Larsen Magpie Cage Trap

How To Use

1. We suggest that trapping effort is restricted to spring and early summer.
2. This is the period of maximum game bird vulnerability and when magpies are setting up their breeding territory, and the time when Larsen traps are most effective.
3. An aid to trapping is the use of a previously caught call-bird. A crow is best as they dominate magpies in the wild. Uncaught territory holders think a single call-bird is an intruder, and will try to drive it away. They are very aggressive, and if the trap is left in peace, few are so shy that they will not get caught.
4. The licence allowing use of Larsens specifies that you must provide adequate food, water at all times, appropriate shelter and a perch that does not cause discomfort to the call-bird’s feet.Appropritate could be a soaked dry dog food.
5. You have a legal obligation under a General Licence to visit each call-bird at least once a day at intervals of not more than 24 hours to renew food and water.
6. Place the trap on the ground, especially for crows, which like to approach on the ground.
7. However, when trapping magpies among bushes, or in a dense hedge, raising the trap above brambles gives it a better chance of being seen
8. You can trap magpies with bait alone but you will need several traps to be sure of success and the strategy is rather different.
9. Although the trap should be obvious, birds will be more wary of it when there is no call-bird. So it is probably unwise to stand it out in the open. Put it among bushes, or at the base of a hedge or tree.
10. The best bait by far is the egg. However, crows and magpies seem to show a distinct seasonal response to eggs, and will only show keen interest when eggs are naturally available. Outside late March to late July, they are rather indifferent.
11. When you use eggs, aim to make the offering look like a depredated nest. Make a ‘nest’ of dead grass in one (only one) of the catching compartments, and arrange a clutch of five or six eggs in it. Cracked hens’ eggs are fine.Break two or three eggs around the trap, and leave the eggshells lying about.
12. Make sure that the trap is rendered incapable of holding or catching birds ‘when in the open and not in use’.