Hey all, I’ve been working 6 days a week 14-18 hours a day for quite a while and so I haven’t had time to get traps boiled and waxed this year. I’m fixin to get a line out, albeit a small one but I’m worried about using the traps I’ve got. I’ve got a bunch that saw use and haven’t been cleaned, but about two dozen were boiled, waxed, and stored in my garage for two years, never had the chance to set them. In your opinion, could I set those traps and expect reasonable success, or with all the normal smells that a garage sees (car exhaust, smoke, propane burning, oil changes, etc. ) would I be wasting my time?

take an hour of your time and roll of quarters to the car wash. just use the rinse. no soap. do them one at a time stead of trying to do them in a pile. the waxed and clean traps ought to be fine.

hang them outside a few days....rub some dirt on them ...and go set them.

actually the waxed traps may be holding more scent than the "used" ones.

Thanks for the replies. It looks like the pond is about to freeze up this week and I promised my kids wewpyldtrap some muskrat so I’m loading the truck up for that now. Supposed to rain all night, and be clear all next week, so I reckon I’ll put the coyote traps on hold till later this week. No sense setting traps if they’ll get rained out first night, just have to remake them

wash em off with a water hose and hang em outside for a day or two and go set em. I do it quite often when i dont have time to do the whole boil and wax business.

YES as stated by the "Possum"; most trappers over think things re canine trapping and spend too much time constructing sets leaving a concentration of scent and disturbance. Most of the scent left will be from your body. Coyotes are very familiar with human scent, wire, cable, and chain debris in farm areas and logging activity. Just get in, set and get out as quickly as possible and you will have little problem.

Set the waxed ones. They will probably do OK. If not, replace them after you clean and wax last season's traps.

Danny makes it simple as can be and is what I do when on the road and a car wash is within a reasonable driving distance.

When I run out of well prepped waxed traps when out of state trapping, which is the case at times , pressure washing is acceptable and gets you by.

I always keep a feed sack of pulverized cow dung with me on the road for such cases. I rub some on each trap prior to setting and dust the trap bed with a little as well.

I work in high cattle and feed lot areas so it works for me.

filed under "Things only a Trapper Would Say", LOL!

(great advice, Bob!)