Hello! This is Robert Raskin of Las Vegas, and today I’d like to talk to you about non-lethal booby traps. We all spent our childhood watching Wile E. Coyote set traps to catch the Roadrunner. While we know this is not a great way to catch a fast bird now, what you may not have considered is traps are a great way to protect your homestead by alerting you to the presence of a predatory human or animal.
DISCLAIMER: This article discusses non-lethal booby traps ONLY. Lethal booby traps are illegal, and they should not be used to protect your homestead. At CATS, we strongly discourage the use of booby traps that can hurt or kill someone.
Non-lethal booby traps serve several key purposes:
- To delay an assailant or predator
- To trap a person or a wild animal in place
- To protect your family, your animals, and your supplies
- To raise an alarm that will give you time to react
- To scare potential threats away
When it comes to booby traps for survival, creativity counts, but here are a couple of old standards that remain popular today because they really work.
The Trip Wire Alarm
Trip wires are a popular choice for non-lethal booby traps because anyone can set them up and they can be created using objects that are easy to find. These are a great way to delay attackers by tripping them, and they can also be connected to bells, alarms, and other noisemakers to alert you if an intruder is approaching.
Low Entanglement Wires
Low entanglement wires are a military defense that will entangle intruders, be they human or wild animal. If you want to trap an unwanted intruder in this maze of wire, put it in tall grass, where it is less likely to be detected. You’ll also want to take care to ensure to overhead lights make the wires visible. Alsoake sure not to run the wires too tight, or they might snap!
What are some of your favorite non-lethal booby traps? Let me, Robert Raskin, know in the comments!