Need help.................turtle issue............snapper

[BarbO]

Addy I have heard of people using a raccoon trap, well baited with something tasty, at the pond edge or even right in the shallow water. When the snapper goes in to eat, the door shuts and he is trapped until you take the trap elsewhere and open it to let him out. Very safe for you.

 

[Hopenkroak]

The trap ideas all sound pretty good, that would be the easiest and safest thing to do.

I grabbed this guy out of our pond a few years ago, he was really making a mess of things. Moved him into a nearby river. They are quite strong at this size and can take off a finger if you are not familiar with handling them.

They are kinda cute when they are little, and very curious.

I suspect I will have to relocate him too when he gets to be 8 or 10 inches.

 

[addy1]

Addy I have heard of people using a raccoon trap, well baited with something tasty, at the pond edge or even right in the shallow water. When the snapper goes in to eat, the door shuts and he is trapped until you take the trap elsewhere and open it to let him out. Very safe for you.

We have a racoon trap, used it for ground hogs until I finally gave up on removing them. Seemed remove one, 5 came back................

We are going to figure out a way to get it secured in the pond where the turtle can breath but get caught. We have sardines may try them, used sardines to catch some real feral cats we had here. They had some bad diseases, lacking hair etc, took them to the pound. Years ago.

No way am I touching that turtle, we have some rivers, ponds that are wild here, will relocate the sucker. There is a small river pretty close.

 

[Lisak1]

They are quite strong at this size and can take off a finger if you are not familiar with handling them.

That is something people don't always take seriously. We have snappers travel through our yard in the spring and one year one got under my son's car. He needed to leave for work, so he was trying to coax him (actually, more likely her - they seem to move to find a spot to lay eggs) to move on so he could leave. He stuck a piece of furring strip under the car to give the turtle a nudge and pulled out HALF a furring strip. The turtle just snapped the other half clean off.

I was walking around our neighborhood ponds one afternoon (home of at least three giant snappers) and saw some young-ish boys (maybe 9-10) trying to coax one of them out of the pond. I had to pull out my phone and show them YouTube videos of what a snapper can do to convince them they maybe didn't want to mess with the Big Guy!

 

[addy1]

One reason it needs to be gone. I like to get into the pond, and it makes me not want to. I would worry about everything I touched with my feet or hands.

 

[j.w]

Yep it would be a done deal for me @addy1 I would never go in again! Good you have those cams to keep an eye out for any more once you get rid of this one.

 

[mrsclem]

Thats how I found out I had a snapping turtle. Saw his foot on the camera!

 

[addy1]

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A small treble hook, hooks bent just a bit to make it like two hooks, a real nice chunk of chicken gizzard, heart with the hooks buried in them. Tied the wire leader to two water type bottles so they would float.

We noticed the bottles were jerking just a bit so I went down to check it out. Took my net and pulled the bottles towards me up and out of the water. And the turtle was hanging on to the chicken for dear life. It was not hooked but in the process of swallowing the chicken pieces whole. Wrapped up in my hornwort. Didn't even see it at first.

The chicken just pulled right out of its mouth. Zero hooked.

A lot smaller than I thought.................being moved to a wild pond..............non damaged.

Hubby saying kinda cute, cute or not it is leaving the pond.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Yay! So glad you were able to capture him without any injury (to either yourself or the turtle! lol) They are cute - but definitely NOT welcome.

 

[Lisak1]

Perfect! He is kinda cute... in a "I'd like to bite the tip of your nose off" kind of way!

 

[j.w]

Yippee, Skippee for you, your fish and plants! Now you know what to do for next time one comes around looking for trouble. Take him far, far away!

 

[Tula]

Congratulations !!!!! Now you can get back to wading barefoot in your pond

 

[JamieB]

A common snapper! I don’t get those here, we get alligator snappers! Their shells are meaner looking, and they prefer meat to plants, fish are food for them.
This is a screen shot of one from online, I don’t have any pictures left of the one we caught roaming the yard.

 

[addy1]

Yeah those are nasty! Prefer my common one...............but still prefer it gone!