Thread: Bird Predator Control

How to refurbish an A24 counter DIY - if you have been using the Goodnature A24 traps for a while – you may have a variety of views about their operation and the results that you have achieved.
I have been using them for close to ten years and I have a group of eleven with trip-counters in the Quarry Park for 6.5 years. The trip counters are starting to fail – either no light showing or a “Lo” warning light showing.
I considered buying new counters from GN – but at $55 – I hesitated. The GN website says they are not able to be repaired – but I figured there was a battery in there somewhere and it might be possible to get it out – actually, quite easy with a small screwdriver in one of three slots at the end of the counter. New batteries are about $14 for two at the supermarket. It’s easy to reassemble. A smear of silicone grease around the O ring helps the battery to go in easy. Bingo – you have a refurbished trip counter.
The slip ring that holds our trip counters on the gas bottles have been eaten by rats – but most are still usable. Some of the counters have recorded up to 20 strikes but now rat numbers are low the number recorded is usually less than 10 in the six-month period before a gas bottle change. We rarely see any dead bodies, so the counter is important. I put one out on the end of a track right where it dropped into a rocky gorge, a couple of weeks ago –– I checked it after about ten days and found a fresh dead rat and one strike on the counter – so they do work!