Ive played with real catnip that grows around here. Dried and ground its very potent for the cats that are interested but when ever I've mixed it with something it loses its attraction. After watching cats react to catnip I'm not sure id use it for a trailing scent. For the ones that react to it they just go to rolling and go into a weird state of being high. Think cats are weird wait until u see one that goes crazy on cat nip. But only a percentage of cats seem to react to it. I was using salmon oil as a trailing scent once and caught cats at those sets. Had fresh snow at one and that cat followed the scent trail right to the set. I think I would have missed that one if it wouldn't have been for the salmon oil.
Catnip is different than almost any other lure ingredient trappers use because it isn't the smell of catnip that attracts the cat. I'll say it again,
the odor of catnip has little, if any attraction to cats. What catnip does have is a chemical that, when inhaled, causes a certain percentage of cats to have a euphoric experience, much like some narcotics do with humans (the chemical is nepetalactone). It is this euphoric reaction that cats seek out and when we see them engaged in this euphoric moment, we interpret that to mean they are "attracted" to the odor of catnip. That interpretation is incorrect. The reason that you're seeing cats "lose their attraction" to the catnip when you mix the catnip with other ingredients, is because any form of alcohol neutralizes the key chemical in catnip (nepetalactone) that makes the cat have its euphoric experience. Any chemical additive that ends in "ol" is an alcohol based chemical -- for example, glycerol (aka glycerin), glycol, etc. etc. So you can come up with the finest, most pure catnip you can find, but when you mix it with an alcohol based chemical, you've neutralized the chemical that gives the cat the pleasant experience you are anticipating.
