An old trapper suggested I hot glue a camping mirror in the back of a Minnesota plasticatch coon trap, (big plastic cage trap) for a coon that was refusing to enter. The homeowner was a night owl and saw it approach several times and even reach in to swipe out the marshmallows I used for trailing bait. But wouldn’t enter regardless of the bait.

I did as he suggested and that night about 1130 the homeowner called to say I had the coon. It was a big male. The homeowner had watched it and said it stopped as if it wasn’t sure what he saw and then lunged into the trap so hard it pushed the trap backwards a foot.

Since then I used the mirror trick several times when I was getting refusals. It worked good on coons.

I wonder if it would work on cats. Amazon sells some cheap acrylic mirrors that could be placed in the back of a cubby or on the outside back of a cage trap. Not sure if cats would react the same as coons.

Your thoughts? I wish I had thought to try it this past season. I will try this next season.

A friend swore shiny beer bottle caps
helped as lure holders in pocket sets.
Then I found mirror like vinyl tiles.
Yes, they worked imo.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/YYjIU3zt1o4?ra=m

it will work you just need to use glass. Plastic and plexiglass doesn’t work. Good how the mirror is positioned is very important.

Coon are hard on items within reach…

Coon will F-you, your equipment up, or in more acceptable language, turn you and your equipment every which way but loose and wonder you’ll blame other things of what happened! Read the cage trap marshmallow-bait thread, So many trappers under estimate a coon’s abilities and it’s reach AND what it’s able to reach through! LOL

Yes they are. But I don’t care if they tear up a $4 acrylic mirror if I’m doing an ADC call.

160s are hard on coon...
Yeah he said cages.

Paste it onto a piece of 1/4" luan or some such material. That should make it more durable and reusable. At least it has worked for me that way.

I do wonder if it is the shinyness more than anything….as opposed to the coon actually seeing another coon looking back at himself…

I’ve had it work enough times with coon when they were refusing that I think they are responding to what they think is another coon. I don’t think just being shiny is enough provocation for a cage shy coon to enter. I don’t have any empirical evidence to support that. Just a feeling but I believe the presence of what they think is a competitor is enough for them to fully abandon all caution.

I have ten of these Dukes supplied to me by the company, and I use them wherever I can. They are useful for a coon that is accustomed to pulling a body grip out of the box and repeatedly eating the bait…

A deal on a dozen bargain mirrors, and I could make them stock in every trap.

Like a candle in the wind, or tinsel.

The coon charging the trap reminds me of
a lure guy saying his coon gland
repelled dinks but was a draw to
the predator coons.
Good for fur, bad for adc.

I don't remember ever using coon gland
that I knew of. Maybe a mistake late season.