Any body have any info on this? Used the budded stems for bait and had success. I have had luck with poplar and birch oils but haven't heard about sweet gum. Looked up liquid amber and found one place that sells incense and they have an oil. Not sure if its the right stuff. Maybe a different tree then what is growing here. Anyone use it as lure or know how to get a hold of some?

Beavers seem to love sweet gum. I’ve looked into the oil, and what I remember seeing was very, very expensive.


It made me wonder about learning how to distill essential oils just for getting some from sweet gum to try. Wondering is as far as that idea got, because it seemed like blind setting, using castor, and using sweet gum as bait would be a better way for me to spend my time and money, rather than buying all of the equipment to distill essential oils.


If you end up pursuing this, please let us know how it works out for ya

Will do. Those winter time buds seem to have the most aroma. I may hold off until I can get them and try something. Thinking out loud here but.. Would a tincture work? soak in veg oil, maybe grind and glycerin... Will let you guys know. Still looking for more info

I'm trying a similar tinture with fresh catnip but am using everclear and then will add DP to hold the odor. Vegetable oil seems to deteriorate with time and im not a big fan of glycerin. The catnip oil i bought doesn't work.

You should post in the Lure Formulators forum - some very knowledgeable people over there.

Does anybody think that the catnip sold @ a grocery store in the cat toy section would work? It seems a little cheap compared to the oil but I kinda think a couple bucks is worth a try...


Yes Sir..... stupid question.. what is DP?

Diethyl phthalate
Trapper Art's is you are looking to buy

jnsff69 Trapper Art has great price on DP. Ordered some a few weeks ago. Delivery was also prompt

Yes sir; I did a little experiment with catnip and tested it on a friend’s two cats. Not a large test for sure but the response by both was very compelling. Biting, swatting, licking , rubbing and rolling. Total gonzo by both cats.
This was on organic packaged dry catnip from the pet section of a big box store.
I wanted a liquid form that I could put exactly where I wanted to get the feet where they needed to be.
What I did was steep the dry catnip in purified water on a cooler part of the top of my wood stove at just below simmer temperatures. The water steamed a little but never bubbled. Water was added to replace loss from evaporation for twenty four hours. I then ran it through a coffee filter. The result was a very strong tea.
To test it I put some of the original dry catnip in a paper towel and bound it with thread. This was to be my “control “. Then I sprayed some of the “tea” on another piece of paper towel and let it dry before balling it up like the first. And finally I made a ball of untreated paper towel as an additional control to make sure a response was to the nip and not just normal cat play.
The results: I offered the untreated ball to both cats. The older cat sniffed it then walked away, the young cat sniffed it then batted it a couple of times and lost interest.
I then offered the ball of dry nip to the older cat and the response was markedly different. First it sniffed then immediately trapped it with both front paws it then rubbed both cheeks on it then it rolled onto its back with the ball in its paws and started licking and biting it then it dropped it and walked away a couple of feet and laid down faceing it with its tail twitching after about thirty seconds it pounced on it and repeated the same behavior.
I then put the cat in another room and repeated the test with the young cat and the p towel that I sprayed with the tea and dried. The response was very similar to the first cats response to the powdered nip and just as vigorous.
I picked the paper up and put everything up in a cabinet. After a couple hours I repeated the test but reversed the previous order, dried powder for the young cat and the tea stained paper for the older cat. The response of both was a definite attraction but not as aggressive as the first time.
I’m confident that the brewing process I used to make the “tea” didn’t destroy the active ingredient and neither did drying it out. It made a liquid I could put in a spray bottle to apply at the set and would stay where I put it.
Further testing will tell whether the attraction lasts very long or dissipates very quickly. Possibly a little glycerin will help it weather better.
Hope this helps someone.