Havahart 1040 Live Animal Two-Door Skunk, Muskrat, and Opossum Cage Trap

I live in Brooklyn, New York, and have no animal handling/trapping experience whatsoever. I opened the box of the Havahart 1040 trap, studied the triggering mechanism, and had it baited and set in place within 10 minutes. Within 30 minutes, I heard the sound of rattling metal, snuck a peek outside, and saw the squirrel in the trap. The squirrel was very large, and vigorously shaking the bars of the trap. Both doors were shut, and were in no danger of moving. Problem solved.The handle does a good job of allowing you to transport the trapped animal without exposing your hand to potential scratches or bites. I walked the trap (with the squirrel in it) through my house, out the front door, strapped it to my bike, then headed for a nearby park where I released it. Even on the back of my bike - going over potholes and a few speed bumps, the cage wasn't rattled enough to dislodge the doors. Since I've trapped that one squirrel, I haven't noticed any others in my yard - but this is most likely due to a very low squirrel population in my particular area.Shockingly, some people have questioned the ethical soundness of trapping and relocating a squirrel. I'm what you'd call "animal neutral". I have no positive or negative feelings towards any animals, but whether or not a New York City squirrel gets to live a long well-adjusted life in my back yard is of no concern to me. Also, this was an animal that dug up my garden, pissed on my furniture covers, and had a seemingly super-powered sphincter capable of discharging turds like a miniature gatling gun. If you're a city dweller considering trapping a squirrel, I'd recommend buying this trap. It really works.

I got the trap, set it up, and three days later caught the skunk that was making our house unlivable.Took a bit of fiddling to figure out how to set it. The instructions could have been just a little bit more clear, but that's a nit pick. Also, the first night I set it, I forgot to close the catches that hold the doors closed after the trap springs, and it was sprung the first night, so I might have caught the critter sooner and let it escape, not sure.Used kibbled cat food as bait. Seemed to work.Compared the single and double door traps. Not sure how much difference the two doors make, but a couple of previous single door traps we had borrowed in the past were not as successful. Also, Animal Control took the trap with them when the took away the skunk and we had to drive 7 miles and go through some hassle to get it back, so next time I will use the second door to get the skunk out of the trap into a box that I won't care about getting back.I was worried that the 7" x 7" trap would be too small for a skunk, but the skunk I caught was not an adult and was small enough to be able to turn around in it, so I think it would be fine for a larger skunk as well.It was a little tricky covering the trap to carry it out of the yard (to keep it away from our dog, "Stinky"). I laid one trash bag over the top, and then slid the trap into another trash bag. It's like the old joke: How do you put a skunk in a bag? Very carefully! But it worked fine.

Rife with manufacturing defects. Trigger rods and bait pan do not mesh. Bait pan is not level when the trap is set which tells you something is seriously off. More importantly if you do manage to set the trap, it WILL NOT TRIGGER without heavy weight on the bait pan, which no small animal can deliver. Can't lower one of the door locks when set, because the roof is warped that side. TRASH. What a disappointment, I had heard so many great things about this trap.

The quality of this trap is not as good as I thought. The doors should open in a horizontal position, but because of misaligned trigger mechanism, it one door opens in a near verticle positon. I have to force it down a bit to make sure it would close if the trigger is activated. My neighboor has a different brand and it is clear the quality of this trap and the sensitivity of the trigger is not as good as his. After more than one month I have caught 0 squirrels with this.

Havahart use to make quality traps. I have one I purchased back in the 1980's and it was made of heavy galvanized steel. This one is cheap sheet metal with a light weight cage. I'll bet a manager at the Woodstream company saw a way to get a huge bonus by cutting cost with inferior quality and leveraging the Havahart good name to turn a quick profit. Good for him but bad for the Woodstream company. I won't be buying havahart brand products again.

I purchased two of these traps to catch California Ground Squirrels that were invading our pigeon loft and eating the grain, eggs and baby pigeons. These traps work great! Ground Squirrels can't resist peanut butter on the trip mechanism. The key is to also smear peanut butter on the underside of the trip mechanism so the ground squirrels have to disturb the trip mechanism to get to it. I prefer the Havahart 1040 trap which is 30 inches long over the Havahart 1030 trap which is 24 inches long. The 1040 traps close quickly and easily every time. I have a problem with the 1030 trap not closing quickly and fully, maybe I don't have it adjusted right, so I put rocks on each trap door and it closes fine with the added weight. The downside to the 1040 trap is when disposing of the squirrels by drowning you will need either a kiddie pool or a deeper trash can to fully submerge the trap. Be sure to hold the trap door latch in place when submerging vertically or at an angle in a trash can or the squirrel will escape.My husband and I trapped 16 ground squirrels in 2 days using 3 traps.

Based on reviews, I purchased this product over the smaller 5"x5" version to catch squirrels and glad I did. I can see where the smaller version may not work well with long tail animals. I had no problem with the latch mechanism out of the box (as reported in other reviews). It took the the squirrels awhile to become brave enough to venture in, but within a couple weeks I'm down 4 squirrels and 1 rat. FYI, I use a half ear of corn as bait with an elastic band to secure it to the plate.