when i was taught to make and lay snares i was told that the idea of the larks head knot on the snare is to keep the snare tight and kill the animal as quickly as possible, thereby causing as little suffering as possible to the animal, always a good idea in my opinion. i know other people who use traps without any kind of larks head knot and they seem to be as succesfull, although having said that, i've never found a live animal in one of my snares whereas friends who don't use a larks head frequently find live animals in theirs. so basically, in judging by my experiance i don't think the larks head makes any difference to how effective the snare is at holding an animal, it just makes a difference as to how effective the snare is at killing animals.<br><br>hope that was helpfull. <br><br>take it easy.