painting cage traps?

[Oh Mah]

Would like to hear thoughts from trapping members on painting their traps.

[Born2late]

Mine are painted black.
My beaver traps i shut the door and reach through from the other side and spray the backside of the door white that way when i walk up to check it i can see the door is still open or not.

[DishBogget]

I paint mine flat black yearly after the season ends


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[Humptulips]

I wrote an article for The Fur Shed about this. Here's the condensed version.
First, pressure wash to clean the trap.
If there is any rust I treat the traps with OSPHO by SKYCO, available at Ace Hardware stores. This stuff turns iron oxide (rust) into iron phosphate which is an inert hard substance that turns metal black. it stops rust from further attacking your trap. You can paint right over it when dry. It doesn't hurt painted, galvanized or clean surfaces on your trap.
Get a tub your trap can stand up in and just pour the stuff over your trap. Excess goes in tub and you can scoop it up with a cup to treat places you missed. Save the left overs for next year. It takes abut a day to dry. This stuff is acid so use appropriate precautions when using.
You can coat the traps with speed dip the same way in a tub or rattle can it. if you have many traps to do spray paint has its drawbacks but for one or two maybe that is your route. Anymore than that I think dip poured over the trap is faster and gets better coverage.

[Oh Mah]

Great post Humptulips,Thanks for all of that. 

[Oh Mah]

@Humptulips: Cn you put this OSPHO in a spray gun?And paint it in a tub?

[Humptulips]

OSPHO is phosphoric acid. Even if you could put it in a spray gun without hurting the sprayer I think it would be a bad idea.
Just pouring the stuff over the traps creates fumes you should not breath. Done outside I think there isn't much danger but spraying it about in a mist sounds pretty unhealthy. Then there is the problem of overspray.
I painted a bunch of traps without gloves and it damaged the skin on my hands a little, no fingerprints for a while.

It is easy to pour it over the traps.  If you put the trap in a tub you can save all the excess. Use a cup to dip out of the tub to pour over the traps. Just put it back in the jug it came out of until next year. pretty cheap if you don't waste it.

[Oh Mah]

I WILL HEED YOUR WARNING AND TAKE YOUR ADVICE THANKS.