Any experience with pond turtle traps?
 

I need to remove some turtles from one of my ponds and have been looking online. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations? I'd prefer to do it humanely (live & let live) and relocate them to another pond, but am open to Tim Hancock's mode of operation if necessary :). Thanks!

You need to call this guy: Call of the Wildman: Animal Planet SmileWavy

We live very close to a lake and get pond slider turtles digging holes in our yard to lay eggs. I usually carry the turtle back down to the lake and some wild animals dig up the eggs and eat them...

I shoot them (snapping turtles) if I see them in my "swimming" pond, but someone once gave me a LARGE fish hook on a chain that when tie to a floating milk jug and baited with a chunk of chicken supposedly will catch a snapping turtle eventually. Once you see the milk jug moving in the pond, you know you have one hooked. I have never needed to use it yet as I have not seen a turtle in the pond in a few years.

Turtles are very curious... we used to catch 'em by using a really big bobber or small balloon, hook w/ bait right below it just 2 inches or so down the line. Toss it out there and you'd see 'em all start haulin butt towards it

Turtle traps are not high tech. You need some netting, three hoops about two feet in diameter and a couple of four foot poles, notched in the ends to engage the end hoops.

The middle hoop has a cone shaped net attached. The apex of the cone is open and about a foot in diameter. The open end is held by some cords to the closed-end hoop.

The remainder of the netting is formed into a cylinder with the 'cone holding hoop in the middle and the other two hoops supporting the ends. The end toward which the cone points is closed with netting. The poles (two or three) are used to keep the trap in its working shape and removed for transportation or storage.
Bait with sardines in the closed end. Place in the pond with part of the cylinder above the water

Have fun getting snappers out.
Best
Les

What's wrong with turtles in a pond?

Little kids swim in our pond..... Snapping turtles are not welcome.

I'd say your more likely to be hit be an incoming meteor than get but by an unprovoked snapping turtle. Do you have a meteor shield?

We used to catch them while fishing for catfish when I was a kid. They always broke the line, but they make some pretty strong line these days.
Finding someone to take the hook out is another story. :eek:

It has been my experience that accidentally stepping on a snapping turtle (that you didn't see or even know was there) was viewed as "provocation" by said snapping turtle. ;)

I grew up hunting painteds on my grandparents farm.
Fond memories of that.
One day we caught 26 all scraping the bottom of the grumman canoe. Nails on chalkboard.
Took them on shore and had races.

Another early memory was from a summer camp.
Someone caught a huge snapper with a tail thicker than your wrist and it took all your strength to hold him up.

Another catch was a softshell bigger than a dinner plate.
Had to shake him when he's reaching back. Suckers have a long neck and are fast.

I like turtles, but each to their own.

Tell you what..... go find one about a foot or so in diameter and step on it with one foot and put your toes in front of it with your other foot and see what happens. If you can do that several times in a row without issue, then "maybe" I will reconsider what I do when I find a snapping turtle in my pond once every few years or so. ;)

There are a lot of wild animals that will bite you if provoked and I would put snapping turtles in with them. Almost anything will get nasty if you corner it.

That said I don't think it happens nearly often enough to warrant exterminating them. Snapping turtles are predators and pretty good ones. Like most successful predators they are very aware of their surroundings and if they have the opportunity they will retreat from something big enough to hurt them that they can't eat.

I can't find any evidence online of people being inadvertently bitten by snappers that weren't flat out messing with them.

I do not go to remote ponds looking to kill hundreds of turtles for fun.... That said, I spray MY lawn to kill pest weeds and I spray MY buildings to kill pest insects. When the occasional pest varmint (skunk, coon, snapping turtle, etc) takes up residence on MY property I deal with them however I see fit. ;)

I deal with one or two a month.

Around here they are a common road hazard.

When I come across one I'll stop to move it off the road.

They are nasty little f'rs and will bite anything that they can reach.

Moved one last week, little bastard was hissing at me before I got within 3 feet of him.

Thanks guys! I need to do some reading. I wouldn't have a problem with "some" turtles in this particular pond and there are three more ponds adjacent that they, and the muskrats (another issue) can have all the leeway they want. The problem? Quite a few turtles that are more than a foot in diameter and they eat a LOT of my bass and crappie minnows daily. I've noticed a reduction in little bitty fishes...thus goes the food chain. I'm gonna play nice and relocate a few to the adjacent ponds (or ponds miles away if I have too), and see how that goes.

Spent a good part of my youth fishing in cow ponds. I hate snapping turtles. I'd rather deal with snakes. Here's another non-humane but fun and challenging method we employed as kids.

We used to take a Heddon Tiny Torpedo, remove the front treble hook and spinners leaving only the rear treble hook. Tie on to our favorite casting rig and practice our accuracy. The turtle won't feel the line on it's back. Pull the bait up close and snag the turtle. Hard shell turtles were dispatched and soft shells would go into Grandma's sauce piquante. -J

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