Do you mix in salt with the Peat to avoid freeze ups with traps, or not necessary?

If freeze thaw with rain is in the picture you have to freeze proof or go to wax dirt. Peat can literally push the trap out of the ground as it forms interesting stalagmites when it freezes.

I use waxed sand both under and over the set from the start with peat in between with good results

I opened my peat bag I bought last year and it has a strong organic, well, peat smell. So here comes the dumb question.... will that odor cause coyotes to shy away or traps to get dug up? I'm trying to minimize my waxed sand from going under the trap pan. Should peat be odorless?

Last minute one year I decided to trap some coyotes. Sent wife out to buy peat and she comes back with the stuff that has Miracle Grow in it. Used it just to see if it would work and caught coyotes just fine. So I'd say no, it wont hurt.

Open up the bale so it dries. Wet PM absorbs while dry repels water.

If you wax your screen covers it will help from sifting through.

I've been mixing in glycerin lately. Really haven't put it to the test yet, but supposed to be in the teens this week, so we will see.

The odor from a handful of peat should be negligible. If concerned, lay some out on a towel or waxed paper on your deck, garage, or some other covered place and let it air out a few hours.

I trapped a nuisance fox a couple years ago in hard frozen ground. Used peat below, above and all around the trap. I also sprayed everything with a 50/50 mix of glycol and water. The air temps were around 0 but I got him.

Thanks for the help. Good luck to you all!

Peat (and salt) is cheap. When I make a set I fling some of both out around the set so the coyotes don't zero in on just the trap bed. Is it necessary?, I don't know but it works for me.

I've caught them here on about every kind of bedding you can think of. Peat moss, buckwheat hulls, dry salted dirt, waxed dirt, dried cow manure, chopped hay, and for many years I bought bags of various hull type mulch from menards like cocoa bean hulls, coffee bean hulls, and even finely chopped cedar and Cyprus mulch. Cocoa beans smell like chocolate...but didnt seem to phase coyotes. Neither did coffee beans, mulch, or peat. They all work just fine.
Our winters get super cold here and freeze/thaw is an issue 99% of the season so I have to buy it well ahead if time like in spring or so and completely dry the bale out in my garage all summer and fall. Peat takes me a long time to get it bone dry even in a hot garage all summer. That's stirring it daily too. Otherwise the stuff I was buying would freeze up like a rock if there was any moisture in it whatsoever.
Completely dried peat is almost powdery fine, light, hard to bed solidly in and works for a few frosty nights here but eventually it too crusts over and I have to maintain sets with fresh dry stuff or else am dancing on sets myself to try to fire them.
I've gone to using well waxed and sifted dirt for bedding and then using peat or finely chopped straw for blending. So far it's been my best freeze proof and longest lasting combination I can put at a set and still have any confidence it will fire after a few days of freeze/thaw night and day after day in late december work.
Jim

I use peat straight up a lot here, regardless of what set I'm making, flat, dirthole, rock, I spread a little around the whole set so that it's not concentrated in one little spot.

Do you have any problems getting the trap to bed solid doing this? I am only targeting bobcat, as I drew a tag for one this year in Wisconsin. Are cats less finicky about solid beds, than say coyotes? I've heard coyotes won't tollerate it, but I'm only targeting bobcats, and have been wondering if it's just as important to get a great solid set for cats.

A solid trap bed is a solid trap bed but the good thing about Bobcats a covered trap is not need . Most time I just break up the outline of the trap.

At a demo I attended, the guy pre mixed in a little dry dirt with his peat. He said it really helps. I'm thinking maybe a gallon of dirt in a 5 gallon pail of peat

I think people over complicate a lot of things. Peat being one of them. Then when it doesn't work they just say it doesn't work. Dry it out bone dry early till it's dusty. It will repel enough water to keep traps firing through a lot of weather. Nothing is bullet proof not even wax dirt. If it's crazy cold with a lot of moisture in the ground I'll use some table salt (no it won't catch all the deer or rabbits in the area). The issue I see is guys waiting to buy peat now when it's not properly dried or using peat with Miracle grow mixed in which I've already seen one person on this thread post. If it's not completely dry it's going to absorb water and defeat the purpose.

If you need moss in a pinch in the winter you could buy sphagnum moss. It comes bone-dry from Mosser Lee.

Where is a good place to buy cheap Pete moss?

70 lb bag at Lowe's.

Thanks