Specimen live traps.

[+biosearch]

Here goes. I work in the biology department of a local university. We use, or have used, live capture traps for small rodents. When we are not using them we often leave them in place and just spring the trap so that nothing gets trapped in it and left unchecked to die a horrible painful death of starvation (had to add that in). I was thinking that it might be interesting to use one of these as a cache. Not seen that anyone had done that in the past.

 

Or perhaps other items that may be used in the field by biologists, seismologists, ecologists, paleontologist, etc.

 

Many of these things could simply be the cases for old instruments that are no longer functioning, or are so out of date they are just sitting around gathering dust.

 

Wonder if anyone has ever done this, or perhaps if it has been discussed on the forums (as everything has apparently been ad nauseum (hating micros comes to mind)...

 

Looking forward to any responses

[+CM-14]

I would be hesitant to put my hand in anything that looks like it may take it off...

[+Kit Fox]

<devious>Imagine a cacher builds a "puzzle cache" where finders get trapped when they remove the logbook. The puzzle is to use your brain and figure out how to get out. </devious>

 

I've seen a few caches that were built to look like bait stations for rodents, but never the repeating style trap like you mention. The problem with a trap like you describe, being used as a cache, is the potential contact with dried rodent feces, and urine that may accumulate in the trap. I wouldn't be a happy cacher if I contracted Hanta Virus, logging your cache.

Edited February 15, 2007 by Kit Fox

[+Snifferhound]

 

Many of these things could simply be the cases for old instruments that are no longer functioning, or are so out of date they are just sitting around gathering dust.

 

Wonder if anyone has ever done this, or perhaps if it has been discussed on the forums (as everything has apparently been ad nauseum (hating micros comes to mind)...

 

Looking forward to any responses

 

I have only hidden one cache and used the case for an air monitor as the container. It is a "pelican" style case, very waterproof. A comment by the FTF was that it was the nicest container he had ever seen. For me, it was just an old box that was collecting dust. If I could think of a way to hide it, I know where I could get one that is about 3 feet square and a foot thick!

[+biosearch]

<devious>Imagine a cacher builds a "puzzle cache" where finders get trapped when they remove the logbook. The puzzle is to use your brain and figure out how to get out. </devious>

 

I've seen a few caches that were built to look like bait stations for rodents, but never the repeating style trap like you mention. The problem with a trap like you describe, being used as a cache, is the potential contact with dried rodent feces, and urine that may accumulate in the trap. I wouldn't be a happy cacher if I contracted Hanta Virus, logging your cache.

 

A cache wouldn't have any rodent feces in it as it would have been cleaned, disenfected and closed so that no rodents/small mammals could get in. It would also have no bait, no reason for a rodent to show any interest in it at all. I was thinking of wiring it shut and cutting a space on the bottom. I could probably have access to a number of these that are old and inoperable. Just a thought, your concerns and comments are why I posted this.

[+nameless301]

I think it would be a good idea, I mean it sounds interesting, my dad use to have one of those cages to catch cats on our property but he doesn't use it anymore. I think it would be an interesting cache.

 

<devious>Imagine a cacher builds a "puzzle cache" where finders get trapped when they remove the logbook. The puzzle is to use your brain and figure out how to get out. </devious>

 

I also like that cache idea, haha.

[BRTango]

I think it would be a good idea, I mean it sounds interesting, my dad use to have one of those cages to catch cats on our property but he doesn't use it anymore. I think it would be an interesting cache.

 

<devious>Imagine a cacher builds a "puzzle cache" where finders get trapped when they remove the logbook. The puzzle is to use your brain and figure out how to get out. </devious>

 

I also like that cache idea, haha.

 

I'm horrible at puzzle caches... I'd be stuck there for days. Any chance someone would come along and drop off food and drink while I try and figure it out?

 

Back on the OPs topic, sounds like an interesting container choice, I'd be interested in seeing how you set it up

[CoyoteRed]

I'm always hesitant to approve of a hide type that may create a paradigm where you could have folks messing with the real thing. This sounds like one of them. If you don't mind folks messing with your real--live and active--traps, then by all means. Otherwise, I'd say it's not a good idea.

[+Gator Man]

I have found a few caches (micros) that turned out to be planted in the vicinity of black plastic rodent traps. I was smart enough to NOT stick my hand in one looking for the micro. I don't think you should condition people to the practice by actually making one into a cache.

[+Renegade Knight]

Paint it and mark it "geocache". Make sure to obliterate and paint over the "Live Rodent Trap Warning Hanavirus spreading device and toxic bait that will make you sterile if you even think about touching it" warnings.

 

Other than that if it keeps the log book and contents dry, it's just another container.

[+The Herd]

My only concern with a tomahawk or sherman rodent trap might be some cacher logging the cache, then setting the trap when they leave, perhaps allowing a squirrel or chipmunk to become trapped and dead for the next cacher to find.

[+jasond]

If this type of container were hidden at the coordinates, I would assume it was the cache. I would also do a little investigating without endangering myself to make sure it was the cache. If I'm not FTF, I would probably have read something about the container in the logs that would clue me in to the container housing the cache.

 

Sounds like a terrific idea to me. A little dangerous? Perhaps in some ways. But then again, someone always has something negative to say about a creative hide. I'd do it.

[knowschad]

Can you post a picture of a "specimen live trap", please? I tried to Google it, but didn't find anything.

[+Confucius' Cat]

I'm always hesitant to approve of a hide type that may create a paradigm where you could have folks messing with the real thing. This sounds like one of them. If you don't mind folks messing with your real--live and active--traps, then by all means. Otherwise, I'd say it's not a good idea.

 

If this type of container were hidden at the coordinates, I would assume it was the cache. I would also do a little investigating without endangering myself to make sure it was the cache. If I'm not FTF, I would probably have read something about the container in the logs that would clue me in to the container housing the cache.

 

Sounds like a terrific idea to me. A little dangerous? Perhaps in some ways. But then again, someone always has something negative to say about a creative hide. I'd do it.

 

I agree with CR.

 

And jasond's assumption, if it was WRONG, would then cause the innocent cacher to tamper with someone's trap, WHICH IS A CRIMINAL ACT.

 

I had a run-in last year with a trapper because I simply STEPPED ON his trap which he (unknowingly) placed within 10 feet of a cache. By the time everybody was done with all their threats and baloney you woulda thought I was public enemy #1!

 

i wasn't "tampering" with his trap-I got "caught" in it! Still, I was the "criminal!".

 

A cache that looks like a trap: BAD IDEA

 

We have enough bad press with other outdoor hobbies. We don't need to upset yet another sportsman's group.

[+biosearch]

Can you post a picture of a "specimen live trap", please? I tried to Google it, but didn't find anything.

 

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/noid341/album/...8804234364989/0

 

Here is a link to an image of one type. Really doesn't look like much, the ones I have access to look a bit more like a trap. Either way, a waterproof container would have to be added to the inside. The whole idea was to place a cache that looked like something that might have a reason to be where it is.

 

Confucius Cat, sounds like you just got into a bad situation.

 

I'm thinking if they can have a cache out there that requires a geiger counter to solve, a small mammal trap shouldn't be a problem. What I was really looking for were other cachers thoughts on whether it would be an interesting idea for a cache. The other issues, well we do take part in a very odd past-time, if you look at it from the outside. No matter what is done, there is going to be some sort of problem. But then the same thing goes with climbers, cavers, etc.

[mtbikernate]

I think I'd frown upon this sort of cache container. Being in the biological sciences myself, I would be awful upset if CoyoteRed's proposed situation occurred (folks see your cache and get conditioned to looking for and checking small mammal traps to see if there's a cache inside) to one of MY traps with an animal inside that was then released because the cacher wasn't expecting a cranky field mouse inside. Not to mention that sort of tampering would pretty much trash any research I was trying to conduct.

 

That sort of cache container would make every field biologist's life much more difficult. Not only would we have to think about placing them according to our research protocols, but we would then have to spend hours disguising them better than the average geocache.

[+biosearch]

I think I'd frown upon this sort of cache container. Being in the biological sciences myself, I would be awful upset if CoyoteRed's proposed situation occurred (folks see your cache and get conditioned to looking for and checking small mammal traps to see if there's a cache inside) to one of MY traps with an animal inside that was then released because the cacher wasn't expecting a cranky field mouse inside. Not to mention that sort of tampering would pretty much trash any research I was trying to conduct.

 

That sort of cache container would make every field biologist's life much more difficult. Not only would we have to think about placing them according to our research protocols, but we would then have to spend hours disguising them better than the average geocache.

 

Ah, you've hit on the second reason to do this, to screw with the mammalogists and ecologists and their nasty smelly animals. Perhaps it would convince them that botany is the real way to go, it is far more difficult after all (I mean how many species do you really have to work with, as opposed to us plant guys). Nothing like messing with them, just for the fun of it.

 

Seriously, I would be certain that anywhere I placed one would not interfer with any studies, I know pretty much were everything of that sort is going on around here (from Nature Preserves guys to the local universities ). I also doubt that it would drive people to start looking for them. And then the chance of other caches being in proximity to something like this. Besides, if there are any traps near other caches, I'm pretty certain that it would attract the attention of cachers regardless of whether there were caches put out in them.

 

But, that said, with the split decision that I've seen here I'm pretty much leaning away from this approach for a cache.

 

(Really, mammalogists and ecologists aren't all that bad, someone has to buy the beer.)

[+OHMIKY]

<devious>Imagine a cacher builds a "puzzle cache" where finders get trapped when they remove the logbook. The puzzle is to use your brain and figure out how to get out. </devious>

 

The solution being the double-bitted axe that is just barely within reach?

[Clan Riffster]

I remember seeing a picture of one that was a leg snap type trap, (the springs were rendered inert), with a cache affixed to the trigger. I think it was in the CCC thread. I thought this was an ingenious use of resources. I'd say, "Go for it!".

[+The Herd]

I do small mammal trapping behind the nature center that I work at, primarily for educational purposes. These traps are often two or three hundred feet from a cache back here.

 

I do remember buying a mosquito foothold trap at a gas station in the UP a couple summers ago. It'd have to be a micro though!

[+CYBret]

I seem to recall reading about a cache that was hidden near a bigfoot trap in the PNW. That'd be fun!

 

Bret

 

Edit: Found it. Looks like fun

Edited February 16, 2007 by CYBret

[k_statealan]

I came across a cache that was labeled National Weather Service recording station or something like that. It was a box along a fenceline with a PVC tube sticking out of it ostensibly to catch rain. The pipe ran all the way through and just dripped onto the ground. It had a 3-digit number padlock on it and the cache name was the code. I knew it was the cache, but my palm pilot had zapped all its memory after I left home so I didn't have the number and didn't want to spend 2 hours fiddling with the lock in a residential neighborhood. I hated not being able to log that one because its not likely that I'll make it back out there anytime soon, if ever. Its about a 7 hour drive from home in SW Kansas.

[BRTango]

 

Ah, you've hit on the second reason to do this, to screw with the mammalogists and ecologists and their nasty smelly animals. Perhaps it would convince them that botany is the real way to go, it is far more difficult after all (I mean how many species do you really have to work with, as opposed to us plant guys). Nothing like messing with them, just for the fun of it.

 

<snip>

 

 

Ok... I'm game. What kind of bait does a botanist use to coax a live plant into a trap. And... once the bait is set, how long does it take for the plant to actually get there. Wouldn't it just be easier to just go to the plant? It's not like your going to scare it away or anything. It's kinda "rooted" to the ground (pun intended).

 

Silly botanist... trying to use traps to catch a plant... heh!!

[k_statealan]

 

Ah, you've hit on the second reason to do this, to screw with the mammalogists and ecologists and their nasty smelly animals. Perhaps it would convince them that botany is the real way to go, it is far more difficult after all (I mean how many species do you really have to work with, as opposed to us plant guys). Nothing like messing with them, just for the fun of it.

 

<snip>

 

 

Ok... I'm game. What kind of bait does a botanist use to coax a live plant into a trap. And... once the bait is set, how long does it take for the plant to actually get there. Wouldn't it just be easier to just go to the plant? It's not like your going to scare it away or anything. It's kinda "rooted" to the ground (pun intended).

 

Silly botanist... trying to use traps to catch a plant... heh!!

 

What if its a tumbleweed?

[+cache_test_dummies]

I seem to recall reading about a cache that was hidden near a bigfoot trap in the PNW. That'd be fun!

 

Bret

 

Edit: Found it. Looks like fun

That's great, CYBret. Thanks for the link.

 

One of our local cachers recently stumbled into a rather strange looking animal trap at the Creature Hunt cache in Massachusetts.

[+One of the Texas Vikings]

Oh, now there is a great idea !!!!

 

 

Sorry.... had to do that !

[+trail hound]

Here's a picture of one of my caches... It's a water proof match holder

 

[Clan Riffster]

Yeah, that's it! That is so freakin' kewl!

[+McPhan]

<devious>Imagine a cacher builds a "puzzle cache" where finders get trapped when they remove the logbook. The puzzle is to use your brain and figure out how to get out. </devious>

 

With SAW 3 in the can, is this the plot of SAW 4?

[+biosearch]

Started a thread and then had to leave it for awhile. Some great ideas here. It seems that there are both positive responses and negitive ones. I'll have to think about this one. I do like the spring trap.

 

As for plant traps, I used to use them but I had to stop when a mammologist and then an ecologist got to close to them, got curious and managed to get themselves trapped. One of them withered away to nothing and the other one, luckily, I ran across and helped him lift up the mounting paper and get to safety.........

[+Jhwk]

Oh yeah, the bear trap cache.

 

Now we are adding excitement and true danger to caching...