If everyone puts one or two covered rat traps in their garden, the number of native birds and fauna will increase and you’ll be able to enjoy more birdlife in your garden. The easiest way to start trapping is to find your nearest predator control group.
All about trapping
Types of pRedators
RATS – SHIP & NORWAY
WHY DO WE TRAP RATS?
Rats and particularly ship rats are destructive to our native flora and fauna. Through predation and competition for food sources, they are responsible for the extinction of many native species unique to New Zealand and the reduction of many others to levels where they can only exist on predator-free islands
There are two kinds of rats generally found in Auckland: Ship rats and Norway rats. The reason why we need to know the difference between these two rats is because we are obligated to record our catches so that we may see where the hotspots are and that correlates to the native bird sightings. We need low pest numbers to encourage our native flora and fauna to thrive.
Two Norway Rats (Left) A Ship Rat (Right)
Norway Rats, also commonly known as Water Rats, attack birds that nest in holes or on the ground, for example Dotterels, Little Blue Penguins, and Kiwis. They are strong and tenacious and will take eggs, chicks and adults. They also eat insects and reptiles. The largest Norway rat caught to date is 42cm.
Ship rats consume many animals such as small mammals, birds, lizards and fish. They are also good climbers and therefore attack tree-dwelling birds, eggs and small chicks.
Rat Identification
LURE SUGGESTIONS FOR RAT TRAPS
Peanut Butter, Mayonnaise, Nutella, & premixed lures like Connovations brand of Eggsellent, Treacle Gold, and Smooth or Goodnature Chocolate, and Goodnature Blood.
HANDY TIPS
- Always wear gloves when you are baiting and placing traps. This is so you do not transfer your scent onto the trap or bait. Another even more important reason is so you do not catch a disease – Leptospirosis
- Make sure your trap is in a tunnel to prevent curious birds, cats or children from reaching it
- Place trap tunnels on a level piece of ground or surface, they get scared off if the tunnel is wobbly
- You can start by just baiting your unset trap for the first week or two to give the pests a false sense of security, then bait and set trap
- Check your trap regularly and refresh the bait, can’t catch a rat with no bait!
- Encourage your neighbours to place traps by telling them about your trapping successes. Rats and Possums have reasonable sized home-ranges so the more traps in your neighbourhood, the more likely you are to catch them
- If you choose to use poison bait, (available at hardware stores), make sure the poison bait is well positioned so that children, household pets or other animals can’t get to it. Take care of disposing of any dead rats that have been poisoned, as they are also poisonous if eaten by other animals, but this does need to be in high numbers.
POSSUMS
WHY DO WE TRAP POSSUMS?
Possums can be a carrier and transmitter of the disease Bovine tuberculosis (Tb) in many parts of the country, which is harmful to our farming industry.
Possums eat buds, flowers, fruit/berries and nectar, which means they compete with native birds and reptiles for food sources. They also eat birds, eggs, and chicks. The growth and life-cycle of a tree or plant is significantly affected when all parts of it are eaten.
Possum damage to a native Kohekohe
LURE SUGGESTIONS FOR POSSUM TRAPS
HOW TO MAKE A FLOUR LURE FOR POSSUM TRAPS – Make a flour trail leading to the trap, rubbing directly onto the tree or on the ground by the trap. Mix up the following in a large tub/bucket or reduce proportions for a smaller mix (lasts for a long time once mixed in a sealed container) :
- 1kg Flour
- 100g icing sugar
- 1 packet of cinnamon
- 100g milk powder
The Timms possum trap has limited options for bait, unless you use corflute method, (refer below). It has to be a lure that doesn’t fall off when the trap is set. These lure suggestions I have found to hold on well for up to 2-3 weeks are dried apricot & cinnamon or 1/8 apple & cinnamon. Possums love cinnamon, it smells a bit like bark, and they also love aniseed.
F
lippin Timmy Trap with Flour Lure (Left)
Timms Possum Trap (Right)
For Possum traps like the Flippin Timmy and the Trapinator you can use the lures already suggested above, but you can already use any kind of paste lure, without the corflute card like Connovation Eggsellent; Goodnature Cinnamon; Peanut butter; Mayonnaise etc. If you use the corflute method, your lure will last a lot longer and can even have three catches on the one lure. Photos below explain how to set this up with your Timms trap, and now using this method this has opened up a lot of other lure pastes you can use with the Timms trap, eg: Connovation Treacle Gold, (as per the photo), Possum Dough, Smooth, Good Nature Cinnamon etc.
Corflute Method – Cut into 40mm x 90mm, drill a hole through the centre going through both sides, then cut a slit down one side. Push the corflute down into the lure paste, turn over and do the same until the lure is pushed all the way through. Note: Wear gloves whenever you are handling bait or traps so you don’t transfer human scent to shy the predators away.
MUSTELIDS – FERRETS, STOATS AND WEASELS
WHY DO WE TRAP MUSTELIDS?
Mustelids are a major threat to the survival of New Zealand’s native birds and animals. Flightless birds (such as kiwi), other ground nesting birds (such as New Zealand dotterel) and birds that nest in holes (such as kākā) are particularly vulnerable.
LURE SUGGESTIONS FOR MUSTELIDS
Freeze dried rabbit, egg (either real or a dummy egg), PoaUku (a salmon scented lure block), pieces of fish, meat (the bloodier the better!). I have found fresh possum is good too.
You will find the DOC traps have screws or nails added to the trap as a place for you to put the egg, but it has been advised to lay the egg down in the trap at the back, as a visual lure. The other lures could go on the screws / nails. This may help when you need to clean the trap
Male Ferret caught on Lot 29 using a DOC250
First Weasel caught on Lot 29
These two predators now have a home with the Pest Free Howick Ward displays along with the rest of the predators. These are displayed at any of the Pestivals or school visits
YELLOW JACKET WASPS – COMMON & GERMAN
WHY DO WE TRAP WASPS?
Wasps are a threat to New Zealand as they compete for food with native animals such as birds, bats and lizards and consume native insects. The increasing number of wasps are causing risks to the ecosystems and creating more threats and danger towards the unique structure of our bush and nature.
WASP LURE DEVELOPMENT
The Vespex wasp lure below was developed in NZ by Merchento, who are based in Nelson, and was designed to target Common wasps and German wasps. The beauty of this NZ developed lure is that it is used to attract wasps when they are protein gathering so that the wasps take the lure back to their nests and wipe the whole nest out.
Common Wasp(left) German wasp (right)
Vespex Bait Station
Wish to Keep Track of Your Trapping?
Head to CatchIT or the PFHW website to find out more information on how to register and track your trapping!