Building a Leprechaun trap for St Patricks Day is always tricky. As St Patrick’s day is just around the corner, we thought it is a perfect time to try and catch a Leprechaun (and find the pot of gold). The idea is to design a trap for them the night before St Patricks Day, in the hope that you will wake up and find your very own Leprechaun who can lead you straight to his pot of gold- as a bribe for his release. They are very rich because they earn good money from their shoemaking business, where they make shoes for fairies. Each Leprechaun has a pot of gold and they hide it in places only they can reach. The end of the rainbow is the most famous example. Some folklore stories say that a Leprechaun must grant three wishes in exchange for freedom. What wishes would you wish for? We’d definitely wish for a super duper climbing frame.
Leprechauns can never be found on their own, so a trap to catch them is essential. They are said to live in remote areas or underground, they are short and can fit in places humans would never be able to enter. But one thing is that leprechauns WILL come out from hiding when you present them with a colourful, gold trap (with plenty of bait).
You need to use your imagination to build a trap that you know the leprechaun will not be able to resist, and you need to be very crafty as leprechauns are very cheeky and mischievous. You need to be creative and brainstorm on ways that you can prevent the leprechaun escaping. When you finally do catch the leprechaun, make sure you don’t take your eyes off him as he will definitely disappear. There is no one trap to use, but several ideas we have seen are in the images below. You can basically do anything you want but use the bait list as a guideline. Trust us on this one – leprechauns can never resist any of these.
Bait Ideas
*You can make the trap out of cardboard boxes or a shoebox. You could also use a hat or cardboard cup- basically anything you like.
*Leave delicious snacks in the trap. For example, frost some Cheerios cereal and make them look like doughnuts.
*Leave a trail of gold coins. You can use cardboard to make circles and paint them gold. You can use real coins or chocolate coins.
*Use loads of glitter and rainbows.
*If your trap is big, make stairs out of lollipop sticks to help them climb in. (they are very very small people).
*Be crafty and tempt them with signs that they will read and run to get the treasure.
The pictures above show all the traps we have made so far at STT swings that will you give you some ideas on how to build a leprechaun trap for St Patricks Day. Good luck finding yours! Don’t forget to share any photos of your traps and leprechauns on our Facebook page.