The number 6 grizz catcher

Grizz traps -- god-awful devices and troubling reminders of the past.

Gone are California's grizzlies, and gone are the absent-minded vaqueros who undoubtedly stumbled into those gaping jaws of steel hidden in the chaparral.

And woe betide any latter day codgers who play Russian roulette with such deadly toys.

Have you noticed that those springs are wired open?

Well, that's why. Codgers and teen age boys are attracted to such things.

According to A.R.Harding's Project Gutenberg EBook of Steel Traps:

"This is known as the No. 6 or Grizzly Bear Trap and has a spread of jaws of 16 inches. It weighs complete, 42 pounds. This is the strongest trap made. The manufacturers say they have never heard of anything getting out of it when once caught. It is often called 'the Great Bear Tamer.'"

The treadle in the Ebook was simply labeled "No. 6", but this particular one was also stamped with the name of our extinct state mammal:

My friend Paul -- proud owner of a Lickety Splitter, collector of old gadgets, old bottles, old Italian sports cars, and antique tractors among other things -- found it recently at a swap meet.

We get together twice a year, and since we inevitably talk of old things I always ask if he's found any grizz traps.

It's kind of a joke, but damned if he didn't find one, buy it, and give me right of first refusal.

The problem was this -- where do you put a grizz trap?

So I tactfully posed the question. 

"Don't you think it would add a wonderful touch of frontier California to the patio?" 

The redhead didn't agree.

And so I wistfully demurred.

"No problem," said Paul, "I can always find a buyer or swap it for something else."

But he agreed to hold onto it until I stopped by to take some pictures.

A month later we spent a fine day together, and I could tell he was growing fond of the Number 6.

"At our age," he reflected, "you have to decide what you don't need, and what you want to own when you die."

"I think I may just keep it."

"There's a screw-clamp that came with those traps," he continued, "to clamp the springs and open the jaws."

steel trap setting clamp

"I've seen a few for sale, but I never knew what they were."

"I may get one of those too."

A memento of Alta California -- a 42 lb contrivance of spring steel, forged in Massachusetts 130 years ago, shipped to California, forgotten in someone's shed --- has found a new home.

The rest of No. 6's story we will never know.

More on bamboo bamboo rat traps

Wa oo or bamboo root

The best bait to catch a bamboo rat is onion, garlic, or other aromatic roots from the forest.

The bait is tied or pierced by bamboo cord that has been worked over an edge and twisted to make it pliable.

A clove of garlic is an irresistable bait.

The wire or string noose is smoothed against the inner circumference of the tube.

The bait cord is fastened with a knot through a hole under the bamboo tube, and the other end is tied around the splint that is attached to the rubber band on top. 

The peg anchors the noose, the bait cord and one end of the rubber band.

The rubber band is lashed to a post -- a foot-long splint of bamboo tightly fitted into slots at the back of the tube. 

The post is tapped into a narrow slot.

After setting the trap the trapper carries it to a crop field, enlarges an active burrow and inserts it.

Then he covers it with dirt.

The bamboo rat always cuts the bait cord which releases tension on the rubber bands and snaps the noose tight around its neck. 

Before the days of rubber bands, a flexible bamboo post was whittled down to serve as a spring pole. 

A final observation: bamboo rats are valued as a cure for rheumatism, and in Myanmar the belief is widespread. 

Of course the tuberous foods of the rats could contain anti-inflammatory compounds, but this is purely conjecture.   

What is known however is that bamboo rats  (both Cannomys and Rhizomys) are natural hosts of Penicillium marneffei, which causes a debilitating fungal infection. 

Nine to 95% of bamboo rats trapped by epidemiologists in China, Thailand, and India tested positive, and soil samples from their burrows sometimes test positive, too. 

Five others species of rats however tested negative. 

Penicilliosis causes fever, and is a secondary infection associated with HIV infections and other symptoms, but the natural reservoir is not well understood. 

A case study from northern Thailand showed that bamboo rats were not reservoirs for human infection, but that people who worked with plants and animals had a higher risk of infection. 

Penicilliosis is treatable with drugs, and the bamboo rat eaters I met look pretty healthy.  

References

Gugnani, H. et al. 2004. Role of Cannomys badius as a natural animal host of Penicillium marneffei in India. J. of Clinical Microbiology 42(11):5070-5075