PEST CONTROL
Bid to eradicate Eastbourne’s rats
Sally Bain likes the smell of bird poo. It’s a sign that pest control projects are paying dividends and gives her hope that rats and other pests will one day be eradicated from the Wellington suburb of Eastbourne.
Bain is part of an ambitious programme called Educating Residents About Trapping (ERAT). This hopes to expand on the work done by MIRO (Mainland Island Restoration Operation), which had trapped the hills above Eastbourne for about 20 years.
That operation had concentrated on the ridge line but the aim now is to target the urban area and create a large pest-free zone.
The programme is based on a highly successful scheme in Crofton Downs, started by Kelvin Hastie. Crofton Downs is now free of rats, possums and stoats, and serves as a blueprint for a project to make Wellington City pest free, with Hastie at the helm as community champion.
Initial success in Crofton Downs was based on getting every fifth house trapping for rats, mice and stoats.
Eastbourne is hilly and bush clad, so Bain is instead trying to have traps laid out every 80 metres and is knocking on doors, asking people to become trappers.
Trapping the ridge line above her home in York Bay had already paid dividends for Bain. In three months she caught 60 rats and is also targeting mice, stoats and hedgehogs.
‘‘The numbers caught have fallen dramatically. It might be my imagination but I am noticing an increase in fantails and I can smell the bird poo under trees.’’
Community support for pest control had many advantages beyond boosting bird numbers. Bain got to know her neighbours better and said the information collected on where people lived would be invaluable in a civil defence emergency. Also, her son enjoyed setting traps and had become interested in tramping.
The project had received a positive response from one unexpected sector. ‘‘There a lot of cat owners who feel they would like to do their part and prove that cats are not the sole problem.’’
Hutt City Council subsidises the cost of traps, and the programme had received a $35,000 grant from Conservation Minister Maggie Barry.
The kiwi population in nearby Rimutaka Forest Park was expanding and, if Eastbourne could become predator free, Bain believed one day kiwi could return to the bush around her house.