Thread: Bird Predator Control

Great results @ Orcrist – keep showing us the results – puts this post to shame
I had to take a trip to Auckland to see my Son’s new house – long grass on sections all round him so I took four new boxes with new Victor pro traps soaked in boiled linseed oil
Relaxing in the family room and we spotted a mouse playing around under the fridge – no worry – we can sort him out so got a Victor out of a box and put some peanut butter on the foot plate – positioned it beside the base of the bench unit beside the fridge
Only took the mouse a few minutes to come out and check out his new dinner – a bit embarrassing really as he accessed it sideways – in and out numerous times and had a few feeds – I thought maybe I had left too much sticky oil on the foot plate saddle - it took about ten minutes before he made a fatal mistake and climbed on the front of the foot plate – jeeze it made a bang when it tripped – poor little buggar
A good example of how a narrow box or tunnel ensures the rodent presents correctly to a trap

Went and checked a high country line today, only 13 traps in the line but it is a bit of a walk.. 13 traps , 2 sprung empties, 4 not touched and 7 stoats in the balance... The back end had been chewed off all but 3 of them so no tails. 4 weeks since last checked. I did see a cat so might have to get a SA cat trap off Carol at Dead rat. Thoughts please on, would it be the cat that is cheweing the back half of the bodies off my stoats ? I am running all DOC 150s up on that line with fairly tight entrances... The sprung empties i suspect the cat is rattling the boxes and triggering the traps as quarter of my captures are weasels and i have a light trigger/spring off on my traps. I am now starting to put big rocks on my traps to stop any movement if the cat rattles the box. Thoughts please on the cat eating the bodies ?

@sore head stoat it could a cat but don't discount further stoats.

I have seen it before when having a run on weasels in a certain trap that if i have not checked it fast enough.....all that is left is a head.

Reset = another weasel

Having a camera or two if can answer a lot of guestions if you can source them

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Sore Head Stoat (or all head no stoat haha) I had a camera on a trap that caught a stoat and everything in the bush came over for a lick and a chew, cats several times, a possum also rats and hogs, we need to bottle that smell. Kiwi-Hunter I had a tunnel trap that I painted black inside and outside including the trap and it was about 6 months before anything went in it then it started catching everything maybe the paint smell put them off for a while, I also have a tunnel trap with the sides and top made of white corflute very visible and it catches all the critters and shitloads of possums.

Originally Posted by BillyXmas546

Sore Head Stoat (or all head no stoat haha) I had a camera on a trap that caught a stoat and everything in the bush came over for a lick and a chew, cats several times, a possum also rats and hogs, we need to bottle that smell. Kiwi-Hunter I had a tunnel trap that I painted black inside and outside including the trap and it was about 6 months before anything went in it then it started catching everything maybe the paint smell put them off for a while, I also have a tunnel trap with the sides and top made of white corflute very visible and it catches all the critters and shitloads of possums.

Gday Billy, I am getting sick of getting half stoats, probably 10 or 15 of them now gggrrrr, lol. Yes mustelid must be a powerful stimulant/attractant to other animals.

Weasel caught on fresh rabbit only put the trap there a week ago, the rat caught using blue stuff. Remember Helen caught 4 weasels using mayonnaise well she got another one using mayonnaise on a golf ball, the weasels on my trap lines are a bit fussier.

Sore Head Stoat can you hang a weasel above a leghold, might get number one predator

Originally Posted by BillyXmas546

Sore Head Stoat can you hang a weasel above a leghold, might get number one predator

yip few number 1 s about but i can only get to my high country lines once every 2 3 or 4 weeks, so leg holds are not an option for me.

I have just made the first boxes for my Doc200 traps. I noticed a few thinks when they were finished. One of the traps needed a hammer adjustment to the trigger mount which was too high. When the trap was activated the trigger arm snaped to the rear of the trap but the trap didn't slam closed. That was an easy fix. I bashed it lower. The other thing is they are both difficult to set. When you lift the wire setting loop the trigger doesn't locate on the sear and you have to get your hand down there in the danger zone to get it right. Is this normal? or is it me or the traps?
Thanks

Originally Posted by Dermastor

I have just made the first boxes for my Doc200 traps. I noticed a few thinks when they were finished. One of the traps needed a hammer adjustment to the trigger mount which was too high. When the trap was activated the trigger arm snaped to the rear of the trap but the trap didn't slam closed. That was an easy fix. I bashed it lower. The other thing is they are both difficult to set. When you lift the wire setting loop the trigger doesn't locate on the sear and you have to get your hand down there in the danger zone to get it right. Is this normal? or is it me or the traps?
Thanks

Attachment 143598

I have never had to bash a trap , they have worked perfectly esp from new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TaZxIHtsMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11t9II2FpFk

Another question.. I have done this more than once. The other day i cleared one of my high country lines, the half stoat line lol.. On the way back home i pass another of my lines and i stopped and checked a few of those traps. I moved 1 of the traps 10m from where it had been for a couple of years and when i checked them today it had a stoat in. Now i have done this before, moved a trap and whammo next check it has an animal in. i have also put a new trap 30m away from a long established trap and the new trap has caught something.. Do you think the animal caught had been in the area all along and knew the other traps were danger but this new object was worth checking out ? Thoughts please.

Sorry don't have enough experience to answer your query sore head stoat.
Rats can be smart but also really stupid. I noticed my fake eggs in my chook coop going missing. One was hard hollow plastic the others solid rubber. I guessed it was a rat. So I put a fenn in a box in the coop and a couple of days later got it. The rat was taking the fake eggs out of the nests about three feet off the ground and down a ramp and disappearing with them somewhere. Why? It couldn't eat them.

A thieving dirty rat. Orcrist you wouldn't believe he was capable of carrying off hens eggs.
He looks so innocent swinging there.
KH

Speaking of eggs..... A few years back I saw a stoat running across the road rolling a chook sized egg in front; it didn't even break stride. Pretty impressive when you consider the off-centre shape of an egg

I don’t have the experience to answer your question @sore head stoat – I could count my mustilid kill numbers on one hand – but one thing I do know about ferrets and cats – patience is a virtue! – you know the buggars are around but you just can’t catch them – but they usually make a fatal mistake
I like the concept of moving trap boxes slightly and kicking the ground clean so they can see something has changed – but most of my trap tunnels are fixed on roots or branches – so they always look the same – moving rat boxes successfully conflicts with the often held belief that rats are neophobic animals – not in my experience – they seem to be curious
Some of us are still trapping around our street – we have 280 entries in the PFBOP system so I would guess that is well over 300 kills. About two weeks back - one of our neighbours who looks down onto the estuary spotted a ferret running around on their lawn in daylight – so I put a cage down there with a fresh rabbit leg on the rear mesh – we got a cat first night – then another cat – then nothing – both released unharmed – it took about ten days to trip up the ferret last night – I left a leg in the cage and a tail in the freezer – maybe he will have a mate. It is good that we got him as there were 18 fabulous Royal Spoonbills sitting near the cage yesterday – they live around the estuary so we need to make it safe for nesting this year
So at last I have an entry for the swamp comp – pitty they don’t take cat tails!
I love to see the Fenn traps in action – they don’t take prisoners! – well done @Orchrist