Mustelids and possums
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I know that a few of you blokes are in rural areas so thought that I would consult the fern on these new pest killers.
DoC are using them and endorse them. Anyone here tried one?
I have just seen two stoats run up a Kanuka tree looking for nests and we have heaps of native birds so want to nail the fuckers. We have a standard trap with egg bait but obviously that isn't working so thought I might try an A24 killer. Probably get a possum A12 one as well.
We do have a cat who gets a rat or rabbit everyday along with occasional baby stoat, but he can only eat so much. It is also another reason that Gareth Morgan is a moron with his anti cat stance but that is another rant. I don't want to kill the cat with this thing.
So anyone used one? Any opinions? You lot usually have plenty of those...
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@Hooroo said in Mustelids and possums:
I don't know much about them but they look great! Buy one!!
I nearly killed myself serving to get a stoat recently. Missed too which annoyed me.
Hatiest animals!!
haha, I've swerved in an attempt to get the little fluffybunnies too, but they are fast and small.
When we were renting which was amid native forest with Kiwis, I was mighty proud when my cat bought home a stoat!
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I guess you could easily test before you set it to see whether your cat has anything more than a passing interest in the bait smell.
I'd imagine the entry hole will be too small for a cat's head - but, you could test that too....
Seems like they've given plenty of attention to pet-proofing them - I reckon the bigger question is whether they'll attract and catch what you want. At the price, you'd hope so.
As a minor side-note - peanut butter is the best bait I've found for rats and mice.
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@Chris-B. dead mice is also good for rats...only problem is, this means the mouse has set off the trap and the rat eats the mouse and lives....my first couple of traps I made a rookie error and didn't tie the traps to something and they disappeared, I found one months later with a mouse skeleton in it about 10m from where I set it, yet to find the other.
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Was going to follow @Hooroo's advice and just get one. Called Hunting and Fishing who are the agents around here and they have sold out! So someone is using them apart from DoC.
@Chris-B Yeah will have to do tests. They use a rabbit based bait which is a bit unfortunate as cat eats rabbit a lot. Hole on the A24 too small for cat not sure about the possum one.
They do seem to have it worked out but as you say for $200 it would be good to know how effective they are.Stouts apparently follow the same paths most of the time so you put out the bait cards and see if they get nibbled them put the trap there.
I will get one next week when back in stock and report when I have injured myself with it, caught something, caught nothing, or killed the cat.
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@taniwharugby Rats will also cannibalise their friends once they're trapped and dead. That's my usual way of telling when I'm getting close to having the rats eradicated (that and when you can't hear them in the ceiling any more)!
Of course, for the latter you can never be sure it's not Captain Howdy in which case a priest may be more use than a rat trap!
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Yeah we don't have an issue with rats in our house, caught a fair few mice, although not for many months.
Surprisingly, when we had a few rats in spring, and they lived in the flax by my chickens, they weren't stealing eggs, so guess they had a decent food source from somewhere.
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@taniwharugby Re Rats - Got any palm trees around? Pheonix in particular I think. A mate is a gardener and he said they are basically rat nests. Not sure if they can eat them but certainly like living in there. The neighbour has one and our cat just sits there and waits for a snack.
We don't lose chook eggs to rats either, the girls will have a go at a rat - but not a stoat, they know they will lose. Apparently the shits just kill the hen and then only eat the heart. Hence me looking for answers on stoat killing (without using a car @Hooroo ).
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@Crucial Got me thinking now (not always a good thing).Weren't mustelids introduced in the late 1800's to get rid of the rabbits? Thought that was why they were in NZ. That worked about as well as cane toads in Aus.
Are there any examples of biological pest control that have worked and not just introduced a new pest?
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@Snowy nah no palms, they live in flax bushes.
I had 3 mice in my traps yesterday, but we don't have a problem that we see any of these pests, and as we have a new build on a concrete slab there is only one place anything can get in and an adult rat wouldn't fit.
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@Snowy I can't recall the pest it is being introduced to deal with, but NRC have been granted consent to introduce some wasp to deal with another pest.
Edit Just googled it, and is 2 insects to deal with an invasive plant.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=11783802
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@taniwharugby Hmmm. Wasps (German and common) were a great introduction the first time...(although accidental not biological control I think).
This reed may be a problem but maybe creating another unforeseen one.
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http://www.goodnature.co.nz
