Knowing how to trap porcupines saves you a lot of stress and prevents them from returning.
Do you have porcupine issues around your property? Are you seeking the most effective ways to trap these destructive creatures? You only need to read along to find out how.
Damage Caused By Porcupines
Porcupines are known for their destructive action on wood and leather.
Wood bark and stems top the favorite diet of porcupines. Apart from the damage caused to growing trees, porcupines will readily chew on a wide range of wood such as boat paddles, ax handles, and even wooden buildings.
This destructive activity is aided by their sizeable front teeth. This enables porcupines to feed easily on whatever food source they find. To put a halt to this destructive activity, you’ll need to take appropriate action.
There are lots of ways to handle the problem. However, trapping seems to be among the best strategies.
Benefits
Despite the damage caused by porcupines, they aren’t as destructive as other wild animals. These rodents play an important role in pruning forest trees. They climb up tree branches and nibble on them. This activity not only benefits the tree but provides food (fallen fruits) to other animals who feed on them.
So, why should porcupines be seen as the enemy? Well, it all depends on how problematic a porcupine is. As long as they don’t cause significant damage to property such as chewing on wooden structures or damage to trees, then they can be tolerated.
To get them out of your property, you’ll need to live to trap them with the purpose of relocation. Live trapping porcupines should be done in a humane way to avoid killing them.
Live Trapping A Porcupine
Live trapping a porcupine can be done with either an appropriate-sized wooden box or wire cage traps. These should have dimensions of about 10-inch x 12-inch x 32 inches.
Having obtained your preferred trap, you’ll need to know just the right place to place them.
To know where to place your traps, locate the nearest trees close to the damaged area, and place your trap at the base of such a tree. Not all traps will be effective against porcupines. As such, you’ll need to use bait. This involves something they love.
Salt is one item porcupines will never ignore. They consume this to make up for mineral deficiencies. There are different ways of making bait. You may want to mix salt with some cooking oil or soak leather or wood in saltwater.
These baits should be placed inside the trap to lure porcupines.
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Wooden Box or Wire Cages?
Most times, people want to apply the most effective traps for their porcupine problems. Now, we’ve mentioned that there are two main types of traps; wooden box and wire cage traps. Of these two, the wire cages are the most popular.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the best, but they’re more preferred and widely used than the other. We recommend you go with something that works.
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Timing is Important
For trapping to be effective, you’ll need to know when to place your traps and how often to check such traps. These two are very critical to porcupine control via trapping. Knowing when to trap porcupines depends on the weather conditions.
There are days when weather conditions aren’t so favorable. This could be days with significant heat or stormy weather. None of these times is ideal for trapping porcupines.
Consider setting your traps on days with mild weather conditions.
After placing your traps, you’ll need to check frequently to see if it has caught anything. Such frequency should be at least twice a day. You don’t want porcupines to be trapped for extended periods of time without checking.
Not checking frequently creates trouble for porcupines. These creatures get stressed out quickly. On hot days, this can lead to dehydration and weakness. With frequent checks, you’re able to relocate porcupines to more favorable habitats to keep them from causing property damage.
Shaded areas will serve just fine to place your traps in summer. This way, porcupines avoid dehydration due to overheating among other possibilities.
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Have a Plan Before Setting your Trap
While trapping is a great way of controlling porcupines, it’s not as effective in the absence of a plan.
A plan should involve having specific actions to take after trapping a porcupine. You don’t want to trap a porcupine before working out where it needs to be released.
Porcupine relocation doesn’t apply to all locations. In other words, certain locations may have regulations allowing for wildlife relocation while others may not. There’s also the possibility of administrative bottlenecks with the issuance of permits among other things.
All of these possibilities should be clearly figured out before placing your traps. If you have no idea whatsoever on the steps to take, consider calling a wildlife service for guidance.
Calling the experts for advice gives you an edge as you get the right information on what it takes.
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Safety is Key
You should know that porcupines have sharp quills that can be fired when they sense danger. As such you’ll need to take adequate steps to prevent any injury. With porcupines around your home, your pets are at risk of getting too close.
Your best bet is to wear protective gear. Thick gloves will serve perfectly. These should be worn when handling porcupines. Apart from the likelihood of being injured by these creatures, sick porcupines could readily spread diseases when you come into physical contact with them or when any fluid from their body touches you.
If your pets have porcupine quills stuck on their body, simply visit a vet doctor for treatment. Of course, this won’t be necessary if you’re a vet doctor yourself.
The use of traps for porcupine control is both popular and effective. One advantage you get is the fact that these creatures are mostly loners. As such, a single or limited number of traps should suffice.
Before settling for a trap, consider going through customer reviews to see if such traps are effective in getting the job done.