Trappers’ time to shine
Miramar is set to become the first predatorfree urban area in the world, but the coronavirus lockdown has thrown a spanner in the works for eradication plans.
The Miramar peninsula was tantalisingly close to eradicating rats, stoats and mustelids.
Predator Free Miramar head Dan Henry said while he 100 per cent supported the lockdown, it was bad timing for the organisation’s eradication efforts.
With trapping endeavours in public spaces, council land, and reserves on hold, the onus fell to backyard trappers to pick up the slack.
‘‘It’s frustrating,’’ Henry said. ‘‘We can’t go door to door, or delivering traps to people, can’t get out and trap in the council reserves, because we’re supposed to be staying at home.’’
It wasn’t all bad, though. The number of recorded rat catches, which had dropped to just 12 in March, compared to 305 catches in 2019, was a ‘‘massive difference’’.
The number was steadily decreasing, and this influx of people with time on their hands meant an army ready to cast the final blow to the rat population.
Henry said, with all the official pest control going on in Miramar, it was understandable that ‘‘people may have taken their foot off the gas, thinking, ‘It’s OK, they’ve got this’. For people who might not have been actively trapping for some time, the best thing they can do would be dust off their trap and do what they can to try and catch predators on their property.’’
The group was calling it the #lockdownknockdown, referring to those last few rats still at large on the peninsula.
March and April usually brought the biggest rat spikes of the year, as rats come into homes seeking food and warmth.
‘‘We haven’t seen that this year; there are so few rats around,’’ Henry said. ‘‘It has been very successful. We are literally down to the last few hotspots.’’
People could pick up a rat trap from the supermarket, in a hardware aisle.
They could also share changes they were seeing – there had been a huge increase in birdlife on the peninsula – and their catches.
Predator Free Miramar encouraged reports of catches or wildlife sightings on its Facebook page.
Predator Free Wellington project director James Willcocks said it was in a good position to see the gains made so far weren’t lost.
Wellington already had a well-established system of traps, set as a norm with long-life bait, which retained effectiveness for about four weeks.
The group normally relied on the support and action of Wellingtonians, and lockdown had just ‘‘put that on steroids’’.
The communications channels were still open, and people could call 0800 NO RATS, which was manned as normal, email hello@pfw.co.nz, or contact them on Facebook.