Rating: Medium
Supplies: Balloons, Packaging Tape
Packaging tape just might be a trapper’s best friend. In the few weeks we’ve been recreating some traps, we’ve always had a trusty roll nearby. Whether it’s connecting objects to walls or enhancing the noisiness of a trap, we have needed packaging tape for most of the obstacles we’ve built.
Balloons by themselves are not that loud, but rub them together, and they become noisy, little things. This trap capitalizes on that by taping balloons together in rows and blocking a route.
A few things we learned while setting this one up that may make it easier for you:
1. The tape needs to be much longer than you think. After attaching each balloon, you’ll need quite a bit more tape to reach whatever you are connecting it to – doorframe, hallway, stairwell, etc.
2. Try alternating balloons pointing up and down –knot pointing down, then the knot pointing up, repeated.
3. If you don’t want them slithering through the bottom, tape balloons to the floor or secure at lowest point on the door frame so they cannot easily slither under that bottom row.
To make this obstacle easier...
1. Use fewer balloons allowing enough spaces in between rows that someone could slide through
To make this obstacle more difficult...
1. Make the rows of balloons tall so they cannot escape over the top
2. Use more balloons and make the rows quite tight, so that cannot slither between rows easily.
3. Put a jingle bell or two inside a balloon.
4. An experienced child might know that it is possible to deflate a balloon fairly quietly by poking a hole right by the knot where the latex is not stretched so tight. You could point all the knots away from them, making it harder to reach those poke points.
*Supplies for this trap are included in the starter kit offered in the Shop