Havahart 1088 Collapsible One-Door Cage Trap for Rabbit, Skunk, Mink, and Large Squirrels

I purchased this and requested next day Saturday delivery. I have had a squirrel terrorizing my garden for the past few weeks and I tried a few home remedies to no avail. This sucker must have eaten over 25 steak tomatoes and a greater amount in cherry tomatoes, I kid you not. That's when I decided to check Amazon for a squirrel trap. The trap arrived in time and I immediately assembled it to put it to work. Within a few hours, the squirrel was trapped successfully and I am hoping my problem has been solved. Perhaps there are more critters, so I have set it up again just in case.For Bait: I used some walnuts and almonds that I had in the pantry and put a spoonful of peanut butter on top of them. I put them in the bottom of a paper cup and ripped most of the top of the cup off so it was just a shallow paper dish. (hope that description makes sense)I only gave it 4 stars because the instructions are not great. They seem to be missing a few key points. Essentially you need to understand how the trap works to overcome what the directions lack. Secondly the construction/weight of the cage, although it worked, didn't give me piece of mind that the squirrel wouldn't jump out and attack me once I picked it up. There is also no easy way to open the cage when releasing the squirrel without having that same fear of a squirrel attack.

First, the instructions were not very good. I think they could have done a better job with this. I set the trap twice with the recommended food as peanut butter on bread or cracker.The squirrel came in to get the food ate it and left. Same thing second time. The damm squirrel came back in the trap ate the peanut butter bread and even took a crap in the trap and left. I have set the trap for a third time and know waiting to see if this does the trick.The lever bar doesn't stay engaged properly and seems to slip off. I modified it slightly to be sure it stays secure. I don't think I should have to modify the trap though. It should work properly without modification.

Something was terrorizing my veggie garden and after several night of sleuthing I discovered it was a young skunk! I tried putting up a fence but the little guy went right through it so I bought this trap and used cat foot as bait. The first 3 nights something (I assume the skunk) ate the food and triggered the trap but was not inside of it the next morning. Finally, this morning he was in there! I threw a towel over the cage and carried him to a neighboring canyon several blocks away and let the little guy go. He will be someone eleses problem now! ahahahah!I'm happy with the cage because it worked. It was difficult to set up as others have said. It is not spray proof but our skunk did not spray. I am not sure if we were just lucky or if it was because we used the towel or if it was because he could not lift his tail up all the way.Good luck fellow trappers!

I've owned a couple of Havahart's before in years past. I sold them in a garage sale for $10 apiece....What a dummy I was flr selling them so cheap and why the people buying them were so danged happy! These work great. It advertises rabbit, Skunk or Mink...Now, when's the last time you saw Mink rambling around the back forty??? I haven't but I did need this trap for the rats I have had running around the place. The neighbors have chickens, both of them, one 6 and the other 25. They protect their feed, pretty much, but there's plenty left on the ground around the feeders for the chickens. The mice & rats love it. So, the first night I set one of these up, I used a swath of peanut butter on the trip door, I caught TWO 2-3 pounders. They were almost as big as my cat, and therefore, why my cat leaves them alone. She could be their next meal if she isn't careful. We also have raccoons around her a lot. The adults are too big to fit inside but the youngsters up to about "half size" raccoons climb inside for a tasty treat. So, I've got a couple raccoons also. The rats still show up and I pick away at them when I can. These Havahart Traps work very well and are easy to use. I would reccomend them to my friends and family too. And, no more bloody rats to remove from an old fashioned sporing rat trap either...Not to be too graphic but I just drop the trap, rat or ? and all, into a medium tall plastic garbage can full of water...It's about 2" deeper than the trap is long. Drop'em in and then a simple trip to a small garbage bag and then the garbage...

We got this for a squirrel problem we were having and it didn't catch a thing. I don't know if it was because the squirrels were disinterested in the bait after they ate the first round without it springing, or if they just didn't wsant to venture into the trap so I'm giving it 2 stars for the benefit of the doubt but it didn't work for me at all.

This trap was fairly easy to setup. Took a little bending of the trigger mechanism to get the pressure right. The directions aren't the best but 20 mins later I had a working trap.I was able to catch two large sized squirrels and hopefully my attic is pest free.Quick Suggestion:Once you trap the animal, take a trash bag and stick the trap into the bag before handling the cage. In my case the squirrels were obviously distressed by being trapped and thus were pooping all over the place. The bag will catch the droppings and keep your floors clean. If you are using this trap outdoors then you won't need the bag.

While a little small this trap is still well built to catch wayward critters.The fold down option is nice as we don't always have our current ones set up all of the time, only when we need too. Stowing them when not in use means taking up space and we already seem to have too much junk in storage. We use a couple of live animal traps on a regular basis to catch various critters that seem to love our garden. We live close to a ravine that drains into a river very close by so even though we're in the city we get a lot of country critters. We always catch and release leaving the fur balls back in the ravine. We've discovered that eventually they learn that our garden is not friendly to them and they stay away, it might take being caught a few times but they learn.When I opened the box it seemed odd that something I use fairly regularly could be made fold down this flat. Pulling it out of the box it became clear that this wasn't just thrown together, everything seemed to fit nicely. The points where one panel is attached to another uses small sleeves that allow both panels to swing. The whole cage was unfolded in about 20 seconds. When it comes to something like this I like to take it head on without reading the manual just to see if it's made so that in a year from now after I've lost the manual I'll still be able to set it up. It was painless as every item that's used to go from flat to set up was logically made. It is a one door trap as are the others and we've never had any issues with catching critters. I never wanted to pay for a two-door trap, why spend money for two doors when one works just fine.All together without reading the manual it took me about 3 minutes to set it up the first time. Once set up it was actually quite sturdy. One thing I was first concerned with when comparing to out other traps was how lose this tap felt, things moved around. When all of the locking points are set up there is no movement. What I found missing were any kind of rods to push through it and secure it to the ground. This is needed to keep it from rolling if you catch a large enough critter and in frustration that it can't get out starts to rumble around in the trap. This can cause it to roll possibly hurting the critter and/or damaging the trap.The door and trigger were a little iffy getting connected and I had to bend the connection rods in order to get them together but once done, the trigger works very well. It doesn't take much to release the door, just ask the magpies we've caught. They weigh nowhere near as much as a skunk or Bubba the neighbour's cat. The trap is big enough to catch a good-sized cat. Thanks to Bubba our neighbours cat and first catch, we found out how easy it is to release the critter once trapped. We've also caught a good-sized Jack rabbit which made a bit of a ruckus and wasted no time high tailing it when released but he was big enough to dislodge the brick we had placed on top of the trap in an effort to keep it from rolling.We did get a couple of skunks, I know this because of the scent that was left behind but the skunks themselves were gone. I believe it's because they are big enough to reach the bait without getting their whole body in the trap and then they can squeeze back out past the not fully closed door. This is a small trap made to catch small critters so no points taken here. We also have the larger Havahart 1085 Easy Set One-Door Cage Trap for Raccoons, Stray Cats, Groundhogs and Opossums trap which does provide comfortable temporary accommodations for skunks and this is what it was made for.Overall the build quality is good. The materials used are plenty strong enough while still keeping the whole thing light weight.The high points:~Unfolds and is useable in under a minute~Folding up for storage takes about 2 minutes~Trap door once shut can't be opened by the critter but is easy for us to open and release said critter~Well designed for the size of animal it made for~Trigger is very sensitive, even a magpie will set it offWish it had:~A couple of included rods that can be pushed through the trap into the ground to hold in in place so it can't roll of be dragged off

This was really easy to use, and practical set up. It's well constructed, and and easy to bait, catch, and release.While trying this out, I managed to catch a few birds, squirrels, and even a chipmunk. It's a bit small for a raccoon, although I could see a baby one managing to squeeze in, or kittens.It folds up easily, and is easy to store until a problem animal comes along. I'd definitely recommend this for catching small rodents, as this steel trap is sturdy, and will likely be around for years!

We have a raccoon problem in our backyard. I wanted a humane way to trap them and set them free in a nearby forest. This trap works well as it helped me capture two raccoons in one week, and the trap did not appear to suffer any damage. The raccoons also did not seem harmed as well which was crucial to me. I was worried about a worse case scenario that they might try to break the metal trap and then maybe they cut themselves trying to escape, but I'm relieved that has not been the case. The hardest part was actually transporting the trap with the raccoon in it for me :)