Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Turtle TRap

Can someone recommend a quality turtle trap?

What kind(s) of turtle(s)?

I bought a metal trap. Never caught a turtle. It was not worth the money. Then started to build one of the sun traps. plans online somewhere. Never got it finished.

I hand throw food to the BG. The turtles came to eat food too. They are not as smart as I thought they were. When some food had drifted to the bank the turtles came to eat. I quickly put a fishing net behind them & pulled it forward over them & they were trapped in the net. I have removed a couple of dozen. Took them an hour away & told them they can walk back.

A sun trap would be my recommendation. They climb on to sunbath & try to exit via the trap part. Some turtles are good they are the ponds garbagemen. Too much decaying flesh can cause diseases in the ponds live fish.

Hello.

A Turtle Trap that I made.

Does it work? Show us a picture of the catches.

Hello.

Yes it works very well, I haven't installed it yet this spring, but I will take picture as soon as I do.
A+

Snappers don't crawl out to sun themselves, but many Softshell Turtles and all the Redear Sliders that I have seen do.

Right about now in Northern Indiana is the breeding season for snappers. I have caught snappers in the middle of the woods 1/2 mile or more from water walking from pond to pond. My guess is males looking for love.

Red Ear Sliders and snappers for sure. I want to feed my CNBG w/o turtles eating all the food! I have tried making a homemade one and didn't work very well.

I built a sun trap and floated it in the middle of the pond. Maybe that was a mistake as it took months for the turtles to find it. Nothing, nothing, nothing, then one day about ten. Then never any ever again.

I ended up getting most of them by throwing out a half dozen lines every night with pepperoni on small hooks they can easily swallow (e.g. #2). Works on snappers and bullheads too.

I have trapped over 500 turtles from the ponds where i work over the past 2 years, mostly basking and red ear sliders. The traps have floats on 2 sides, measure about 3 feet square and 2 feet deep, the mechanism is a weight activated cantilever that drops them in when enough are on the top. It’s been very effective when left in the water where the feeders are. I didn’t want to kill them so I contacted our local KOA and they were happy to have them as the campers buy bread from the camp store to feed them. The past year the turtle numbers were way down and I discovered why, they would lay their eggs in the soft sand along the roads in any shaded areas. We have a family of foxes that have moved in and are feasting on the turtle eggs.