Read an article by Scott Phillips in the fur taker magazine on trapping mangy coyotes. I ran into the same problem this year, lot more than usual. My trapping partner this year had done a lot of trapping over the years and said he never seen it so bad.
I have only been trapping seriously for about 5 years so really never give it much thought. Scott said in the article that if you catch a mangy one in your set you will never catch a good coyote in that set if you remake it because it will stink of mange and good coyotes will avoid it like the plague. Makes sense because looking back on my line after catching a bad one I don't remember of catching a good one after.

Sounds like you should change the trap and move the set aways away.

Anyone have experience with this?
Would like to hear thoughts on this.

Never say never.



Three days later



He's got a lot more hair than the first one.


Hard to see in the picture, but he had a belly full of mange.



Four days later.

Your right Wade, never say never and never say always. Especially when it comes to trapping.

You just shot a big hole in that theory but that is exactly the input I was hoping for. Great job and thank you sir for posting that!

I've heard and read this theory as well. I used to pull the trap completely because I had another trap set nearby. While checking the good set I would always see fresh tracks in the old catch circle that caught a mangy coyote. I started just resetting mangy catch circles and have caught quite a few good coyotes from the same trap.

I like a lot of people confuse mange with lice rubs. Mange creates scabs and missing fur starting at the tail/butt and moving forward as it progresses. A lice rub is where a coyote scratches the hair away between the shoulders leaving a bald patch in an other wise decent coyote.

Just the opposite for me...I normally catch about 10% (3-5/year) with mange. This year I did not have single coyote with mange.

If the coyotes absolutely avoid the smell, as well as they can smell, one wouldn't think mange could spread as much as it does thru the population.

Osky

I think I can tell the difference between mange, and lice rubs. The first coyote I showed barely had hair. This one didn't have much either. Still killed coyotes out of both sets after they were caught. When their tails look like a possum, no truck ride for them.

Lice or mange?

It does make a person wonder.
I assumed that mange was passed along in dens from mama to the pups but a lot of these coyotes are not pups.

Edit, now I wonder if its possible that it also could get passed on during the breeding season as in the mating urge overpowers everything else at that time of the year.?

How are you guys disposing those mangy things

Drag em into the brush far enough so the landowner does not have to look at them when he drives by feeding cattle. They get recycled back to ma nature, same as the skinned ones minus the hide.

I've seen mangy coyotes paired up with coyotes that didn't have mange. Or at least couldn't see mange from 40 yds away.

If in the early stages of mange, I would imagine the tell tale smell would not be enough to prevent them from interacting with one another. If so then this could be why it can spread as fast as it does.

Also i think we give coyotes to much credit sometimes. They don't know what mange is or that it will most likely kill them.