There are too many here and I need to get rid of a bunch. Last one I seen in the back field had bad fur and no hair on it's tail. I killed 2 last year with mange and my dog got mange walking in the field. They are also digging under the wire and taking our chickens.
I trapped many fox in Ohio but I can't trap them here in WV. Doesn't matter what I do, they dig up the traps. Few will come to a call. I watched that fox in the back field and started the call. He just looked towards it and kept looking for mice. He was over 200 yd's out, too far for the .22 mag. I can't use a high power because of houses on the other side.
In the last couple of years we lost over 50 chickens and the neighbor lost over 100. One got into our coop and killed 17 for fun.
Any ideas to help?

I have found snares to be very effective on foxes. Done right you will get them all.

I don't doubt you have a problem, but are you sure the 17 were killed by a fox? Sounds more like the work of an owl or maybe a weasel. Maybe not.

I have two suggestions:

1. Git' yerself a couple of coyotes - they've certainly done a number on our fox population here.

2. Look on Trapperman - you should be able to get some real good info there.

Good luck.

I can't use snares because of our cats and dogs. I can keep the dogs away from traps and such but don't dare kill any cats.
My wife seen the fox leaving the coop when she found all the dead chickens. They come up in the middle of the day. Unlike what a weasel does, these were torn up.
We have black snakes eat eggs too so I put out a golf ball. It was gone the next day. The next day, the ball was back, guess he didn't like it.
I'll check out the site, thanks. And we sure don't need any coyotes, we have a great deer herd.

Actually, I have cats too. They always went with me when I was setting snares. A snare properly set for wild k-9's, fox or coyote, will be too high for a house cat. They are too low for a deer's head and I always set a cross pole over the snare to force deer to jump the snare. Always worked.

It won't be too high for dogs and I only snared a dog once, they just sit and bark until you release them. Wild k-9's fight the snare and most times kill themselves. You will need to check your snares every day.

Here's a photo of one of my cats going with me to check snares. Look carefully at it. She smelled the coyote and put herself inbetween me and the yote. This was the only wild k-9 I ever snared that did not kill itself.



Here's a different song dog snared off the same trail the one above was taken from. This one is dead.



I don't have a photo of the fox I snared but it killed 17 chickens in one night, was climbing the fence. The remaining chickens got the fox carcass to eat. I got the fox off the same trail as above. They seem to like sharing....

Hi

Could you use a live trap? So you can let cats and dogs out of it..

We had 21 chickens killed by a fox once during 1 night.

Johan

OK, I'm convinced and have to buy some snares. Thanks.

Ann:

That's a mighty brave cat!!

We used to make a double cage trap set up and put a siamese cat in it staked out in the middle of the field where we were setting in ambush with rifles for coyotes.

Thats the best coyote call I've ever seen used. Those cats never shut up even when the coyotes were trying to tear the cage up while we were shooting them. They'd jump back and look, then either smell the dead one, or go back to trying for the cat. We shot six out of seven one morning just after daylight with .223's.

Amazing!

Wish you well, all of you,

George

bfrshooter,

Where in WV are you at? If you can hunt them, I'd come down and try to help you out, I've been wanting to try some furbearer hunting lately but don't have many spots here in SW PA. I hunt WV, too, just off I-70 at Dallas Pike.

BRFSHOOTER

A fox, is a fox, is a fox. To put it another way, if you trapped them in Ohio, you can trap them in PA.

If they are digging out your traps, then either your traps are not clean, or you have a cagey fox that has had his toes nipped before in the same type of set and you need to try a different type of set.

I would try a variety of sets, such as large dirt hole set, mouse hole set, flat set, and urine post set. not only that, I would probably use a couple of traps at each set.

Make absolutely sure your traps are dyed and waxed and CLEAN. Handle them only with gloves on. Make sure and use fox urine at your sets so that the fox thinks another fox has already been there. Also, make absoluely sure that each trap is firmly bedded solid so that the trap will not move unless the animal steps on the trap pan.

I am betting that a really well contructed flat set will catch him.

by the way, what are you using for lure?