Havahart 0745 Extra Small 1-Door Humane Catch and Release Live Animal Trap for Squirrels, Chipmunks, Rats, Weasels, and Small Animals

At one time, we had a feline roaming around our house. He died in 2012 after 18 years on this planet and killing innumerable things around the yard. Birds, chipmunks, mice, moles, rabbits and shrews were all on his menu. Squirrels, not so much. Suffice it to say that upon his departure, all the aforementioned creatures were allowed to proliferate. Enter me. I returned to the house in PA after spending 12 years in FL. Seeing as I'm older and have reached the point in my life where growing a garden is not only acceptable, it is rather common, I decided to determine if I had a green thumb. The garden I made isn't large by any standard, but I've spent a fair amount of time and money into rock removal and improving the quality of the dirt. So much that it makes more sense to go to the farmer's market, but that's unrelated to this review. I start the plants in pots and transfer them when the last frost is gone, which in NEPA is roughly the end of May. The past two years I planted corn. Along the way I’ve learned a few things about planting that are useless to most people. The first year I planted a little corn, but it was scattered in the garden. When I got ears of corn that were half formed, I investigated and learned that the reason they’re planted close to each other is that they germinate one another. I was confident that I would be more successful the following year, which was 2014. Come May 2014, I proudly planted 30 corn stalks after they had grown a bit. Nice, even rows, almost like a professional. Fast forward a day or two and imagine my horror when I went to check on them and several stalks, I’m talking 10 or more of them, were laying on the dirt next to a perfectly dug up circular area. Hmmm. What was going on? It turns out that even though there is a small stalk and they’re large enough to transplant, the corn kernel remains on the end until it finally disintegrates. Enter the chipmunks that had proliferated over the past 2 years since our cat’s death. They sniffed out this little sweet nugget, dug them out of the ground, ate it and left the remnants for me. They didn’t even care about the ‘critter ridder’ that I had liberally sprayed around the garden’s perimeter. This was almost a spiteful act on their behalf. I thought a bit about them and how at first they were somewhat cute to watch as they frolicked in the yard and in a wood pile. Now, I seriously wanted to exterminate them. I thought that no matter what I did now, I would have half ears of corn again. Sure enough that happened. Now we’re in 2015 and I’m a year wiser. At least I’d like to think so. I scoured the vault of intellectual wealth known as the internet for ways to rid these now annoying rodents from my property. One way had me luring them with sunflower seeds into a bucket filled with water. Heck, I could shoot them and put them out of their misery more quickly. I do have a heart, you know. And as fate would have it, I found traps made by Havahart. How cute. I decided on this size to capture chipmunks, and I’m glad I did. I found that it was difficult to get the trap to trip when it was new. You basically are supporting the weight of the gate on a small bar against a bar coming from the platform where you place your lure. The concept is to have the critter step on the platform, which is like a seesaw in that it’s mounted on a rotational axis through its center. The critter steps on the platform, the platform rotates, the bars separate and the door closes. Easy, right? Well, it’s a bit more difficult as chipmunks don’t weigh much and it’s hard for them to move the platform. I performed some minor mods, which included sanding any high spots where the two small round bars touch each other. I spread out the eyes on the two bolts that hold the platform in place. A small screwdriver is enough to do that. I also added some penetrating oil to that area, too. I also make sure that everything is clean and that things are moving as freely as the last time I set it. Seeing as it’s made of metal, it can be affected by being outside and the waste the critters leave behind. Last but not least, I always set the trap such that it’s tripped when the critter steps on the platform and not when it gets to the backside. And always have as little metal to metal contact from those two small bars as possible. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll see what I mean should you purchase this item. These minor improvements and techniques have enabled me to catch 20 chipmunks so far. I think I’ve had this trap for a little over a month, and I don’t even set it every day. The most effective lure I’ve used are black walnuts. We have a tree in our yard and cracked a few last year. I suppose any nut would work, but believe it or not, peanut butter didn’t seem to work. Anyway, I’ve relocated all of them with the exception of one that had died in the trap. There were two in the trap at the same time, and while I have no idea how they got in there at the same time, either there was a territorial fight or it was just his time. I take them half a mile away, open the door and they scurry off into the wilderness. Since there is no scent trail to follow back to my house and they're not ‘homing’ chipmunks, I don’t think they’ll be back anytime soon. That’s not to say that others won’t take their place.

I got the Havahart X-small to trap rats when the many Victor Power Kill Rat Trap M144 failed to do the job. I set up in a place where the rats have been storing flower seeds for their midnight snack and party. I had some roasted un-shelled peanuts from Costco, which were over-roasted and awful by the way, and decided the rats may like it with their beers. I cracked open a couple and toss it in front of the cage door, and scattered a few more inside the cage and a couple more behind the trip plate near the end of the cage. The cage sat there for almost 2 months and rats keep storing seeds and having their party in front of the cage door, ignoring my savory peanuts. I even offer to quench their thirst with a jar lid full of anti-freeze. No takers. There were definite signs or rat activity, poop and seeds that keep showing up. Well, this morning, guess who is in trapped in the cage? Yes, Mr, or Ms, Rat. It had eaten all the peanuts except the one behind the trip plate. I guess the moral of the story is don't give up. When it gets hungry enough, it will eat anything. I don't like to use peanut butter, because the only thing I ever caught with it are ants. It is really easy to set up the trap, nothing that will scare the whatever out of you when the trap accidentally goes off, like the spring loaded traps. Setting it up takes less than 3 seconds once you understand how it works, and that is not hard. The door has a metal clip so you can remove the door completely within a second to depose of the rat. This is a live trap, so do whatever you need to do to depose of the critter. 2nd update April 14, 2014 This is a fantastic trap. After catching 3 rats in a few days, I thought I was done so I put it away for a couple of weeks until the dog alerted me to a rat's presence. I set it out with my Costco unshelled peanuts and caught it overnight. I reset the trap and the rat ate all my bait without setting off the trap. I checked the trap and noticed the trigger plate didn't operate as smoothly as it did before. I reset it and it caught the 5th rat overnight. Set it up again and the 6th rascal ate all the peanuts in the cage but not the ones beyond the trigger plate. Again, the hinges on the trigger plate and door mechanism seem to stick a little from the weather. I spray a drop or less of silicon spray from Home Depot on all the moving parts, include the plastic door jamb, and every part was moving very smoothly, better than new. The silicon spray doesn't smell like WD40. This time, I place more peanuts behind the plate so the rats could see it better and add one peanut on top of the trip plate as a teaser. Overnight, it caught number 6. I wonder, are there that many rats coming from the hills, or are the peanuts attracting the ones from my neighbors' houses? With this success, I changing my ratings from 4 to a stellar 5. I suspect the buyers who didn't like these traps, aren't setting up the cages in dark covered areas or near walls because rats don't like to be out in the open. Set in a place where there is rat poop and where they have eaten food or made a nest. Don't set it in the same area where you previously killed rats. I think they can smell where other rats had died and will avoid it, that is why the live trap is so successful for me. I will set the trap back up until I don't catch any more in a month.

En mi caso lo compré por ratones medianos... como de las 6 noches que lo he puesto he atrapado 3 ratones... por lo que lo recomiendo bastante... es muy simple de instalar, aparte que lei en los comentarios que el infalible es con crema de cacahuate, lo que me dió excellentes resultados... el problema únicamente es matarlos... en mi caso me los llevo como 20 cuadras lejos de mi casa a liberarlos hahaha

Werkt prima. Gemakkelijk te stellen.

J’avais beaucoup de difficulté à éradiquer les écureuils indésirables qui endommageaient ma propriété ! Cette cage est ultra efficace… plus besoins de les éliminer… quelques graines de tournesol des deux côtés et sur la détente. La seule chose à ne pas oublier, remettre en position blocage sur les portes les deux tiges destinées à cet effet. Sans quoi… l’animal n’as qu’à pousser sur les portes et s’enfuir. Fonctionne très bien aussi pour les Tamia. Je vous le recommande !!!!

I bought this item having read the reviews, all of the positive reviews are spot on, I have caught five squirrels in four weeks, but not baited every day, two of which were extremely canny creatures and one them escaped but could not resist the next days food contents although it was very wary it was recaptured. The recommendations are leave a trail of 4 or 5 hazelnuts or similar from just outside the trap and a few inside to entice the blighters and get them used to entering the trap and leaving quickly, leave a 'real treat' at the back of the trap beyond the footplate that trips the door. I used pieces of stale bread with some walnut oil on it and garnished it with peanut butter all in a very small muffin case, they could not resist, I have not had to wait long for a result as canny as they are but the reason one managed to escape is because put onto the grass lawn can stop the trap door from falling 100% as the grass can hold up the door ever so slightly. I overcame this by placing the trap in a short plank of timber which kept the grass away from the door baseline. Boy was the squirrel angry when he fell for it a second time it worked hard to open the door from the inside but soon realised that it was in vain. Two pieces of advice though; May and June are good trapping months as squirrels forage and cause damage to crops extensively having eaten their larder contents over the winter and this seasons nuts and berries have not matured enough to be eaten yet. Only set the trap up if 'you' are available to safely and humanely deal with the trapped creature within an hour of capture as with the early summer heat unnecessary distress can easily be caused to them. These traps are well made and effective I would highly recommend if used correctly and humanely..

Love this cage! We've had the bigger Havahart 1077 cage that we purchased a decade ago to trap and relocate nuisance squirrels. We had a batch that was creating quite the mess on our soffits and killing them wasn't something I felt comfortable with. We had mixed success catching rats (we moved and are located close to a creek so we get lots of rats). Rat poison is not something we felt comfortable with and the larger cage we had wasn't sensitive enough to trigger the door. Bait would get eaten all the time it was frustrating! We put a security night vision cam directed at the larger cage to see what was going on. The rats would go in and out without triggering, it was funny to capture the travels on the "rat cam". In looking at other Havahart cages, I felt this smaller 0745 one might be better. Ordered it with free shipping, I was willing to wait. Within 24 hours of receiving it, I caught three critters! Baiting it with peanut butter I was able to catch a squirrel, reset it and catch a rat the first night and after resetting it caught another squirrel within hours! The lever is very sensitive (great design!) so it would likely catch the smallest rats (or even mice possibly). LOVE IT!!!! I like the way I can remove the door to rebait without thinking it's going to snap close on me like the bigger Hanahart 1077 trap I was using. Get the right version for the critter you need to catch. This one works beautifully for squirrels and rats. I now have to find someone in town with a snake that needs live feed... Might as well put these critters to good use! LOL I'm posting "ratcam" pictures for amusement. Enjoy!