Leprechauns are curious little creatures, just like kids – which is why you may be interested in building a leprechaun trap.
Trapping leprechauns can be fun and creative, and the practice doesn’t cause the little buggers any harm at all.
Sit down and consider some of the following leprechaun trap suggestions, then decide what you want your unique little capture unit to look like.
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Learning About Leprechauns
Leprechauns come from Ireland and typically live in forests and caves, though those which live closer to cities may also reside in some folks’ gardens.
Leprechauns are a type of fairy, but they don’t have wings, and most of them are male. In fact, the majority of leprechauns have red hair and beards. They wear green coats, pants, and hats, with buckled shoes and a broad belt.
Leprechauns are notoriously clever and like to play pranks on their fellow fairies as well as on humans, though they never prank anyone too cruelly. Any joke played by a leprechaun is meant in good fun and usually indicates that, should you be human, you’ve done something to capture their interest.
Leprechauns tend to live alone, making shoes and hoarding pots of gold that can be found at the end of many rainbows. If a leprechaun is ever captured by a human, that leprechaun has to offer the human three wishes, much like a genie.
Unlike a genie, though, a leprechaun is immediately freed upon the granting of his captor’s wishes, and he will try extremely hard to avoid being captured again.
Everybody wants three wishes of their choice, which is why leprechaun traps exist. What is a leprechaun trap, though? What should one look like?
The majority of these capture units are exceptionally pretty, done up in green, and sparkly enough that they catch the eye of a passing leprechaun.
If you really want to capture these creatures, though, you’ll have to ask yourself: what do leprechauns like?
The bait you put inside a leprechaun trap is just as important as the manner in which you decorate the trap, because while the decorations will encourage a leprechaun to come closer, the bait is what will draw them into a trap.
Making a Bigger Leprechaun Trap
You can make two different kinds of leprechaun traps; one that’s a bit bigger and can capture a number of leprechauns or one that’s smaller and likely to capture one leprechaun at a time.
Each trap has a different set of materials it needs in order to make it work. A bigger leprechaun trap requires more work than a smaller one, and it will be more difficult to disguise, but you’ll be able to have more fun with the leprechauns you intend to catch if you can join them inside their trap.
Only you’ll be able to leave the trap, of course, but being able to interact with leprechauns is all part of the fun!
Bigger Leprechaun Trap Materials
- Cardboard box big enough for you or a child to crawl into.
- Construction paper or wrapping paper, preferably green in color.
- Glue and tape.
- Scissors.
- Garland.
- Glitter.
- Colored construction paper.
- Cotton balls.
- Gold coins, store-bought or made from paper rounds.
How to Make a Leprechaun Trap: Large
Finding a Box
When making a larger leprechaun trap, you’ll want to find a box that you can fit into. Measuring your box in relation to yourself will ensure that any leprechauns you intend to capture will fit into the trap.
These kinds of cardboard boxes can be found in the houses of people who have recently moved. Alternatively, boxes of especially large sizes can be bought from your local post office or storage units.
The box is key to the formulation of a larger leprechaun trap. If necessary, though, the box can be substituted for plastic storage bins.
Disguising the Box
Once you’ve obtained a box of some sort for yourself, you can really start to have fun. Disguising the box is especially important because you won’t want the leprechauns to recognize that they’re stepping into a trap.
Before you put anything on to the box, however, make sure that you’ve cut a hole in the side. This ensures that the leprechauns can have a doorway to step through once they approach your trap.
Start out by covering the box in green construction or wrapping paper. Since leprechauns feel a natural affinity for things that are green, ensuring that every inch of the box is covered will make them feel as though they’re walking into a safe environment as opposed to a trap.
Secure the construction or wrapping paper with tape, ensuring that you can remove it once that trap is no longer necessary.
A leprechaun trap also benefits from being especially well decorated. Once you’ve covered your box in green paper, feel free to cover it in glitter or to secure a green and sparkly garland around the open borders of the box.
Make use of colorful pieces of construction paper and cotton balls to pepper your trap with miniature rainbows.
You can even make paper pots of gold to place at the end of these rainbows, which will make any approaching leprechauns feel more at home.
Baiting the Trap
After you’ve decorated your leprechaun trap, you’ll want to set some bait inside. The trap may be pretty enough to attract the attention of a leprechaun on its own, but in order to get the little men inside, you need to offer them something that they love: gold coins.
You can find gold coins in a number of craft shops, but you can also make your own at home. Using some of the colored paper that went into the creation of your miniature rainbows, cut out small, golden circles and mark them with dollar signs.
Place these near the door you cut into your leprechaun trap, and you’ll have a contraption that will not only draw in all sorts of leprechauns, but that will keep them trapped for as long as you like.
Making a Smaller Leprechaun Trap
Smaller leprechaun traps can’t hold as many leprechauns as bigger traps can, but they take up significantly less room in your house and are subtler than their larger counterparts.
This means that a leprechaun will be more likely to step inside the trap, as he’ll be less suspicious of a small contraption than he would be of even the prettiest of larger boxes.
Small traps require different sorts of materials than larger traps, but the idea behind them remains the same. You’ll want to make the trap as pretty as possible and bait it well in order to lure a leprechaun inside.
The more glittery or speckled with stickers it is, the more interest it will inspire in our little magical friends, and the more likely it will be that they’ll grant you wishes!
Smaller Leprechaun Trap Materials
- A mason jar.
- Green construction paper.
- Green and gold ribbon.
- Toothpicks.
- Glitter or glitter glue.
- Foam four-leaf clovers.
- Scissors.
- Glue and tape.
- Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks.
- Markers.
- Paintbrush.
- Gold coins, purchased or homemade.
By Melissa Hillier (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 licence)
How to Build a Leprechaun Trap: Small
Finding a Mason Jar
Smaller leprechaun traps can be made out of just about any small container with a lid, but mason jars are exceptionally pretty and all the more likely, as such, to catch the attention of a passing leprechaun.
Finding a mason jar can be easy; there might be one in your pantry or with a nearby relative. If you don’t have any mason jars nearby, though, they can be bought reasonably priced at a craft store along with a number of other trap decorations.
Getting the trap, though, is the most important step of the preparation process. Without a container to keep your leprechaun in, you won’t have a trap at all!
Disguising the Mason Jar
Once you have your mason jar in hand, you’ll want to begin decorating it. There are a number of ways you can make your smaller leprechaun trap look unique.
Try wrapping the mason jar in green construction paper, or weaving together green and gold ribbons around its rim.
You can create glitter glue swirls along the sides of the glass, if you like, or you can cover the jar with stick-on four-leaf clovers. Remember, leprechauns like sparkly things, so the more glitzy your trap, the better.
Adding Accessories
Leprechauns are notoriously short. While they won’t have any trouble getting into a larger trap with a door, they may struggle to get inside a smaller trap. As such, you’ll want to try and build your leprechauns a ladder.
Use toothpicks and create a ladder at your kitchen table without gluing any of the sticks together. Once you have an idea of how tall you want the ladder to be, a parent should help glue the ladder together with a hot glue gun.
Alternatively, the ladder and its rungs can be secured with tape.
Baiting the Trap
Finally, you’ll want to place bait inside of your leprechaun trap. This bait can be gold coins, either bought from a store or made out of cut out pieces of paper. It can also be glitter.
Try combining these two types of bait in order to see which one works most effectively. Begin by dabbing a paintbrush in glue and lining the inside of the mason jar with it, then swirling glitter around and seeing where it best sticks.
Once you’ve decorated the inside, you can plop a few gold coins into place, and your trap will be primed and ready for a leprechaun to wander into it.
Here’s a video showing one example of a leprauchaun trap.
Do you have any tips for building a leprechaun trap?
