What are your opinions on flake anti-freeze???

Hard on traps, leaves a damp area over trap but it works great in freeze.thaw condition. Buy a 50 lb bag from your local concrete plant for about the price of.5 lb through any trapping supply house.

I use flakes somewhat differ than others.
I use it to thaw ground, for trap beds.
Ground froze hard as rock- I put a layer of flakes where I want my trap beds. Couple hours or next day, return to beds and clean out muddy mess and get rid of the mess.
Now you have a trap bed for peat moss, wax dirt, haylage, weeds or whatever covering fits your needs.

And coyotes and wolves tend to avoid the wet spot, nothing else seems bothered by it. Also your local tire shop will likely carry it for about the same price as a concrete plant.

Personally I won't use it anymore. If you're going to use it, make sure your traps are well treated, waxed, etc. and I've still seen them rust up so bad that critters walked over them just like the ground was froze, not going off because of the rust. Of course these were wolf traps left in antifreezed ground for two months.

Also not a fan here.
Jim

It works great till it rains, then ya start over. don't have time for that. Waxed dirt, no wet spot is as close to 100 percent as you'll get! Especially in freeze thaw and wet conditions.

Bad

I use salt it's cheaper
I don't cover traps with dirt so no damp spot.
And it's cheap like me.
Any trap that made a catch gets cleaned when it gets back to the shed
Traps that didn't make a catch have no sign of being bedded in salt
I have tried flakes, but like salt better. Did I say it was cheap

I’ve used it for years and this year I’m going to try waxed dirt. It’s tough on traps and loses its effectiveness after a rain. It does work well in some situations, but I’m hoping waxed dirt will work better. I’ve missed too many coyotes because the calcium chloride lost it’s effectiveness and I thought it was still working.

Waxed sand/dirt is light years better.

X100

A lot of good answers and advice !

When I was much younger, during the fur boom, (say 1974-ish through the mid to late 80's) , some guys used a flake anti- freeze from the Dow Chemical Co.
It did work, but it also missed animals and like some have said, left a 'wet spot', which, could be erased, I found, by simply giving a light dusting with hay dust to cover it over.
A literal sprinkling of red fox urine over the entire pattern, was a crude attempt to hide the anti-freeze odor.
Again, it did work to a degree, but had it's limitations.
Salt was another alternative, and both rusted traps fairly easy.
Even a waxed trap could only take so much . After time, even a waxed trap, that hadn't made a catch would show signs of rust.
Along came 'FREEZE PROOF DIRT', which many thought was waxed dirt, but wasn't. . .
It worked, but was very expensive.
Few actually waxed dirt, the way many do now.
A trap doesn't have to be dirt covered to work. Isn't that right, Mr. Zagger ?

We have come along way since that time.