Setting an active den

The red fox are in the process of mating for the season here which happens to coincide with my peak lambing. I am shooting and trapping fairly aggressively in an attempt to keep them at bay.

Would anyone have any tips for trapping at the dens that are open and being opened as we speak? I have attempted placing traps directly in the entry with some but limited success, misses seem fairly common for some reason. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated on how to set up, thanks in advance. Ozy

(I could just gas them but that makes collecting the bounty money difficult to say the least) cheers

Messing about at the entrances will spook them, so they just move, but not far. see if you can find any runs they use to come and go, like under fences etc. Can you use snares?

Unfortunately snares are a no go. Trails coming and going are difficult as most of these dens are on neighbors properties which have cattle in them continuously. The two trap thing is a good idea but as BigBob says they are wary at the whole, I'll give it a go an try and work out a system. Out of curiosity how would you use snares at a hole?

Snares would be better in crossunders at a fence etc. But, put the snare loop in the hole, with the bottom of the loop about 1/3 of the way up, so it hits it with the chest. Keep anchor chain/wire/? length to a minimum so it can't go too far in the hole. But sounds to me you'd be better off setting a foothold slightly to one side right in the entrance.

Snares would be better in crossunders at a fence etc. But, put the snare loop in the hole, with the bottom of the loop about 1/3 of the way up, so it hits it with the chest. Keep anchor chain/wire/? length to a minimum so it can't go too far in the hole. But sounds to me you'd be better off setting a foothold slightly to one side right in the entrance.
If ADC is your only objective, I just read where Chicago, Ill, WAS putting dry ice down holes and plugging them to kill rats. The dry ice evaporates to CO2 and it's just like a cage in a kill box. Likely not gonna be able to recover most of them tho. I said was, as the EPA here made them stop because it's not an approved method??????

Flat set Wide open ground (no backing).

Do this about 30+ yards away

Bed solid solid solid. Punch 4 holes around the trap, about 9" from pan. About 3-4" deep Put 4 differnt scents in these holes, use nothing that represents food. Use any curiosity lure and gland lures.

Just put about three drops down each hole so it has to put its nose to each hole to confirm source

Collect fox !

Bit of a rookie question Michigan but why no food based lures? Thanks for the info BigBob.

You can easily cage trap them by modifying a live trap to become a colony trap and excavate the den to accomodate the trap. Then block off any points of escape by shoveling in around or blocking material to prevent this from occuring.

Red fox here may have several den entry burrows to the main chamber. One or two modified colony cages will work nicely. You also can use foothold traps successfully if you have the basic skill to use them as well.

Once the pups are old enough to leave the den you can clean trap them out easily. Gland lure at sets placed near trails to the den site or close to the den will catch the adults quickly and the pups if needed.

You should be careful not to educate them too much or they will be hard to get and most likely select another den site.

The problem with setting the den entrances is two-fold.
1) Denning fox are hyper-sensitive to anything foreign at the den (human scent, trap scent, moved dirt), and know exactly where your traps are by scent, even through the soil covering them. They often dig beside them and flip them over.
2) They are not all that dedicated to staying at any given den site, and will move on if they are disturbed, including moving their young.
You will have better success by blind-setting with footholds further away from the den. I prefer snares for this when possible.
If the fox are committed to a given den site, there should be plenty of trails leading to it.

Attracts non-targets

Only none target around here is a feral cat and I'll take them all day long, guess I'm lucky with that. Cheers

Then the food lure may be fine

The canine will spin on top of this set moving its nose from scent to scent, I have video of it

This has been my most effective canine set, including a really wise old coyote that was missing 7 toes from having been trained to avoid dirtholes

Caught a female yesterday...just threw a 330 at her the eve before...

This is why I love fox den under the shed/deck jobs. Customer want them gone doesn't care how. I set the den maybe catch one or two the rest move on and job closed.

Hi Ozytrapper,
I've caught hundreds of fox in similar situations please contact me via message I'll give you my phone number! Step down dirtholes work great on fox but depends on soil type and rain fall!! Happy to help you out with what I can!
Regards,
Ed