Can you die traps with old dried up? Walnuts, or do they have to be fresh?

Yes, those will work. Maybe not the best but it will work. I use walnut hulls because i have quite a few trees around here. I like them after they start turning brown but still have some juice in them.

YES !!!

You can dye traps with anything that is high in tannin.
Sumac and oak galls are high in tannin as is hemlock bark and oak bark.
We have none of that here so I use twigs,leaves and catkins of Black(tag) Alder chopped up green to dye traps.
Ity doesnt matter if its green or dry as long as its not rotten.

I have alot of suger maples when time comes to dye my traps will take the bark and save the leafs.

Is that mold on them?

I collected a five-gallon bucket of butternuts this fall. About half were to ship to a member here and the other half for dying traps. It turned out he found another source so they were all for me.

The were sitting out under the back porch of my shop. Dang squirrels came and emptied that entire bucket.

It's been a few years since I've hunted them around home and they're getting way too brazen.

Had some grey squirrels do the same to me with an extra bucket of black walnuts I had.I watched them every day.They thought they were getting away with something.Its was fun watching them,,and I didn't need the walnuts.

nope

I like dying with sumac bark. It grows every where around here. Sumac is lightweight for carrying, easily snapped off or cut and peels like a dream. Some people I know use the berries but you better wrap them in cheesecloth. Otherwise you'll get lots of little fuzz all over you traps.

I used the sumac once...wishes I'd have had them in a orion sack.

Never tried rhe bark.

I use walnuts if there dried up when I get them throw in water over nite boil traps next day.

I've used stripped norway maple bark, it worked fine...

I like to put them in a old pillowcase before boiling to keep debris off the traps.

Good Tip

Pillow case. Excellent idea.

Thank's fella's, that was my wife's idea and works great, must be her Cherokee lineage.

sample dye test to see how Old dry walnuts & Sumac bevries work together.

Not a bad dye at all.

Thanks All for your tips.

Thanks Barrett for being there helping at your first Campfire trap dye.

I’ll never use sumac again as it leaves a film on them. I use maple and alder bark which turns them super black and clean

I take fresh black walnut hulls and put them in a five gallon bucket, lid on, a few small holes in the lid. This keeps rodents out. I let them sit a year. When you open it, there’ll be a thick black liquid in it, along with decaying nuts / hulls. I pour the liquid out, filtering with hardware cloth. A gallon of the black juice will do a lot of traps.