To build a better leprechaun trap

It is that time of year again. We have been working on our leprechaun trap for weeks! This year's trap was designed after a forest monkey trap that we saw demonstrated in the Philippines in February.

This Aeta guide taught us how to do many things with bamboo, including how to catch a monkey for dinner.

We immediately saw the potential of this design for a leprechaun trap. So last week Milan and I started painting some rocks fake-gold, preparing the paper towel tube, found the slinky among the buckets of toys, and brought out rainbows of colored paper. We finally put the whole thing together last night before bedtime.

So here is how it works.

The left side of the picture is behind the rainbow, the right side is visible to the leprechaun as he approaches the rainbow.

1. The leprechaun sees the fake gold rocks on the rainbow path. As he picks them up he sees another large gold rock inside the green tube

2. He reaches in the tube to grab the last gold rock.

3. When he grabs the last rock, it releases the hair trigger attached to the Slinky and cinches the snare slip-knot around the opening of the tube, leaving the leprechaun hanging by his wrist from the Slinky

We went to bed sure that we would find a leprechaun in the trap in the morning.

Unfortunately, that tricky little leprechaun outsmarted us again! He used a stick to spring the trap, took all of our fake gold, and left the tube full of green jelly beans!

The next morning, Milan is happy with jelly beans instead of a trapped leprechaun and his gold.

The leprechaun also turned Milan's soy milk green, put green coloring in the water of the toilet bowls, and even made Milan's pizza dough green for his lunch! Needless to say, Milan is ready to start designing the next generation trap for next year.

A happy little leprechaun at his class party

Happy St Patrick's Day!!