Turnip for what?

[Ara D.]

I'm mostly an active hunter with some active traping, I'll set a trap after I've spotted an animal on the map. I have used turnip for elk and deer, but I'm wondering if any one has ever had success with other plants after they've been harvested. Also other than berry bushes I've never seen birds eat a harvested bait ie berries or seeds from my inventory.

[Tom H]

Turnips are good for hares, definitely. I've had badgers destroy my turnip patches, so, add them to the list.

Bogbean ROOTS are great for deer and elk. There may be other such roots that work but, so far, those are the only ones I've found. I suppose the reason for that is that, by the time I've researched an herb, I've usually bought or grown my own turnips, which I know works.

Lingonberries are bonafide as bait for birds, even if spoiled. Caught birds always eat the fresh berries in the trap. They never eat the spoiled, even though that is the bait that lured them into the trap. So I just reset the trap with the same spoiled berries.

I regularly catch birds using just a 'handful of rye seeds'. These they don't eat, either. I've tried some other seeds but I would not swear by them.

Here's the thing about loop snares and birds. One can't say that baits that are not eaten are good or not. I catch more birds WITH baited traps than with unbaited traps, but, I do catch them, sometimes, even without bait. Did they simply stumble into the traps? Can't say. 

[immortalartisan112]

my suggestion is to use heathers as they sprout during summer and stay around through fall for trapping for elk i found this out when i passed a single picked heather plant as i was hunting a elk. they also dont need high herblore skill as 0 percent is enough to identify it.

[PALU]

I believe the herblore skill required to identify different plants depends on culture. I've definitely had characters who'd required some additional skill before they were able to identify heather. I've never tried it as bait, though.

I had a curious case where I tried to bait a trap with a mushroom. It eventually went spoiled, but I didn't bother to remove it. As I built a trap fence in the area I saw one of the small predators (ferret, etc.) enter the trap and eat the spoiled mushroom. I haven't used mushrooms as bait since, though.

[Ara D.]

@ Tom H. To clarify you've had elk eat a harvested bog bean root set as bait same with harvested lingon berries, and you feel that you have better luck with traps baited with rye and berries than those without even if the bait is not being eaten.

The Heather is good to know although I generally move to much to make use of unharvested plants.

[Tom H]

@ Tom H. To clarify you've had elk eat a harvested bog bean root set as bait same with harvested lingon berries, and you feel that you have better luck with traps baited with rye and berries than those without even if the bait is not being eaten.

The Heather is good to know although I generally move to much to make use of unharvested plants.

That's correct, Ara. I learned about the bogbean root at a time when I had no turnips and there was a group of elk near my holding. I tried a group of unidentified roots in the same trap at the same time. Repeatedly, I trapped elk and found ONLY the bogbean root was eaten. Btw, it remained an unknown herb to me for two years before my character learned enough herb lore to identify it...lol.

Re: the berries/seeds, yes, the rate of success WITH those baits is significantly greater than I've had with unbaited traps. I often use unbaited traps to mark locations, like ant hills or edible mushrooms, so, I feel I've acquired enough data for that determination.

[Matti-patti]

Turnips are good for hares, definitely. I've had badgers destroy my turnip patches, so, add them to the list.

Bit OT, but can badgers even be trapped? I have tried to trap them even with spot trapping, i.e. I saw a badger and then built few traps (one of every type plus few small and big deadfall each), baited them all with fresh meat, but nothing happens.

I'm wonder if this is just bad luck, an intended feature, or a bug of some sort (e.g. many badgers might sit in terms of size in some kind of blind spot between small and big deadfall traps).

As badgers are the smallest and weakest animals that draw aggro from player sparring with them is the best way to raise dodge and block in unmodded game. Having one trapped near your settlement would be useful.

[PALU]

I've had elks eat some kind of root that wasn't bog bean (don't remember which one(s)).

Badgers can be trapped, yes. Light deadfalls are too small and bear traps are too large, as are pit traps. Fox pawboards might work occasionally, but it's definitely not the best choice even if it works (I've caught animals that weren't foxes in these traps, but don't remember which species). Badgers are omnivores, and so should go for meat, but I'd try turnips and/or berries. However, badgers seem to be fairly good at avoiding traps.

I use reindeer and elks for dodge and block sparring: Gear up in full protection gear and chase them to exhaustion. Then move around to stand in front of it to get a chance to get it to attack. The ideal is if you can chase them into a single tile dead end where the only way out is through your character. However, expect a training session to take a huge amount of time (and I kill them at the end of if). These animals also have the advantage that they don't aggro dogs, and so don't draw dogs into the conflict.

Edit: Corrected the above to actually say "light" rather than "small", as that is what I actually meant.

[Brygun]

Badgers are bad ass. They don't care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg&ab_channel=czg123

 

[Matti-patti]

I've had elks eat some kind of root that wasn't bog bean (don't remember which one(s)).

Badgers can be trapped, yes. Small deadfalls are too small and bear traps are too large, as are pit traps. Fox pawboards might work occasionally, but it's definitely not the best choice even if it works (I've caught animals that weren't foxes in these traps, but don't remember which species). Badgers are omnivores, and so should go for meat, but I'd try turnips and/or berries. However, badgers seem to be fairly good at avoiding traps.

I use reindeer and elks for dodge and block sparring: Gear up in full protection gear and chase them to exhaustion. Then move around to stand in front of it to get a chance to get it to attack. The ideal is if you can chase them into a single tile dead end where the only way out is through your character. However, expect a training session to take a huge amount of time (and I kill them at the end of if). These animals also have the advantage that they don't aggro dogs, and so don't draw dogs into the conflict.

So big deadfalls (wolf/lynx/glutton trap) are the one to use for badgers? Actually what exactly is the small deadfall even good for? (Big) Foxes, eagle owls, capercaillie, swans and maybe kuikkas? Only one of those you'd specifically want are foxes and they have their dedicated trap already, so small deadfall seems kind of pointless trap. I presume beavers also go to big deadfalls?

When I see badger I immediately mark the spot on the map and then tie my dogs to a tree (always in that order lest I forget to mark it), that way the dogs don't get in the way. I keep my dogs leashed by default anyway, so it's fast for me to do so. Then I run after the badger. Luckily they are among the slowest and least enduring animals, arguably even easier to persistence hunt down than lynxes. The benefit of badgers is that they actually attack the player which results in much more frequent attacks from them and hence faster training. Sometimes they keep aggro on you until they pass out or die, sometimes they forget to attack you at all but taking a punch at their legs is usually enough to remind them of you. Single layer of bear furs is generally sufficient to block their attacks, so you don't need any special armor. Occasionally they'll leap about and bite at your eyes though.

[Ara D.]

Since we're expanding in the past I've struggled with weasel, pine marten, and ermines. Turns out that small dead fall traps are to big for them but light lever traps with meat work good. Also I've caught lynx's and gluttons with small dead fall. If you F1 big dead fall it says mainly for wolves but can catch lynx and gluttons. I've always used small dead fall anything small than wolf but bigger than a rabbit

[Matti-patti]

Since we're expanding in the past I've struggled with weasel, pine marten, and ermines. Turns out that small dead fall traps are to big for them but light lever traps with meat work good. Also I've caught lynx's and gluttons with small dead fall. If you F1 big dead fall it says mainly for wolves but can catch lynx and gluttons. I've always used small dead fall anything small than wolf but bigger than a rabbit

Yeah, light lever trap seems to work for critters up to 4-5 meat cuts or so, it catches smaller foxes, eagle owls, capercaillie and hares too (never ravens though, another trap averse critter? and I have even caught snakes with light levers). I'm not confident that the encyclopedia descriptions are entirely accurate or up to date.

[PALU]

Sorry, my previous post is incorrect. I meant light lever traps, not small ones. Thus, badgers should go into small ones primarily, and wolf traps occasionally.

[JP_Finn]

Small dead falls are good for polecat, ermine, marten, badger as well as both types of foxes.
Oddly enough, I often get arctic foxes with light lever traps baited with crow berries, but for some reason I can’t get ermine with LLT, even baited with meat or fat. LLT will catch polecats, albeit infrequently.

[Matti-patti]

Small dead falls are good for polecat, ermine, marten, badger as well as both types of foxes.
Oddly enough, I often get arctic foxes with light lever traps baited with crow berries, but for some reason I can’t get ermine with LLT, even baited with meat or fat. LLT will catch polecats, albeit infrequently.

I'm quite sure I have gotten an ermine with LLT, probably multiple times. In fact, I'm somewhat confident I have gotten every mustelid except the glutton in LLT. The arctic foxes presumably just walk in the lever traps, they don't actually eat the bait and hence are not attracted by it? I infrequently get small foxes of both types in my unbaited lever trap lines.

I'm surprised small deadfalls allows ermines etc. to even walk into them. Those animals are squirrel sized, if they let them to walk into them then small deadfalls would probably have no minimum size range at all. I don't believe I have personally gotten anything smaller than hare or fox in small deadfall and assumed they had some kind minimum size.