Can you guys list some ways of freeze proofing fox and coyote traps?
I need help........ please

The waxed dirt/sand doesn't seem to agree with me, so I am looking for alternatives for this year. Thanks.

I buy a bale of peat moss and use that to line the bottom of my trap bed. Then, when the trap is securely set in the bed and a pan cover put in place, I sift more peat moss over the top until the trap is completely covered. After that, I sift a little bit of dry dirt on top of the peat moss to blend the color in with the ground and keep the peat moss from blowing away. Finally, I keep a mix of propylene glycol anti-freeze (available at trap supply dealers) and water in a spray bottle and give the set a dampening down. Sometimes I spike the glycol/water mix with just small squirt of coyote urine.

There's a gizzillion different ways to do it. But this one has worked best for me so far. I have also used regular old table salt in place of the propylene glycol and it works good, too. But maybe your temperatures are colder than mine, I don't know.

If you want to save some money, you could collect some dry grass clippings now and try that in place of the peat moss.

Ant Hill dirt

I would go with the peat moss.

Your country must be a lot like mine. When it freezes, it's harder than Chinese algebra to keep a trap operational. I've tried just about everything and it seems a mixture of wax dirt and peat moss is winning out for me. I bed with wax dirt, then peat moss followed by a light dusting of wax dirt. You may end up having to used four coils on your traps to help with the trap closing through the frozen ground. I have used salt or calcium chloride but that can be hard on your traps. I would try some peat moss but make sure it's powder dry first by drying it out in the sun.

nothing really work's up north, here to much freeze an thaw an to much snow . I'm going to try plastic

bags

Plastic nanner bags help. So does crumpled up wax paper layed flat.

I have been using peat moss and flake anti freeze. After I dig the trap bed I pound it with a hammer. Then I put some flake anti freeze down followed by a layer of peat. I bed the trap and cover it with peat and pack that around it the best I can. A little more flake anti freeze on top and cover with a thin layer of dry dirt then blend it the best I can.

waxed dirt is best I've found here to work, been trapping brutal freeze thaw conditions in southeastern Nebraska for 40+ years and I've literally tried everything. Waxed dirt isn't perfect but its closest thing I've tried yet.
I used to be a buckwheat hull guy, but those got expensive and one frost night later you can literally LIFT a solid cookie-like crusted layer off the top of the trap the next check. Salt, calcium chloride, etc. doesn't work at or below zero for me here. In January the ground is frozen rock solid with a frost line that goes down a couple feet. A jackhammer or pick are would make good trap beds and I do use a pick axe seriously for hacking something new out.
I started making waxed dirt in bed of my truck under the tonneau cover and that works on very hottest days of summer. I finally got a $5 old crockpot at a garage sale and it was a game changer. Makes just a gallon at a time but perfectly melts wax at right temp into hot sifted dirt. Its a cheap alternative to cover hulls.
I used to use peat moss too, you have to buy a bale from menards or at
Lowes in very early summer then start drying it out completely until fluffy dry. be patient it takes time and a good dry space to dry out peat moss. Sift out the sticks. It works for a couple days here then it too will take on air and ground moisture and start to freeze up at night too.
A trap in a plastic grocery bag is certainly waterproof but pretty noisy underfoot at coyote sets.
I'm sticking with waxed dirt...only thing I have any confidence in. Controlling moisture is the key, can't freeze if no moisture present. Most dry materials ive used like dry dirt, peat moss, cover hulls, coal shale, etc are like sponges and do take on moisture over time, some just slower than others. You have to prevent that or find yourself doing set maintenance i.e. rebedding traps very frequently. I even tried making sets only in shaded areas. Think shady side of a big round hay bale, or shaded side of weedy ditch, or treeline.. Keep the set always in shade and cold and dry where ground is always frozen vs. Letting sun or warmer areas thaw out during day then refreeze at night. That is a trick that does work a little better but even that will only last maybe an extra day or so more than other more "open" area sets subject to sunlight.
I still stand by waxed dirt and put in a little more wax than you think you need. Make it waterproof.
Buy the wax at hobby lobby and use the free online 40% off coupon. Makes a 10 pound block of unscented pure paraffin about $20 on sale and it will make a lot of gallons of dry sifted waxed dirt. you can buy flake wax in 10 pound bags from trapping supply house but you will also pay shipping on 10 lbs of material and that adds up. Use a block plane and hobby lobby 10 pound block and a plastic tote start shaving your own flakes.
I get dry pulverized dirt from local landscaping business...$10 for a whole loader bucket ull, or about a pickup load for me. Sift out the clods and its a huge supply of dry pulverized dirt. Store it in black plastic cheap garbage cans with lids in a dry place like a garage until ready to wax it.
When waxed store it in sealed smaller containers like clean dry milk jugs or five gallon buckets, like this...you can see them in back of my truck in this pic...



Feel free to PM me.
Jim

I've preached this for years, don't cut glycol or glycerine with water, just use it straight. If you get rain or melting, it dilutes it further, rendering the set useless, more times than not. Just squirt it on the dirt at the set, it will integrate into the surrounding dirt, and the amount you need, you figure out pretty fast!

Yes that works pretty good . But after awhile you end up with a wet spot that just looks unnatural.
Calcium chloride works to some extent but It's tough on traps.

Coal shale and 50-50 coyote pee and glycerin. That’s what I used 30 years ago when getting after the coyotes. Courtesy of O’Gorman.

I did this some last year. I use peat moss and then glycerine is kind of squirted on top, only it doesn't really squirt, so I have it in a flip top, not a spray bottle. The main problem with peat is that little bit on top crusting over. Of course, if you get a hard rain and the whole trap bed fills up with water it will freeze, but generally it only freezes on top. Thing is, everything works as long as it stays cold and dry, its the freeze thaw and the rain then freeze that messes stuff up.
I used the grass clippings one year when we had terrible rain because I literally could not make a dirt hole without it filling with water and I was surprised how good it works. So I use grass clippings quit a bit now, if the location is in sod. These only freeze if the bed is full of water. I tried waxed dirt, but it was woods dirt and it absorbed a tremendous amount of wax and still froze, so I don't know.

One other thing, I have caught animals in the woods with only leaves over the trap. Buckwheat hulls also work pretty good in the woods, they really kind of blend in better and if you are in a spruce area, try spruce needles as a covering.

I have switched to salt. Yes salt. I pay $8 for a 80# bag.
And if you are good to your traps and clean them when you pull them there is no bad affects on your traps
After the first catch and the wax is off the trap is when the salt starts to etch the trap.
And a quart of salt last for 2 dozen sets or so.
Glycerin works good to. But when it gets down in the single digets, it gets hard to squeeze it out of the bottle