porkcupines

[panman]

Do any of you trappers know how to trap porkies?.I have had two great dogs blinded by them.I have a new pup and want to teach her not to mess with them.I sure can use some advice.thank you a bunch.pan.

[IntrepidWizard]

porkupines are protected as they are so easy to kill for food in and emergency.As to your dogs ,nothing but pain will cure a dog and even then they go back for more ---not unlike a skunk.

[panman]

Protected??. Not here,this is logging country.The paper companys dont want them killing the trees.Besides,whos protecting my huntin dogs,on MY OWN LAND.I have correcting electric collars to zap the dog if he gos near a porkie in a cage.I got to do something,and thats about all i can think of pan.

[T-Bar]

panman,

I gathered that it's easiest to live trap them, and I've read that they love salt.

Here's a paragraph from an article I found:

Porcupines have a taste for salt, succulent plants, fruits, vegetables,
tool handles, wooden wheel barrow handles, boat oars,
porch furniture, toilet seats, saddles, tires or anything else which may have had salt on them. Wooden tool handles absorb salt from sweat which is certain to attract feeding porcupines. Any automobile which travels on salted roads in the winter will be absorbing a lot of this mineral which will lure porcupines to feed on the tasty tread.

The article also said that they usually have a large range and only stay in one spot until they exhaust their food supply. Hope this helps, and good luck!!

[Bogmaster]

Porcupines are not protected in MN either.I see several every spring when doing my beaver.Landowners in the north country take a dim view of the quill pigs---some trees they whittle on look like it was done by a 20 foot beaver.
 I have never tried to live trap them,but if you take a slow walk through the woods,you should be able to stumle on to one.
 Tom

[panman]

Thank you T-Bar and Bogmaster.I have read all i can about porkies and know about their passion for salt.I was hopeing that someone knew of a trick to bring the stick pigs in.I guess salt it is.Ill try it again.[last time the moose bent my have-a hart traps so bad they were trash].Well back to the drawing board.Iv also tryed to find them in the woods,but, im disabled and it hard for me to get around in the woods a lot.My dogs mean a lot to me,[as in family].Thanks again for your help.if anyone else has any other ideas,please let me know.pan.

[Bubber]

I had no idea that porkys were protected anywhere, but know they aren't around here. I have never live trapped them. But they are easy to catch. When I was little I had an old #3 longspring with only one spring which I had well waxed, I would bed it in coarse salt up against a rim rock. I caught many this way. Most of the ones I catch anymore are in cat sets that are up against rims. But they are easily brought in with salt. This is why one should never leave an axe outside. I have seen them come in and chew up the handles several times.

[Newt]

----------STORY TIME-------------

Long long ago  before treated lumber and steel billboards.I must have been in my late teens or early 20's
Living here on the coast.Near Atlantic City I had excess to used lumber from what they built Billboards out of.If you ever go to Atlantic City you have see them.The billboards are built out on the salt meadows. With the storm tides and salt spray in the air,the wood becomes very salty.
 So one day I said to my self.
 "SELF"
 I am gona take some of this lumber up to Dads hunt'n camp in Potter county Pa. and build my self a new deer sand. Or should I say a new fort in a tree, to shoot deer from.
After about 3 days work it was done. What a stand, roof and all.
 I built the stand in August. Bow season came in, in October.Man I was ready.
  SSSOOOOOO before day break on opening day ,I go up the mountain. I cant find my stand ? Why ? I been on this mountain since I could walk. I know where I built it. But it aint there.The hell with it,I'll find it at first light.
   Up comes the sun, and down go's all my hope of kill'n a deer out of that tree stand. All that was left was some nails in the tree. Some short pices of wood the the porkeypines havent finished eat'n yet.

The morral of the story !

 So dont use billboard lumber taken from the coast. To build a deer stand in the mountains.

[Newt]

I will have you guys know that it only took me 57 minutes to type that story.

[Wackyquacker]

Not only are porkies not protected in NM, most cattleman would uyp and slap you for releasing one; turns out they are very problematic with the heifers.

I do not target porkies, mind ya, but they can be snared with great ease.

[Bubber]

Wacky, you got that right. I about hit a guy from the irrigation company with a shovel once when I found out he stood idly by and let one of our little bull calves get into one. As a matter of fact not hitting that sonofagun is one of the few regrets I have from the past few years. It took me over an hour to pull all the quills out of that poor calfs face and that is after I got it in the chute. They are a major irritation. Do your local farmer a favor and dispose of them if legal, if they ever pulled quills, they will thank you.

I seldom target them, but I enjoy catching them, as long as it isn't in a cat set. I can get more money off of a large porky's gaurd hair and claws than I can from an average coyote. I didn't catch any this year, but my dad averaged I belive $18 an ounce for his porky hair. I think I averaged 15 cents a piece on some claws left over from last year. If you have the time and mindset to pull them, clean quills are worth money too. Plus porky meat makes mighty fine bobcat bait, its about par with beaver in my mind.

[Wackyquacker]

Dang bubber, don't cha know a beavers nothin more than a porky in a wet suit! :-D

[panman]

Thanks guys,i needed a good laugh.pan.

[mole]

If you want to catch hedgehogs,porkupines any fox,cyote,cat urine is all the attractor you need. I have got to many to count in dirthole sets.
 As far as training a dog to avoid these creatures,it has been my experence that some dogs learn the first time to stay away from them. Then there are those that will never learn. A friend of mine has taken his dog to the vet many times to get quills removed. He just wont learn.
  Just a side note; We had a hedgehog eat an aluminum teapot .

[RdFx]

One way to collect quills  is take a piece of styrofoam and hit porky (live or deceased LOL ) and then collect quills and lay them  in orderly fashion.  Ive collected alot of quills and hair for  fly tying and it works well for me... if anyone  else has ideas on to better collect them  post it on this  subject.

[Bogmaster]

Just got back from a very short beaver trip,porkies were all over the place.Several times,I had to stop the truck and let them meander out of the way.
 Another good way to get quills,is to swat them with an old baseball cap.
 Tom