Porcupine Trap

What is the best porcupine trap?  It depends on your situation, location and severity of infestation. 

Do you want to trap porcupines because they threaten your plants or pets and other animals?  What are trapping regulations in your area?  How well-trained are you in the handling of wild animals?  All of these questions will help to determine the best type of trap to get rid of your porcupine problem.  Many types of traps can be effective against porcupines: live traps, kill traps, body-gripping traps and snaring.  Choosing the right trap and baiting and locating it correctly will improve success.

The main problem that amateur trappers run into is what to do if they actually get a porcupine in the trap.  Porcupines are large animals, weighing up to 30 pounds.  Moving an angry, confused thirty pounds animal in a trap is no easy task.  

Take this story from Dave W.: 

A porcupine had been chewing up the trees in my yard.  I had seen the animal and assumed that since it moved so slowly and acted so nonchalant it would be no big deal to get rid of it myself.  So I set a baited live trap.  Night one:  a wandering cat.  Night two:  the same wandering cat (It must have liked the bait).  Night three:  finally got the porcupine.  

As I was standing there looking at the animal and congratulating myself on my skill with a porcupines trap, it occurred to me that I didn’t really know what to do next.  It is illegal to relocate wild animals in my area, and I didn’t know where to take the critter anyway.  So, what to do?  I can’t shoot it.  I can’t get close enough to the cage to move the cage to a place where I could drown it.  I heard a few recommendations of “a sharp blow to the head.”  How?  Not in the cage.  But I couldn’t really get close and get the cage open either.  So, finally I called local animal control.  Nope.  They don’t do porcupines.  I was on my own. 

What does any sensible person do when they don’t know what to do:  Call for professional help.  A wildlife control expert came out and took the porcupine away, returning the cage.  It was quick and easy.  It is what I will do first next time.