Thread: Bird Predator Control

Nice one fly blown.
The boxes do help the vermin present themselves well to the trap.
Does anyone know of any buyers of possum fur around chch? Have some fur and want to buy some more traps.
It's great how possums pay to kill themselves.

I don't have much experience with the DOC 150 so thought i would try some. Plenty of weasels around here so the lighter trigger might be the go. Knocked up a few boxes.



Made sure the holes in the mesh are big enough for a hedgepig tho



I am about to set up some feeders for the pheasants so each of them deserves to have a trap as I'm sure the feed/activity will attract a predator or two

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Nice new boxes and traps Guys – it will provide benefits
I had a couple of weeks off from checking my lines around the Park – got back into it on Friday/Saturday – must have checked fifty or more sites and never saw a victim anywhere – have changed out about 12 old Victors for new Kness Snap-es – not many traps were tripped but all were bare of bait – so seem to be feeding the ants and roaches
Loaded a couple of doc250s with fresh ferret legs. Repositioned a Possum Master from a tree to on the ground beside the stinky doc250 – a fresh rabbit leg for lure – target is cats or mustilids – maybe it should have been up on a log?
My Mate got a couple of cats over the other side of the Park last week – one in a doc200 and one in a doc250 – small to medium size – seems the place is full of cats
Got another ferret yesterday down at my estuary cage – three males and one small female so still looking for Mum and more of the kids – wow - did the last male stink – my neighbour can see the cage from his house and goes down on his lawnmower to deliver the lead pill – ferret didn’t sit still so now I have a big hole in the treadle – all I need to do is rebait and reset the cage – a stinky business saving legs as well as tails – had to wash all my clothes yesterday
Still getting a few Norways in a D Rat up the street but my other line of six traps is very quiet.

Got round my 28 estuary traps yesterday for pretty skinny returns, but family enjoying the sunshine.
1 cat (Trapinator)
2 Norways
1 ship rat
All traps rebaited with fresh hare and eggs with the odd handful of duck feather garnish

A sizeable Norway

Gday Sparrow,

With your trapinator catching cats.. do you catch big adult cats, have you opened up the hole where they stick there head in ?

Hi Sparrow, I’ve just come back from West Coast and at a Kiwi focused reserve area noticed a lot of the trap boxes had a square hole in the lower corner at each end, didn’t look big enough for a ferret ie looked to be maybe 30mm by 30mm or less.
Obviously would get stoats, rats and mice.
Would that have been the plan?

Maybe not ferrets in the area ?

Hi @sore head stoat Opening up the holes on the trapinators is something I have thought about but they are on public land and I don’t need the drama of someone’s foxy or Jack Russell sticking their head in.

I have caught adult cats including big fully grown toms BuT also a couple of cats that have only stuck a paw in, one looked like it had been there a while and I had to dispatch, the other was dead but wouldn’t of been quick and no one wants that if it happens many more times it could be time for a rethink.

The trapping program has always used Timms furtheR up river But as they weren’t Doc approved an trapinators are they made us use them in the estuary.

Hi @Finnwolf it is surprising what gets through a small hole, but I imagine those small holes are to deter kiwi and weka, did you notice if there was a second baffle or greater distance to the mechanism than a standard Doc box?

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Hi @Finnwolf it is surprising what gets through a small hole, but I imagine those small holes are to deter kiwi and weka, did you notice if there was a second baffle or greater distance to the mechanism than a standard Doc box?

Sorry Sparrow, didn’t look that closely. I did notice these square holes were at each end of the wooden box sides right in the lower corner.

An adolescent cat through a relatively small opening. 👍

Ah and the wire on each end had no openings? So the kiwi can’t get its beak round the baffle maybe, some one will know.

Probably like that for keas. A guy i know was telling me someone was setting off DoC 150 traps up in Arthurs Pass. It was a why the hell would someone do that. They hid a game camera on a trap. A couple or 3 keas turned up, one grabs a stick pokes it thru the wire mesh , nah it doesnt fit, gives it a bit of a sharpen , nah it doesnt fit, bit more of a whittle and pokes it thru again and the stick hits the trap treadle , whammo the trap goes off and they all get a fright and scream like hell and off to the next trap. They now fit louvre type fittings and side entry on the new traps i believe.

https://predatorfreenz.org/key-tips-keeping-kea-safe/

They will be double set traps with the opening at each end.