land sets and were checking every 24 hours it would be OK but I would want to use 1x1 wire on the trap.