How long of a soak do new traps need in water/detergent to get the packing grease off? I know people boil them but this isn’t an option for me.

send the wife to town and run them through the dishwasher while she's gone.

Get a plastic tub, dump traps in, find some Dawn in the cabinet and add to the tub, add water to cover traps, let them sit a couple hours, pull out and rinse off.

Got a dozen for Christmas last year (in the middle of trapping season) and did this and set them the next day. No rust, dye, or wax, and caught a bobcat the first night.

Just FYI, I’m am no where near the caliber 99% are on this site so take my advice with a grain of salt. It just worked for me.

What wanna be said will work, though I would scrub em with a stiff brush to get the grease out of the corners. If you’re land trapping with them there’s absolutely no need for dye, rust, paint, etc. you can catch critters fine with them completely untreated except a good washing. BUT wax (or some type of protective coating) is important if you want your traps to last. They’ll become piles of scrap metal if you don’t treat them. Doesn’t have to be right away, go ahead and use em this season, but definitely get them treated before next season.

I took the last batch of new traps I got to the car wash.
Sprayed them down with engine degreaser, let them sit for 5 minutes while I sprayed the truck off, then did a very thorough high pressure rinse. Seems to have done a good job.

I degrease my traps as part of my whole trap prep process. Kind of like a pre season ceremony if you will lol. I put purple power degreaser in a turkey fryer pot with water and i soak my traps in there for 5-7 minutes with the water not boiling by no means but hot. I give them a couple of dunks to get them rolling then let them hang dry. It is a fast process and once dry i spray them with vinegar and let them hang overnight to get a little rust on them. (New traps only). Then dye the next day dry a night then wax. Works really well for me.

if ya cant/wont use a dishwasher, then
spray with any degreaser like the purple or green stuff or greased lightning from walmart, while in a tote or bucket, WITH A NAIL TWEEN THE JAWS, then, in the evening flip them and spray again, then another spray in the morning, THEN take to car wash.
one entire cycle of soap
another cycle of clean water
then set them.
if ya can make time to wax them, that'd be wise if at all possible, dye is not needed........ever.

or have your wife load them in the dishwasher, like mine does!

Whose mentoring you local?
Here’s what helped me shorten my learning curve by decades. Join your state trapping assn, Google it. Then contact officers off their site and ask for a mentor to ride along with. This gets you in the info loop of FREE trappers ed classes and meets and fur sales/pick ups, and conventions. Then attend ALL YOU CAN, this shows folks you are serious and will be a good student. It sure helped open many doors for me and it could for you as well. ALSO, get several different trapping supply catalogs, like MTP, Sterling Fur, FandT, PCS, Schmitt enterprises, Southeastern outdoor supplies, rpoutdoors, etc etc, THEN circle gear you need, and give the catalogs to loved ones to buy your Birthday and Christmas and July 4 and Anniversary gifts. Explain to them, you want their money to go towards what you will use and need, as opposed to another sweater hanging in your closet. WORKS GREAT in our family.

have ya checked our Archives?........ https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/13/1/trap-preparation-archives

I might end up buying more traps and subsequently not having time to degrease them before bobcat trapping this month. While I don't recommend this method of trap preparation by any means, I'm curious: Will cats care if the trap still has odors and factory oil on it?

I'm a dishwasher guy too!

In my experience bobcat don't care about much. The oil won't scare a cat off. That is my opinion.Dishwashy is an option also but then traps will rust almost instantly in weather. What is the lesser of 2 evils?

Get a couple cheap cans of engine degreaser from Walmart. Take the traps to the car wash. Spray them down and rinse them off. Easy peasy.

Yep, like that.

At wally world pick up a small dawn soap bottle.... .98 cents. A bucket or tub of hot water with the traps and the dawn added. Then a trip to the local car wash. Done deal, set them this year and then power wash them next year to dip or dye.

Just ask your wife to throw them in the dish washer

I wash in a utility sink in my basement or a 5-gallon bucket. Warm water, a squirt of Dawn, slosh around a couple minutes apiece. Might hit them with a dish rag. Pull them out and rinse with clean water. With real greasy ones, I might do this a second time. Let dry over night. Spray paint the next day. Dry over night. Dip in full metal jacket according to directions. Then they’re ready to use.

Note: I do all of this in July. The heat in my garage makes everything dry fast. Come season, they’ve had time to air out and any odor is long gone.

I prefer boiling.