What you can learn from a pest-killing expert
Goodnature's Robbie van Dam has learnt a lot about killing predators since helping to create the company's self re-setting traps back in 2005. These are his tips:
Put your traps as far away from your coop as possible
It sounds counterintuitive, but the best strategy for controlling predators like rats and stoats is to trap or kill them before they get anywhere near your flock.
“Once (a pest) gets there, it's really difficult to control it (as there's always a food source). It's best to control them as far from the coop as you possibly can.”
The best place is around your boundary. “A network running around your boundary fence is great: it's normally quite easy to access, and people tend to wander around boundaries relatively regularly.”
The biggest misconception
Robbie says he's found a lot of landowners think once they have traps – of any kind – they'll quickly catch pest animals.
“There's absolutely no immediate and fail-safe way. Sometimes you might get a few animals straight away, sometimes it takes a bit longer. It's a game of patience.
“You can have traps at 50m intervals and have one that catches six animals and one that's caught nothing. Why on earth do they all end up (at that one spot)? There's scientific evidence that once you've caught one (in a particular trap), you're significantly more likely to catch a second and a third.”
The best lure you can use
Any attractive lure, such as peanut butter or chocolate for rats, or animal protein for stoats, will do the trick, but the key is it must be fresh. Goodnature's A24 trap can be set with either a rat or stoat lure and an automatic pump keeps it fresh, hands free, for months.
"Fresh peanut butter on a trap is really good for the first couple of days, but it declines very quickly. We know nobody has time to be constantly checking baits and traps."
It's also important to pre-feed your chosen lure to pest animals, so they get used to eating it and seek it out. ■
READ MORE:
How Goodnature's self-resetting traps are changing predator control in NZ thisNZlife.co.nz
Walking the line in the fight against predators in our bush