My new Ladder trap

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Made a wooden one before with chicken wire, before I knew where to get weldmesh. Even though I made it in 7 sections cable tied together it's still a pain in the back end to move, so it's not used to be honest. Another flaw was the chicken wire, sheep, rams especially, see it as a challenge. In fact the most use it's got this year and last has been as a "fort" for the lambs to play in The sisters cats also burrowed into it once, so thoughts of it keeping a fox or badger at bay were a bit ludicrous.

 

Got a few sheets of 2"x2" weldmesh left over from the last load I got for making lightweight, strong Larsen traps. I had been using it to corral lambs into a pen but I can use trawl tied to sheep wire for that instead.

 

The only tools I used were my Dremel with SpeedClic metal cutting discs, generator (no leccy on site), hand saw and knife. The discs cut the mesh very cleanly, close into the wire leaving few if any edges. Used some dowel I also had to hand and some bull wire for closing the door.

 

 

 

You can see the top and side closing wires on the door in the photo below, there's another one on the bottom as well. They're shoved through cable tie loops attached to the door and let through the body of the cage. The door is hinged by a billion cable ties, works well, cheaply got on Ebay.

 

 

Down to the business end. Went close to Terriers ladder measurements, except with the mesh I had to go narrower or wider, or it'd be off centre and annoy me So I went with 16 inches width and roughly 6 inch gaps between the rungs.

 

 

Forgot to get bread for bait, so stuck in a bag of ewe and lamb ration. A few branches for perches and a 5 litre water jug with a very small hole in it for water. Will rig up something for shelter later on. Turn the cage on it's side and it can be rolled end on end around the farm easily.

[jackg 7]

That is excellent John, so easy as well.

What are the cage dimensions, it looks like 3 foot by 3 foot by 6 foot.

Did you make it according to the size of the sheet of weld mesh you had to minimise cutting.

Cable ties and weld mesh, nice and easy.

I know your in Ireland but where do you get the weld mesh and how much is it?

It has to be big enough to get into to grab the birds though.

Edited June 12, 2011 by jackg

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Thanks Jack. I got it from a steel company in Oranmore in Galway, Coen Steel. Much cheaper than other places such as farm supply places. I think I paid something like €20 - €22 per sheet.

 

The sheets are 8' by 4' so the cage is 8' long, 4' wide and 4' high. It didn't take long at all to make, flew through it to be honest, kept it simple by sheet dimension as you correctly guessed. Just have to see it catching now

 

Plenty big to get inside of it, I'll remove the birds after dark, they're nice and quiet then just shuffle about compared to being mental in daylight.

[logun 91]

Thanks Jack. I got it from a steel company in Oranmore in Galway, Coen Steel. Much cheaper than other places such as farm supply places. I think I paid something like €20 - €22 per sheet.

 

The sheets are 8' by 4' so the cage is 8' long, 4' wide and 4' high. It didn't take long at all to make, flew through it to be honest, kept it simple by sheet dimension as you correctly guessed. Just have to see it catching now

 

Plenty big to get inside of it, I'll remove the birds after dark, they're nice and quiet then just shuffle about compared to being mental in daylight.

hi john,,nice trap there.i do the same type with weld mesh etc... i to myselfe found chicken type mesh no good for the job if you live in sheep country as i do also. again i cable tie them as you,easy to make and easy to cart around the place.well done and good pics.....

[JohnGalway 1,043]

hi john,,nice trap there.i do the same type with weld mesh etc... i to myselfe found chicken type mesh no good for the job if you live in sheep country as i do also. again i cable tie them as you,easy to make and easy to cart around the place.well done and good pics.....

 

Thanks Logun. Yeah, that chicken wire, pure useless! Not caught anything yet, despite a few young greycrows hanging about, tempted to take the roof off and let them feed for a while.

[pete152 0]

Hello,

 

I am in Australia and have never seen a trap like this. Could you explain how they work?

 

Thanks,

Peter

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Hi Peter,

 

Funny, another name for the Ladder trap is an Australian crow trap, also letterbox trap I believe.

 

Usually, these cages have high edges, with the ladder being in a valley in the middle, as you'll see on other threads in this section.

 

The idea is that the cage is baited, usually left with the roof off for a few days until the crows figure out there's free grub inside.

 

When they're used to feeding in there, you can put the roof on.

 

They come along and the only way they can get in now is by folding their wings and hopping down through the rungs of the ladder into the cage.

 

The trouble for them now is they can't get out, as the gaps in the ladder aren't large enough for them to fly back out, only hop down through.

 

The theory of having high sides either side of the ladder, which aren't on this trap of mine, is that when or if the trapped birds panic, they will fly to the highest point of the cage, which will be a dead end.

 

Caught a few in an older ladder trap before so they do work pretty well.

[pete152 0]

Thanks very much for that, I thought that was how it would work but was not sure. Australian crow trap, well I should of heard of it before!

 

So you can use them for any type of bird, pigeon, pee wee(mud lark I think is their proper name)?

 

Thanks,

Peter

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Not entirely sure of all species it'd cater for Peter, I expect the gaps between the rungs would need to be narrowed for smaller species. Some species also require chicken wire skirts handing down from inside the ladder to stop them flying back out. Built mine for greycrows (hooded crows), but have caught magpies before the odd time.

[Teesdale-rabbiter 15]

any luck yet?

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Not yet, took off the roof yesterday, knocked off a few bunnies for bait earlier on today. Going to leave it open for a few days then fresh bait and roof back on.

[Teesdale-rabbiter 15]

keep us posted! I'm considering building one,

[pete152 0]

Soth roof panel is the one with the timber and you leave that of to get them use to going in?

 

Thanks,

Peter

[JohnGalway 1,043]

That's the idea Peter. On my last trap I didn't bother taking the roof off and they went in. But, there are less crows around this time and also seeing as it's Summer they've more food readily available.

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Made an error in the gap size. Caught a greycrow in the Larsen and put him into the Ladder trap only for him to fly right out of the cage, bloody catch & release programme So I did some remedial work by running a piece of string down the middle of the rungs giving two rows of 8"x6". Will hopefully save this face happening again...