Fishing – trapping – and vermin destroying – Traps – Imprisoning
Patent
1998-12-07
2000-02-29
Lavinder, Jack W.
Fishing, trapping, and vermin destroying
Traps
Imprisoning
A01M 2302
Patent
active
060293926
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invent ion relates to a trap for an animal, and in particular to a mole trap.
Many methods of trapping moles rely upon spring loaded devices which either crush or spear the animal. The mole is therefore either killed outright or at the very least maimed. Certain poisons, such as strychnine, may be used to kill the moles. However, these poisons often remain in the environment after the mole has been killed, and may prove fatal to other animals. In addition, the poison may remain in the dead mole's body, so that an animal which comes into contact with the poisoned mole may itself be put at risk.
More humane methods of entrapment exist, such as diverting the mole run into a pit or container. Mole runs can be extensive, however, and by their very nature are hidden from view. Diversion methods tend to be laborious to implement, therefore, and ineffective in practice. Substances exist which do not actually kill the moles but merely act as sedatives. These can affect other wild animals, however, or even domestic animals. Deterrents such as sound waves, smoke emission and smells have also been used, but while these may work in the short term, they have little lasting effect and the moles soon return.
GB-A-2026833 discloses a trap with an upper bait chamber and a lower trap chamber to trap an animal attracted into the upper chamber by the bait.
JP-B-62037943 discloses a trap formed of a clear or semi-clear polymer, having holes in the side to allow earthworms to enter into the trap.
GB 220226 describes a humane mole trap consisting of a tubular body with a one way trap door at one end and a detachable cone ending in an aperture of reduced diameter at the other. A mole encountering the trap in a mole run can therefore enter the trap by pushing against the outside of the trap door, but cannot escape from the trap once the trap door has fallen down behind it. The mole cannot leave the trap by the other end, due to the reduced diameter of the cone aperture, nor can it turn round inside the trap in order to attack the trap door with its front paws. The trap door has a "V"-shaped cut-away at its lower edge, so that if a mole which has partially opened the trap door attempts to back out of the trap, the cut-away will trap the mole's neck and prevent it from escaping. Removal of the detachable cone allows access to the trap, thereby enabling a trapped mole to be freed.
Traps such as that disclosed in GB 220226 have certain disadvantages, however. If a mole approaches the buried trap from the closed end, it will often be sufficiently powerful to push the trap out of the ground. It is therefore necessary to bury two of the traps end-to-end in a run, so that the mole will encounter an open end on approaching from either direction. Due to the length of the average mole and the length of the detachable cone, however, the total length of two traps (and therefore the length of mole run which must be exposed) would have to be somewhere in the region of 40 to 50 cm. It is not only difficult to locate a straight section of mole run of this length, but exposing the section involves too much ground disturbance, which should be minimal for successful mole trapping.
One solution is to use a double-ended trap, since this enables a single trap (which is shorter than two single-ended traps) to be incorporated into an animal run (for example a mole run), thereby minimising ground disturbance.
GB 335669 discloses a double-ended trap with sprung doors at each end, which are closed by a trip device when the animal enters the trap. A similar device is shown in GB 425212, in which the sprung doors close when the animal treads on a platform inside the trap, and in GB-A-2116817, in which the doors close by gravity when the animal treads on a pivoted platform.
Other double-ended traps are shown in GB 1450513, which is formed from a grill to allow surrounding earth to penetrate the trap; FR 2584571, in which the trap can be broken in half to allow access to the inside of the trap; FR 629229, in which the trap is separated into two by an
REFERENCES:
patent: 2683951 (1954-07-01), Hamaker
patent: 5502918 (1996-04-01), Oviatt
patent: 5720125 (1998-02-01), Oviatt
patent: 5943813 (1999-08-01), Wang et al.
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