11 trapping tips from NZ experts
IF YOU live in an area where there are a lot of non-target species, it may be better to use live capture traps, so you don't accidentally kill pets or birds. Always set traps according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Make sure there's no other food available, such as open troughs of feed that rats can easily access.
THE SMALLER your site, the higher the reinvasion rate of a pest. You'll need to be more intensive in your trapping methods than professional trappers working in the bush. If you have money to buy lots of traps and time to clear them, you can place them as close as 10m apart on boundaries.
IDEALLY, HAVE traps in place permanently and check them regularly. Don't be disappointed if your kill rates vary. You may catch more in certain months (eg, when food is scarce) and not others (eg, when natural food sources such as eggs, baby birds and fruit/nuts etc are prevalent).
IF YOU have high numbers of rats, self-setting traps or bait stations can be more successful and less work than one-off kill traps. However, use bait cautiously if you have pets as they may scavenge carcasses.
STOATS (and other mustelids) commonly use ridges, the sides of waterways, tracks, and road edges, so these are the best spots for traps. The best bait is fresh or salted rabbit meat, eggs, and specialist stoat lures. Mustelids are also attracted by the odour of another mustelid. Some trappers drag the scent glands (around the base of the tail/genital region) along the ground and around a trap to entice others to investigate it.
IT'S best to place tunnels (with traps inside) along a natural walkway. These are usually found along fence lines, stream banks, beside or through hedges, in the bush among tree roots, beside fallen logs, and in dry culverts. The area leading up to the trap should be clear of leaves and weeds.
COMPOST is an easy source of food for rodents, so use a rodent-proof bin to cut off this food supply. You'll find an easy, cheap method in our latest special, In Your Backyard: Sustainability through the seasons. See page 83 or go to thisnzlife.co.nz
EVERY TRAP counts. If you can encourage your neighbours to trap (and perhaps share the cost of traps, bait stations, bait etc), you can make an enormous difference to your region's domestic and wild birdlife, native bush, and food production trees.
If you’re targeting stoats, using two DoC traps in a tunnel has been shown to have considerably higher catch rates than a single trap.
For rats, the best trap spacing is 25m apart in a grid pattern, with a good quality bait that is regularly refreshed, eg peanut butter, chocolate, specialist rat lure.