Until Sunday morning wifey thought the family of wood chucks was cute! momma and 2 siblings. I figured a brother and sister.
I came down and brother was chowing down on the ornamental sweet potato vines in the deck planters, after eating his way up the Petunia's in the stair planters! No female wood chuck would loose such a nice home! Running water pond fountain, sunflower seed from the bird feeder, bagels and a nice secure den under the lean to behind the garage!
Well she said they had to go now. I went to Harbor Freight and picked up the large animal cage the one on sale It needed a couple of adjustments, but nothing that seemed to need spending another $50.00 on another import trap.
The hand protection plate is held on by bent over tabs, which the female unbent trying to get out this morning.
I put some steel framing screws in from the inside out, then hit each point with the angle grinder, so nothing would catch on them.
I couldn't find my block of beeswax so i used this locktite stuff to hold the screws on the bit till they started works great.
Latch trigger that holds the door open my need to be fine tuned a little. Black sharpie mark is the latch finger.
The biggest complaint about these type import cages is the release doors are loose and the animal can get it open or bend it. You can see the black sharpie on the section that i bent so the stake could pass through
I used the ground stake to hold the top of the door against the two sides. Worked like a charm.
Here is the stake in place.
I use a zip tie to hold the bait in the center of the cage floor as the varmints will tip the cage to get the bait out.
My neighbor is the only licensed trapper in the county. He does muskrat and sells the pellets, his best bait for wood chuck is carrots, bagels and peanut butter for racoons. I can testify that it works for wood chucks I have caught two and mom is still outstanding.
brother the dimwit,
Sis the smart one she tried to bend the handle plate tabs to get out. She did make the handle loose on one side. and would work on the latch finger and spring. While brother would just throw his weight around!
Two wood chucks in less than 30 hours total time of the traps in use. Hope to get mom soon too, Seen a raccoon on Sunday morning that you could saddle and child could ride it. At first I thought that somebody dropped another dog off in the yard. People are such idiots.
If you have an occasional varmint problem I can say the the HF ones are good for the money. I dropped both of the kids off near the river and canal park wooded lot. Wife asked if they could find their way back. I told her I looked both over and I couldn't see a GPS receiver
