I made a few one year by using 1"x1" stiff mesh wire and made the main body of the trap round, with slightly oversized oval-shaped doors that could only swing inward but not outward. They worked OK but I didn't really use them much beyond a season or two. The cost and time I had in them wasn't a lot less than a couple new $3-ish priced lower-end #110 models, and with #110s I could at least put them in my backpack. I rarely caught doubles in my "colony" traps anyway, so a couple #110s along the same run outside of a bank den would have been just as productive in the sets I tried them at. I have since just gone to multiple settings of #110s along decent runs vs. trying to use colony traps in the same run. I also tend to pick up quite a few mink in my rat run sets, something that I can pick up if I set more than one #110 in a hot run. I often just leave on #110 in the run for several days after the rat catch drops off and I generally snag a mink or two this way. I'm not convinced that would happen if I had used colony traps in this same run.
Just my two cents anyway...
Jim
