Thread: Bird Predator Control

Got round the estuary lines today , bit late as had been away ( Stewart Island)but way more stoats than any other check bit of a worry
5 stoats, 3 rats,1 weasel, 1 hedgehog

1 cat dispatched was a pretty fair trade for my first couple of kiwi I seen in the wild down on the island .��

I'm loving that second photo.

We managed to sniper one out the hut window down on Stewart Island too.

Man it was tricky tho, a very cagey cat... had to stake him out and it took a few goes.

A big ginger tom so happy to see him out of the gene pool.


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Made it round the trap line today 4 hedgehogs, 4 rats one weasel and one dried up stoat which was caught in a trap with duck feathers





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Its hard to find a good Cherry tree in the bush - mostly I slash them - but this one might be useful to mount a new trap
Carol from Grantly Imports Ltd DeadRat.co.nz - sent me a Flipping Timmy to try out for her - then she got a possum on her own deck at her home - so she is an experienced trapper!
So I mounted the Timmy on a Cherry tree this morning - best place I could find and beside a Timms that has produced well in the past
I like the look of the new Timmy - a very similar trap presentation to a Possum Master and a Sentinel - very simple to bait with an apple, close it up and load it - hope the possums like the concept
A bit warm up in the bush this morning - too hot for a black dog - but she just sits, watches and waits - nothing to get excited about today - rats all gone!

Interesting looking trap that @time out Good to see that flour blaze too as that will definitely help

I noticed a few broken branches on a couple of my two year old sugar gums two days ago and suspected possums.

Set two leg hold traps on a couple of pines close by.....two possums in the last two nights so hopefully that's my trees safe for a little longer

For some reason they weren't putting their heads in the sentinal but the switch to leghold sorted it



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Righto fellas i have to post this one as its relevant to what some of you have been talking about lately @sore head stoat .

So I left that weasel from a few days ago (minus his tail) sitting on top of the trap.

I was driving past today and stopped out of interest to see if it was still there.

It was gone but was replaced with a tailed one in the trap.



So it is now the tailless one on top of the trap and i am left with no doubt that the smell of a predator is a great lure for another.



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Well this is interesting.

I checked my high country traps the other day 5 days after last checking, short turn around, its usually 10 to 14 days.. I was convinced that i was going to murder the local mustelid population after putting pee on a few traps.. I caught 1 and a half rats.. [the other half was eaten by something] and NO mustelids .. I was thinking oh how am i going to put this on the forum lol. I have seen enough to know that the smell thing has merit and is worthy of doing but not the magic bullet i had thought ? .. Oh and to add insult to injury , as i was walking back to my vehicle a stoat ran out in front of me not 20m away from a trap Hopefully he will be in it when i next check !!

I would be interested to see how you set up the Victor in your box for weasels, do you use the Landcare shroud ? I have caught the odd weasel in a Victor rat trap but generally not clean kills like a 150. Much cheaper option though.

Kukuwai, next time you get a freshie try rubbing his butt and squeezing it [through the plastic bag] so it pees on a few traps and see what you think then.

Originally Posted by sore head stoat

I would be interested to see how you set up the Victor in your box for weasels, do you use the Landcare shroud ?

No Landcare shroud, i use the victors with the yellow tread plate and set the trap forward in the box with bait behind the trap.



Its not a specific set for weasels just the way i set all my victors. Often i bait them with smoked fish bones/skin as that is what i have in the freezer. Seems to be a good lure for a range of critters.

Some of my victors are two and three years old and still going strong. Just give them a brush and a spray every once and a while.

Out in all conditions and still working



I have caught 7 weasels in them so far this year and some have been quite small/lightweight so may not have triggered a DOC 200 ???

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7 rats, 2 Hogs, 1 weasel,1Stoat,1 Ferret tor the round yesterday fresh rabbit still doing the biz although I need to up the check frequency as all were caught earlier in the piece.
On another note drove down to Wanaka last week and was amazed by the Ferret numbers on the roads obviously attributed to the rabbits

Good work Sparrow

I read somewhere the other day that one species of rat prefers protein and the other carbohydrate.. found it , it was the Farmlands magazine but it doesnt say which prefers which. I am not catching many rats in my local traps at present but what i have noticed in my last few captures is the rats i am catching are all on eggs as a bait in DOC 150s. I have a peanut butter Victor traps within 20m but zilch in those... coincidence or ? Maybe they have preferences at certain times of the year ? Your thoughts and comments please...

My ‘around the house’ cage traps are baited with peanut butter smeared sultanas, normally works good and get one every third night or so but caught nothing for six+ months and likewise the mouse traps, one last week but that was the first for over six months.

Well done the Sparrow team - just love the look on the young fella’s face!
I wish I could find something with proper fur on its back - mostly just getting rats with prickles
Checked about 60 traps on Saturday - just one stinky possum - lots of rat traps tripped but no victims - maybe protein feeders getting the bodies - I understand that Norways are cannibals - but I have seen plenty of Shippies that also eat bodies
I am using Eraze rabbit jerky in my Doc boxes - bloody hogs keep coming back for a last feed - they wont stay away once the hog smell is there
I did another line this morning - about 20 traps and got 4 rats so they are still around - one bastard had been cleaning out the blue stuff I had been putting around a Timms and a double rat trap set - but the blue death got him last night
I found out that I set the Flipping Timmy wrong - I couldn’t trip it - the red sleeve is an adjuster for the bait rod - slim end hard set - thick end softer set - see picture in last post - found their web site which is good - Carol has access to their gear - https://www.envirotools.co.nz/flipping-timmy/
Got the first kill for two months in a street trap a few days back - a mouse - PFBOP did a report for me - for last 14 months - 221 kills - 126 rats, 70 mice, 21 hedgehogs, 3 ferret and a stoat - the dawn chorus is amazing
I got a fancy hunters chair from the H&F Swamp Comp - what did you guys get?

Well done time out.

Further to my above post, i went for a bike ride this evening to check a few traps. I caught another rat and again it was in a 150 with an egg bait and not 10m away was a completely untouched peanut butter baited Victor. Coincidence ???
time out , I wonder if your blue goo is a protein based lure or carbohydrate ?
I have got access to 14 day old dead chickens and tonight i have baited up a couple traps with them.

For the swamp comp i won a UFO cooker. Thank you Hunting and Fishing, its appreciated.
Oh and this afternoon while checking traps i caught a stoat and it was a tad manky but instead of a tail it just had a stump .. dont know if it had been eaten or what ? That aint much use for the swamp comp LOL

Interesting about the rats, there are no carbs in my traps at all at the moment (egg and rabbit) and last round it was 6 ships to 1 Norway, so not a good test model. I occasionally get a half eaten ship rat but wouldn’t know what’s having a chew on it.

Thanks @time out that’s my youngest(5) in the pic who now does the 4km without a grumble, was our last trap of the day and he was happy it had caught “something big”.

Swamp comp was good I received an A24 with a Bluetooth app , haven’t had the best time with the A24s at work but will start this one fresh and manage it better somewhere useful, Happy days

Found an unexpected package in the letterbox this morning.. turns out my 2 or 3 (can’t remember exactly) ferret tails were still worth the effort of collecting and entering. Couple of possum leg-hold traps from the swamp comp. Nice.