Best Use For Protean Traps (2025 Updated)

Although the trap is supposed to be for rats and not for mice, as the description on the product is written, the size is medium size actually and probably is OK for rats as well as mice; however, not for big size rats.

The construction looks good and easy to set up; however, the traps did not have any instruction for safety and liability which is not OK actually; instructions should be included with drawings. I have used this type of trap before and they are very effective.

What I really like is the delivery time which took less than 2 days; although it was supposed to be received by Dec 17, 2020, I just got the traps eight days ahead of schedule. I ordered the traps late afternoon on Dec.

7. 2020. Excellent delivery and price as well. By the way, it took me minutes to set up all 4 traps. Excellent product!.

We have a severe infestation of chipmunks under our front patio. The first time we set them it took several days before we caught one. Its been almost two weeks and have caught 8. Until yesterday had only been setting two at a time close to an exit hole.

I would call this method as steady. Not an immediate fix but it has taken years for the colony to grow to this size. We are very satisfied with these traps because the are easy to use – easy to empty – powerful – effective.

I have been using a dab of crunchy peanut butter and a few sunflower seeds (bird food SF seeds) as bait. We definitely recommend this product. NOTE – easy to set but use with care; trap is powerful and could injure your fingers.

These are excellent traps. We had a chipmunk problem and tried pellets, month balls, etc. and nothing worked. These worked great. Just a tip- the little cup where the bait goes is easily accessible from the bottom of the trap.

It just twists out. We didn’t see that right away and tried putting the bait in from the top side at first.

I have a stable of boarded horses. We do use fly pedators, fly bait and traps. The terminator trap is by far the most effective. Do not put it by your horses, place is away a bit. It qualifies as a ‘smelly trap’, but I have never seen one attract flies like this one does.

If it is in a good place it can have over an inch of flies in 48 hours. Use gloves! It is also re-useable. I am ordering more.

The instructions say to just drop the bags into the water and they will dissolve. These did not, but I have used this product before and know it works. We stabbed the bags to open them and once opened they attract flies like crazy.

Very effective.

Just purchased. Followed the easy directions. Late evening I placed the trap where signs of mice activity appeared. Checked in the morning and had captured three. Great results! Will continue baiting for next month or so to ensure I have all the relatives.

Money well spent.

As fall has approached and the farmers are taking down the crops the field mice seem to love to scurry into nearby houses. As the weather drops we seem to see them around more even with getting a cat.

I am absolutely terrified of the things so getting somthing to help was a need. Having 2 dogs and 1 cat we couldn’t do the sticky traps or the set ones as the animals would set them off. We also did not want to use poison and risk that alone.

So here we are looking for more options and I see this. This is very easy to set up and we have caught 2 so far. I would like to say this has been the best trap used for us. It actually works. I like how this has the poison inside and protected so nothing else will get ahold of it.

The window is a nice addition so you can see if the bait has been messed with at all and needs refilled. Look forward to it helping out home this year and not having the pesky problem.

We were having a problem with ants getting into the hummingbird feeders and spoiling the food. I put this on the hook under the pie pan roof my husband made for each feeder. The ants were all over the pie pan when i did it.

They became very agitated, there were about a dozen running around on the under side. I painted the tanglefoot on and the ants were stopping about an inch from the hook and retreating. They’ve quickly dissappeared.

Don’t know how long it’ll last but it’ll be easy to repeat as needed! Works wonderfully.

This stuff is amazing (and incredibly sticky!). Forget buying those pricey yellow sticky papers to catch gnats, flies, aphids, etc. – do it cheaper yourself with far better results. I got some inexpensive yellow garden labels online for this purpose.

Pro tip: use a disposable glove on your dominant hand to prevent getting stuck yourself :).

I have a couple of hummingbird feeders that ants were getting into. I smeared Tanglefoot on the “shepherd’s crooks” that supported the feeders. There haven’t been any ants in the feeders since then. I don’t know how long this will last, but it only takes a little Tanglefoot to keep the ants out of the feeder.

These traps actually worked! We had a heavy infestation of nosey, annoying, Steve Urkel’ish carpenter bees living in my neighbors garage/shed. Spraying hornet/bees pesticide wouldn’t even stop them. I bought two of these bee traps, whacked the 1st two pesky bees I saw, and inserted them inside it.

Over the coarse of a few days, many other bees came to join them. Within weeks they both were 3/4 full. I showed the bee traps to my neighbor and they purchased 3-4 traps too. But, their traps got 100% filled up with carpenter bees! I like this and would recommend them.

You can easily get rid of the live bees caught by placing the bee trap in ziplock gallon freezer bag, and then place it in your freezer. Bees can’t escape and they can’t stand the cold temperature – so they all die.

I don’t like spring traps so I bought a gravity drop door cage. The con to that is that the critters can get out. In my case it’s used for trapping feral cats. If the cats hit the door hard enough at the right angle the door opens and they bolt.

This fork works fantastic if you get to the trap quick enough. I use a motion sensor that beeps in the house to alert me and then I quickly go out to the cage and put a weighted bucket in front of the door.

Then I put the fork in place and lock it in position with the included clip. I also lock the door with a caribiner. If the critter has to be in the cage for more than a few hours you can adjust the fork to slowly push the critter backwards so you can safely open the door and put water and food inside.

Then close the door and lock it. You can then readjust the fork to the front of the cage so the water and food are now on the side with the critter. It’s been quite handy all around and so very easy to use.

I was turned onto Tomahawk by a colleague who recommended them to me for trapping a local cat to be TNR’d. The issue is that when she recommended Tomahawk, and I used one of her’s it had a gated opposite end (Model 606NC) which allowed you to reach into the trap and remove / install the bait on the opposite side of the slam gate.

Makes it really easy to clean out or feed your trapped TNR kitty. Problem is, that I didn’t look at the description when I bought this #106 unit, as I assumed they all had the removable end on them. My bad, obviously.

They’re stilll a great trap, and work extremely well. The trap mechanism is superb. smooth and accurate. It’s a very high quality unit, and I will definitely use it. IMO, all these traps should have a removable end for easier access, but that’s just my opinion.

Good value, high quality product.

I’ve purchased a number of different Tomahawk traps, but this particular one is the best for a few reasons. One of the reasons is it’s a fantastic price for the quality you get. I think a paid around $50 something compared to the $87 for another Tomahawk model a bit heavier.

The second reason I would recommend this model is that it is a perfect size and weight. I’ve ordered others that are larger and heavier. No cat is coming out of this one though!! Very nice quality. The trip plate is larger than my other traps I believe.

Dual handles add to the benefit of hauling this around. I trap quite a bit for a number of colony cat feeders plus I help the local shelter with some of their complaints for trapping feral cats. I own 8 other traps including Safeguard and different Tomahawk models, so I’m speaking from experience.

If I decided to purchase any more traps, this is the one I’d go with.

My not so big frog pond was taken over by a huge snapping turtle who proceeded to eat all my frogs and rip apart my lily pads and I fear made holes in my liner. I didn’t want to hurt the turtle so I decided to try this turtle trap.

It worked great and I caught the turtle the first evening. I used sardines as bait and to release the turtle I just clamped the door open, flipped the trap and slid the turtle right out. I own some swampland so she was relocated in a good habitat although it is close enough to my pond that I fear I will be repeating this next spring.

Hey that’s ok because I now own a great turtle trap. Shipping was super fast, much quicker than the estimate they gave me.

Room for feral cat to transport to vet for neuter after line bottom with cardboard & paper. Easy to carry & operate. The rear door release is sturdy & open easy. Nice trap & work well. Recommend this product to all.

Price is great too. Used cage after neuter feral cat for a couple days to rest & heal-recover time–small area can work for small container of food-water or Small box for litter a short time. Need to line bottom of cage with cardboard & papers to clean easy & protect cat on wire bottom.

This is more of a criticism of the the add and the lack of instructions on how to set it properly and safely. There were no instructions included with the trap and while I found some online that were helpful the ad also neglects to tell you that you should use a safety device when setting it as everyone of the online instructions strongly recomend.

I don’t know how it works because I had to order the safety device that I didn’t know I needed until I looked at the instructions.

I recently purchased two Conibear 330’s to help my mother-in-law with her groundhog problem. This was my first time trapping an animal, so I was a little weary of buying my first traps. What I knew for sure was that I wanted the trap to dispatch the animal instantly and that I wanted them to be easy, and safe, to set.

Setting the trap turned out to be very easy and the safety bars gave me a lot of comfort while planting the set. After the trap was in place, I heard it activate after about 30 minutes. The groundhog was killed instantly, thankfully.

I’d highly recommend these traps (and I have since then) to anyone who sounds like they need them. Treat them carefully because they’ll rust on you. However, they’ll still work just fine.

I bought this to deal with the woodchuck damaging my garden and the skunks that keep robbing my squirrel traps (stinkin’ tree rats keep eating my corn; when skunks spring the traps, I get to deal with skunk smell and still lose corn).

I’m a novice trapper, so I blame my failure to capture any woodchuck or skunk on my lack of skill. But in a surprising and and funny twist, I nailed two squirrels that had become trap-wise to my modified rat traps with it.

You know, my corn went unmolested for the rest of the summer after that. Anything that helps me deal with the overpopulated squirrels taking food out of my children’s mouths gets an A+ in my book!.

Don’t buy these, unless you are willing to by the Bridger setting tool. The Conibear setting tool (that I will ready own) will not work on these traps. Otherwise, they are extremely difficult to set.

I could not even set them using a bench vise.

I have LITERALLY trapped, and subsequently released, 21 skunks in roughly 3 years. I did have to replace the plastic window on the top due to deterioration from the weather. The last skunk trapped literally broke out by breaking the trap under the window.

I now have a new trap. I would recommend this trap to anyone in need. Important note: as long as you release your skunk, further than 4 miles away, he/she will not be able to return to your area.

I always question those who give a product one star. I read the reviews before I bought this product. I watched the youtube video before buying this product and found it to be a sound design. That is not what you’re buying! Great thought with a sound design.

Manufacturing? A complete piece of junk!. Yes, it looks like it did in the video, Not the same product and does not operate the same. My review is NOT a reflection on WalMart. This is the first product I purchased, from this site, which is getting returned.

We are very happy with this trap. It was a little hard to figure out how to set it. the door pushes back and up. Not explained in any of the pictures/directions. Once set, we were good to go. We have had the trap out for 4 days and have caught 2 skunks.

Twice the trap tripped on its own during the night — maybe have been the wind. or some animal bumped it. It has a pretty touchy trigger, but it works great! Very happy with the results, and we would recommend this trap.

I purchased this product because feral neighborhood cats are ruining my gardens, and traditional trap cages didn’t do the trick. I was surprised it did not come with instructions, called the company, and was told where to go on line to watch a video.

I’ve set the trap with cat food and sardines. A few times the food was eaten overnight and the trap did not spring closed. I think the cats are not putting enough pressure on the tripping plate. So I’ve oiled and greased the spring mechanisms, and set it to work with the slightest amount of pressure.

I’m persistent, and have faith it will work sometime. The staff on the phone was very polite.

It’s been a while since I’ve bought traps but the ones I bought years ago I didn’t have to work on before they’d work. I’m sure after I do some filing or grinding on these they should work fine. Maybe normal but I like stuff that works right right out of the box.

Haven’t tried them all but the first two I took out of boxes didn’t work right.

I used fruit on and around the trap for bait. The groundhogs ate the fruit, played around the trap, high fived with their buddies and carried on for hours. Then when all the fruit was gone, there is always a dumbo in the group.

he went back to the trap to have another day of fun and the trap smacked closed on him. got em!. wife was happy and she made me happy later that night. reset the trap and waiting on another victory.

these look like theyll hold up over time but they did a garbage job of finishing the metal working on mine. both my #1 and #1. 5 have too much metal on the tips of the jaws. so the hole on the long spring is too small for the tips of the jaws to fit through.

meaning they WILL NOT OPEN at all until i file down the tips of the jaws a bit to fit through the hole. i will not purchase these again. i shouldnt have to work on them to get them to be useful. thanks for nothing sportsmans.

you guys owe me 20 minutes of my life back and a new file.

After not having luck at catching a groundhog in a caged trap for 6 weeks,,, I resorted to this trap. I literally caught 2 of them within 1 week after using this trap. I use mines as disposable. I throw away the groundhog and trap, since the prices are so reasonable.

These traps are very helpful, easy to setup, and disposable if you don’t want to go thru the hassle of touching a groundhog carcass.

The only thing I saw wrong with this item was the Brass screw and nut that holds on the foot release trap. It was so tight it would not work so I loosened it up and the nut was ready to fall off. I went to store and bought new ss.

screw and nylon locking nut so foot release would work freely. These are small traps to do over I should have bought larger traps. These will work for a while.

I have tried the black box trap, gassers and “chugging” for gophers with no success. One gasser was pushed back up through the dirt when I checked it the next day. The gophers completely fill the black box with dirt and never once have they sprung it.

The Victor EZ trap is the only trap with which I have had success. There is a learning curve and I had to watch a video on how to set it but once you learn how to set it and use it, it is very effective.

In just a few months, we have shot two with a shotgun and killed 13 with this trap. When you set this EZ trap, be sure that the two prongs under the plate at the back are just barely under the plate to make it more sensitive.

Be sure to tie a small chain to the trap and secure it above ground because sometimes the gopher isn’t killed immediately and pulls the trap further into the tunnel. Some people say not to touch the trap with your bare hands but I rarely use gloves and my scent has not prevented me from trapping 13 with the same trap.

I have tried other traps, with lukewarm success. I tried the Victor Easy Set, and it felt like one of those “no need for a better mouse trap” style scenarios. It is very easy to set, and the concept is bulletproof.

From here on out I won’t use anything else for gopher issues.

These are my favorite traps. They are easy to use and I have a high catch rate with them. I have been using them for over a year now on a large property where we are growing fruit and other trees and shrubs of various ages.

Moles love the roots! And they are very prolific! The Victor traps are consistently good.