Just wanted to share my method of making wax sand. I’ll start by melting my wax in a pot inside a pot of boiling water. I’ll then fill a couple roasting pans with sand and slap them in the oven. Heat the sand to 130ish. Then I’ll pour the hot sand in a 5gallon bucket. Add 1/2 pound of wax to approximately 4 1/2 gal of sand. I mix it with my dirt hole auger. After mixed spread it out on a tarp and rake it thin because it will harden when the wax cools. Wait for it to cool completely and then sift it with a sifter back into a bucket and your good to go. Works for me.

Never tried wax Sand but I intend to in the near future

The issue I have is surface tension the water sits on top of the waxed sand making the set easier to find it looks unnatural to me, I’m sure it evaporates over time but the impact is at the worst time to be standing out. IMO

Try sifting dirt on a very windy day hold the sifter high enough to let the “baby powder“ dirt blow away and the courser dirt fall into your containers. That’s the best all around dirt you can make.

Waxed anything always has a problem looking natural. At least around here. Only way to really combat it is to fling the stuff all around the set to make it look like it came out of the hole. For me, top coating with local dirt doesnt work either as it tends to dry out and highlights the trap area by the next day inless it rains.

I like the idea of waxed sand. Sounds good. Used a 2 gallon pump sprayer before. To wet the ground around flat sets to make it match. Dirt Holes ? Why would it matter if it matched??? You could get a small 18 volt leaf blow and the air and slight heat from that would help dry up and Match the dirt up

Blending here is easy windswept and sunny most of the time so a simple drag of the sifter for top dirt and your blended. The issue I’m talking about is the evening dew collecting on top of your sets and not being able to soak into the soil because the wax won’t allow it.

Same thing happens with freeze-thaw conditions. Puddle forms in the day or saturates your top layer of natural dirt and then you get an ice pancake on top of your trap at night. Challenge is trying to keep your pan as a relatively low spot but not so much so to allow a puddle when things get wet. Got nearly a foot of snow last weekend, now 50 degrees and rain predicted this week, then followed by more cold. Challenging times for footholds. Wax dirt isn’t perfect but so far is the best I’ve found to stay in the game. Hoping for some consistent cold soon to leave a layer of fluffy snow on top.

use parafin wax flakes and just heat the sand to about 150 shut off heat i use a half pound of wax to 5 gallons of sand. once you shut the heat off start stirring in the sand i wear gauntlet style gloves and just start mixing the sand around you will watch the sand start to look wet. once it all has a uniform look then i dump it in a big plastic sled and my boy starts moving it around to help it cool once it is cool we use the sled like a funnel and dumpp it into a clean 5 gal bucket with a lid. takes less than a hour to make 5 gallons.

I like the cheaper darker construction sand better than the yellowish play sand. It’s not as nice to work with and I’ve found it to be less dry from the store, but it’s way easier to blend with bc of the brown color.

I use wolf fangs so it leaves a drain hole under the set and by using the course dirt they work together to drain water away from the top.

The last thing ya want with waxed dirt or sand is a low spot over the pan.. I bed the trap and make the area over the pan higher so the water runs off. I'll even make a drain off with my fingers. Or bed the trap on a slight angle. They step right on the high spot. Ya don't need but a dusting to top coat to help blending. Mulched leaves, dead grass, or whatever is at the set site to blend the set. With a 4 coiled trap it'll bust right thru until it gets cold and stays cold then just snow to blend. As long as the paw breaks the crust your golden. The coyotes I trapped yesterday were planted 11/25 thru 2 rain events with temps in the mid 20s that night. No problemo... There is a fine line between too much and just enough top coat.

Freeze-thaw-rain-ice is the problem with ANY bedding material. Once it get below freezing and stays there with any NEW moisture being snow, ANY thing works, including plain or bone-dry dirt with no wax on it.

Waxed dirt OR sand is NOT maintenance-proof during these freeze-thaw-rain-ice days...........if you've used it, you see that "pancake" of crust on top from rain or dew. Sure, a coyote should bust through that with his weight AND if using a good trap, the trap SHOULD come up through as well. But, I found myself on my hands and knees addressing that pancake during the crappy times and it was FAR from maintenance-free.

Therefore, I sat back on day and thought: Why the heck am I spending all this time and effort AND money to make something that is NOT bullet-proof. Plus, like others say above, I did feel the need to top coat it with local material. This isn't the arid west, this is the Amazon jungle with high moisture amounts that often freeze. Top-coating is a delicate balance and its easy to put TOO much on top. Now you have the waxed-dirt pancake AND frozen local material. Yes, coyotes SHOULD break through that combined-crust, but you might miss some fox. But you might be missing coyotes as well......

Therefore, I went 100% to dry peat moss or grass coverings. Other than adding salt, they require, IMO, less maintenance during those crappy times. If snow is coming I do NOT top-coat the peat.....but if its just rain, I lightly top-coat and salt.

One year, I made 800 gallons of waxed sand. Took 10 years off of my life! Once it was gone, I never went back. That effort MAY being swaying my opinion a bit!

I've caught plenty of coyotes on waxed dirt and/or waxed sand. I caught plenty-more on peat and/or grass coverings. Easier, cheaper, less maintenance, etc. pushed me to that long-term plan of attack.

MZ

We all have our favored techniques that fit our conditions. I agree that nothing is 100 percent bullet proof and soil types vary, that variance determines the top coat. Clay type less than loamy stuff. I've gone too just enough grass/duff that you can still see the different color of the sand. Like you do with screen. I will try peat next season, just have never been able to wrap my brain around it. I use mostly flat sets and blind trail sets is the reason. I'd rather cut my hands off than dig a hole LOL.. Now that prices have dropped it's probably a good time to open my brain a bit. When I used grass with screen I saw some avoidance that disappeared when I went back to waxed sand. Can't prove it was that tho, could have just been the mood they were in. I'l be trying that again too.

We had a nice blending rain last night, sets are lookin pretty, good luck today Mark. tight chains

I get it....I struggled with peat for years, but then sat back and witnessed FAR better trappers than me using ONLY peat. One year, I decided this was the year: I am going to 100% peat or grass.....no waxed products. I just muscled through it. In the end, that was the very first year I was able to break 100 coyotes in New York. I ended up with 125 that year........and I had to admit that the peat caused me no problems, quite the contrary.

For anyone that does NOT know, I am not trapping in a place with low rainfall or snowfall amounts....quite the contrary. I am off the southeast end of Lake Ontario and 1000 feet higher than the lake. A northwest winds dumps and dumps lake-effect rain AND snow here in amounts that make you wish snares were legal! LOL

I've battled this weather for over 30-years of chasing coyotes in crap, so my opinion is NOT based on guess-work, but rather, the school of hard-knocks. Thus, why I came up with my Pipe Dream.

Have I seen avoidance with that set? Of course! No set has them running in and committing suicide like we all like OR like the lure makers tell us they will! LOL

Coyotes are individuals.......heck, I've had coyotes roll on stuff the books say they SHOULD NOT roll on, like a coyote turd with nothing else added to it.

I don't jump to quick conclusions or think small samples define a pattern or problem. Arguably, my BEST long-term lure I use and count-on and use extensively had THREE rollers in one day this fall, and I don't know that I can remember anything like that happening before.

Did I STOP using it or think I have a problem? Nope.....just kept using it with confidence.

I am going for averages and numbers and anomalies happen all the time. I don't freak out about it......just keep on keepin' on.

If you watch one of the YouTube videos from the show HeadHunters TV we did with Randy Birdsong, he was getting scratched at and dug at nightly while I was killing them in grass and pipes and he switched over

The next year, the opposite could have happened........they are coyotes, not robots.

MZ

Zag, In this row crop farm landscape with little or no grass/hay it may be tough to keep grass on a trap (covering). In the "arid" West, drying then wet is a stickler and match that with the wind it makes the dirt/sand option a better day in day out option. Where rain predominates, to keep that grass matted, your vegetation covering is a better choice. And when using "our friend, the badger" to locate a set, soil (waxed) still works the best for me...... the mike

Oh, I get that! The set shines in places that get monsoons, NOT places that get wildfires!

I have used pipes in WY and KS, but those versions were NOT what I call the Pipe Dream Set......on the contrary.

Dried sage leaves certainly are great to blend any set in.....and if trapping sand hills, well, the sand does just fine.

In the end, we should all use what works for us in our areas......period.

My initial reply was more on this thread was about using peat rather than waxed-anything.......and again, its a personal preference only.

A million ways to skin a cat, and I'd guess whomever originally coined that phrase was ALSO a trapper!

MZ

Coyotes invented the word Paranoid.

I’ve seen wax dirt do some amazing things that plain dirt would not do, no it’s not perfect but preforms better under most conditions. It’s a little different out west the sun and wind are our friends here. Setting on a dirt dam helps keep my sets working most of the season.

The biggest problem I'm concerned with peat is bedding the trap rock solid without carrying nails and such. Do you use your same hammer technique as with the screen? I live and trap east of Lake Michigan, lake effect to the extreme. This sure ain't the high desert LOL..

I view peat as a insulating liner between trap and existing dirt.

I dig my beds very small and hammer them out to let my Jake bare sqlyueeze into it.

I dig them deep so I can nestle the trap down into bone dry peat. After the peat goes in bottom and side walls and in hammered-in counter-sunk spot for levers, I salt it before I put trap in place.......

Then I squeak the Jake into the bed and then hammer the top and pinch it into place. Only peat is touching trap now. Trap is ROCK solid since I am not trying to bed it in a bed as big as a football and fill all that back in with the same amount of peat. The peat is only insulating the trap from the existing dirt.

Now I salt the top of the ground around all four sides of the trap, like heavy rows parallel to the top square bed and square trap....when done, looks like I've framed the bed in salt.

Now I place my screen on trap and top coat with peat. Not a ton. Trap is already bedded solid due to hammer. Don't forget to hammer outside of levers to push that dirt up to support levers and to eliminate the fulcrum they create if you don't have under support....and again, there is peat under the levers to insulate them from the ground as well.

Once trap is covered in peat along with levers, I top coat all of that with salt. Then, if snow is coming, I am done. If no snow, I will top coat with local material but not a lot.....I mean less than 1/8th inch. If super windy, might have to do more. Regardless, I now salt my top coat as well.

Salting is done in stages and in layers. Initial trap bed is small. Peat moss usage is NOT to bed the trap in but rather to just insulate trap from local ground cover.

NO method is bullet-proof. If NOT using grass, but rather, peat moss, this is how I do it. It keeps me in the game.

With this approach, you will no longer think bedding traps in peat is difficult, because you are NOT bedding them in peat! LOL

Again, I RAN from peat for years......LOTS of guys have and still do. I've figured out how to use it in a way that eliminates the wobble, and a SMALL trap bed is the key to that when you start

MZ

Zagman, do you have many deer? I worry about salt and deer where I am, but maybe I don't need to.

I do but I'd NOT worry about it.....I am trapping coyotes in the winter. If I get a couple deer snaps so be it. It'd be like NOT trapping at all due to a concern of a couple of traps being stolen.

Cost of doing business, and deer snaps fall into that bucket.

MZ

Thanks Mark.

Most, and probably nearly all deer snaps are because of their curiosity towards the odors of the set and nothing to do with being attracted to salt. Deer barely even consume salt in the winter months. But they’re always curious.

Thanks for the perfect explanation, Mark.

When I'm in areas with lots of deer I just set more traps and bed traps as close to the attraction as possible and still catch coyotes. The fired traps become something to pee on LOL..

Never held a deer yet. Reset and go after deer snaps. Ready for next check.
Jim

>> Sounds like a good method. I spread construction sand out on a black tarp on my quad trailer. sprinkle flake wax over the sand. The ratio is up to what you have found to work for you. The summer sun will melt the wax. I use the top side of a rake and blend it together periodically. As I recall, 50Lbs of sand is about 4+ gallons. Minimal hassle.

Peat moss is an organic sponge! you must be using a great deal of salt to keep it from freezing....

Ever have a trap bed full of water and then snap the trap off under water and all the dry peat moss just floats to the top?

Bone dry peat can take a lot of water before it gets saturated enough to absorb water......

But YES I use salt in generous quantities........

I live in place that measures annual snow falls in the 100's of inches........

Again, NO method is bullet-proof. Freeze-thaw is the worst. This weekend, it snowed for a few hours in the morning but the temps were mid-thirties most of the day. Later in the day, it turned to all rain. Then Saturday night it dropped down into the low teens.

Sunday AM we woke up to a sunny, beautiful morning with everything covered in a coating of ice. I could NOT open my truck doors that I had parked outside that night. My handful of traps were inoperable. No method of trap covering works in that, even waxed sand or dirt.

Later in the winter, when below freezing temps stick around and NO rain any longer, ANY method will work under the snow. The challenge? When the snow gets TOO deep and renders the sets inoperable. I can have waxed dirt totally operative under a couple of inches of snow and still catch coyotes. But, once we get real snow, like six inches to a foot or more, well, again, we are probably out of business.

There's places in NY that get more snow than me, but there are many many more places that get far less.

Like comparing Erie PA to Philly. Lake Effect snow is just a total game changer compared to places that only get snow from storms. We learn to adapt or go home.

That said, there is a reason 95% of my annual coyote catch comes in Oct-November! LOL

MZ

I fish Erie and Lake Ontario. The weather is wild and wooly for sure. we experience the up and down freeze/thaw cycles here but not the tremendous snow accumulation.

I use dry grass with my sets in fields and finely shredded leaves on the wood sets. Do you find any advantages with peat moss?

I should be more clear. If the Dirt Fairy showed up at my barn and said: I will grant your wish........you can get a lifetime supply of waxed dirt/sand OR a lifetime supply of bone-dry peat.

I'd take the waxed dirt!

The point I was trying to make was that since waxed dirt is NOT bullet-proof either, I had decided to STOP making it and just go all peat or grass. My catch hasn't seemed to suffer from it.

Here's what you have to understand.....I pretty much have to assume freezing weather from the get-go......so IN THEORY I need to be freeze-proof ready from Day One. I fell asleep on the job this fall and had TWO days where I missed 5-8 coyotes a day because I got lulled into a false sense of nice weather, Ma Nature changed her mind, and I was ill-prepared for that change.

So, I need to use material early in the year to protect from freezing, and I use it in volume.

Advantages with peat are: inexpensive, readily available, lightweight, no need to sift (if you buy the quality stuff). If I am out of state and run out, I just go buy more.
Disadvantages: Doesn't pack well (see how I use it though above), odor (while "natural" it is mighty pungent and I have seen SOME scratching at it and/or refusals) If windy, its gets in your eyes and mouth and such!
Waxed Dirt OR sand Disadvantages: Time to make, expensive, heavy, not bullet-proof, and I have seen SOME scratching at it and/or refusals) and you tend to use a lot of it since there's no air pockets in it so each set takes more waxed dirt than it would traditional dirt.
Advantages: Packs decent, more likely NOT to freeze than peat

SOOOOO......the epiphany I had was that I just didn't see ENOUGH advantages over peat to keep making it annually. I've caught over 100 coyotes a year in NY since I started using it solely other than the years I went to Kansas and, well, this year. but I am not done yet!

Find me a Dirt Fairy and I'll take all the waxed dirt I can get........but until then, I will have to stick with peat and grass (and YES, leaves in the woods (on top of peat!))

MZ

Very detailed and helpful Mark. I also feel that nothing is foolproof. As with hunting and fishing. You must adapt to conditions to be successful.

Utilizing techniques that you have confidence in is paramount. The key with all outdoor endeavors is to use common send, be persistent and modify as you you go...

I'll send the dirt fairy up your way after he makes a stop here at my farm!

Merry Christmas to all.

Not all waxed dirt is equal the results can be very different depending on the types of dirt you have and how you handle it. Here a good badger mound will give a guy a idea of what he’s dealing with and if it’s worth putting time and money into it. I use heat lamps and a garden hoe and avoid beating the dirt into a powder.

I hear sorties of mold in stored dirt if that happens it was never dry enough or got wet before/during storage. It should look no different then when you put it in the bucket when you open it down the road.

I agree with you about the mold. I'm using some right now that i 3 years old. Been stored all this time in a plastic trash can with the lid on. It looks like the day I made it, but was completely dry when I made it.

I'm gonna throw out a few things to be considered. No matter what kinda dry material you use.
1) winter trapping is an art form in itself. You have to pick spots that blow clear and let the sun help you. Or if you are in timber country get set out of the sun to keep the snow ECT the same consistency if that makes sense at all. Learn to let nature help you.
2) you simply can't run as much equipment and do it by right. It takes more time and work period. 100s a day don't happen in true winter condition.
3) if setting so sun can help you. Absolutely have to brush sets off every time around( exception would be a real cold snap if your on a 24 hr check you could leave a few days but after snow starts to get were it builds up under your feet it needs to get moved.
4) if bedded down in wax dirt and on top you can get the frozen top cover like most have said. Just flip it back and scratch some new blending over it. Also make sure to brush snow back 3 foot or so. Not just over dirt pattern.
5) some types of county you can't snare because of f cover. It's the same with winter trapping. On open farm field is gonna cause much frustration. You have be to go to country you can keep sets working.
6) snares have limitations but can go along ways in the freeze thaw department.
7) winter trapping is an art form in itself. I don't deal with lots of rain here in winter but we something get some before a snow storm. Sometimes you just have to redo everything. Re open snare trails,shovel sets off, ECT. Work work work. Do something no matter what and you will surprise yourself. To get really good at winter trapping you have to make a conscious effort to do it. Find places that you can keep stuff working ECT. The truth is everyone an expert but very few actually do it.
8) did I mention learning how to snare? Definitely do this. Sorry for you guys who live in restrictive states that won't allow them. You definitely need to get with the game department and legislators and get them legal and not these rediculous cable restraint either.
9) out Canadian cousins do alot of snow trapping. I don't know anything about it but could work for some of you. Our snow here is always changing so I don't see it helping me much.

Great explanation of the pros and cons of peat and wax sand. This is why this forum is the best. A lot of knowledge here. Read about it and then make up your own mind. Thanks everyone for your time and input!

Hello! I realize that this post, and your comment are YEARS old, but I was curious where you were located as to have a better idea of your winter conditions for using peat/grass. You’d mentioned snow, so I suppose I can rule out the south west, lol. Hope you see this, thanks!