What is a snare pole and how to use it?

Catching and removing unwanted animal visitors from your home, your garage or your car can be tricky if you don’t have experience or if the animal is frightened and aggressive. There are many humane ways of dealing with animal invasions, and a snare pole is one of them as it allows you to capture animals that wedge themselves into tight hard to reach spots – like under the car seat.

The snare pole or control pole, as it is also called, consists of a long slim pole with a loop of cable at the end and a mechanism that allows the person to tighten the cable around the animal’s neck. The snare pole is NOT a weapon, it is designed to gently coax an animal out of its hiding place. Using it aggressively can injure the animal or the handler, and they are not suitable for use on cats.

To avoid unnecessary injuries, make sure that the cable is not bent or broken, it must have a smooth, rounded shape, and the mechanism must be working easily, without catching or getting stuck.

Before running in flailing the pole around madly, assess the situation. It is important to observe the animal, determine what it is, where exactly it is and in what condition. If it is injured, weak, trapped or nursing young, it may be very hard to get it out with a control pole. Once you have ascertained that the snare pole will be effective in removing the animal, approach it slowly and quietly. Make sure that the snare pole is help behind your or at your side, with the loop slightly in front of you, held loosely. If you approach the animal in an aggressive manner, with the pole help high as a weapon, it will feel threatened and may scurry out of reach or even attack you.

Once you’re close enough, slip the cable slowly over its head and release the mechanism so that it fits around the animal’s neck, without choking it. If it’s too tight the animal will try to fight and you may cause asphyxiation. Once the cable is in place gently coax the animal by leading, pulling or pushing it in the direction you want it to go.

Go back to the How to Get Rid of Pests page or email us if you have any other questions about What is a snare pole and how to use it?