Thread: The state of pest populations in NZ

Originally Posted by The bomb

Can someone tell me where these massive wild deer populations are anywhere near the waikato?i consider myself a decent sort of hunter but I still average 1deer every 3 hunts on public land(pureora ,lake tarawera and clements mill rd)much the same as 10yrs ago and I’m not spooking large numbers of deer,I usually bump 2 on a hunt ..

I don't know about "massive wild deer numbers" but there are still plenty of them in the Kaimais...hunters flogged themselves silly all winter chasing skinny animals and then when spring arrived the hunters seem to have gone elsewhere.

Originally Posted by sightpicture

If that is not due to "gun control", what is the likely cause?

Seasonal and the virus having runs its course.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Seasonal and the virus having runs its course.

Proof?

Originally Posted by sightpicture

Proof?

Observation.
Haven't shot a rabbit for a few years now.
See a few on our place and then the virus cleans them up.
Years ago my brother used to run competitions at his pub.
You would hardly get an entry now.
We used to have a lot of rabbits we don't now.
The conversion to dairy with the longer grass changes things to.
Mind you last time I went to PiroPiro flats they had an impressive amount a couple years ago.

Originally Posted by sightpicture

If that is not due to "gun control", what is the likely cause?

Yes @sightpicture, you are absolutely right... The rabbit explosion is directly attributable to the policies of Jacinda Arden and the NZ Labour party

Originally Posted by ebf

Yes @sightpicture, you are absolutely right... The rabbit explosion is directly attributable to the policies of Jacinda Arden and the NZ Labour party

Sometimes in life its best to stop arguing with someone and to just let them be wrong.

Originally Posted by sightpicture

If that is not due to "gun control", what is the likely cause?

I'm sorry but this seems like a seriously far fetched claim to make.

OK, so no evidence then, just anecdote. Got it.

Originally Posted by sightpicture

OK, so no evidence then, just anecdote. Got it.

We still have bolt action guns and so did pest controllers of the past.....

Spray and pray days be gone

Hamish

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Here’s my 2c from a professional perspective. Animal numbers are certainly on the up across the board and the country. My thoughts on why they are on the increase, increased difficulty for professionals to get access, it’s harder to sell them due to increased poison application and stand down periods ( specifically broadificum), people are locking up land as they are selling goats live which is fair enough it’s their land, The price of venison for pet food is low at the minute, human consumption factories are busy with farm stuff at the moment and there isn’t as many of them as there once was.
Here’s some experiences I’ve had with landowners. A couple of farmers were having issues with deer eating their grass, pilot friend of mine was going to do some spraying so said we will shoot them from machine before we spray, we turn up at daylight expecting heaps of deer we only get 5, we’re wondering where all these deer are, turns out the cocky let some one the day before we turn up he shoots 5 and doesn’t tell us about it until we quiz him.
The same pilot constantly sees anywhere from 30-100 on various farms, he offers to shoot them for farmer, farmer finds it hard to believe there is that many deer on his farm, and says that his boy enjoys shooting the odd one so isn’t interested.
You talk to a cocky he is all keen for you to come out and clean up the deer, he will call you when to come out.... that was 12 months ago.
Cocky wants the deer shot, you tell him not to put any more broady out as the stand down period is almost up, what does he do? Puts more broady out, that’s another 3 years.
Most cocky want some form of kick back, I’m happy to pay per deer, but they have to play the game. One cocky wanted $300 per fallow, couldn’t understand why we were laughing at him, took us a couple of minutes to settle then pointed out we would be lucky to get $80-120 for said fallow.

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

Cocky wants the deer shot, you tell him not to put any more broady out as the stand down period is almost up, what does he do? Puts more broady out, that’s another 3 years.

That's a tough one, brodifacoum is widely used for rats and possums. In my area it's illegal not to have some kind of possum control going on, and not all of us have a CSL so brodi is by far the most common choice. If anyone went 3 years between possum bait applications here they would be in court.

I hadn't really considered this seriously enough, does this mean no wild venison from farms could ever be considered safe? Every farm around here has got possum bait stations, so theoretically any feral deer could have had access to it, even if just from spills etc.

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

Here’s my 2c from a professional perspective. Animal numbers are certainly on the up across the board and the country. My thoughts on why they are on the increase, increased difficulty for professionals to get access, it’s harder to sell them due to increased poison application and stand down periods ( specifically broadificum), people are locking up land as they are selling goats live which is fair enough it’s their land, The price of venison for pet food is low at the minute, human consumption factories are busy with farm stuff at the moment and there isn’t as many of them as there once was.
Here’s some experiences I’ve had with landowners. A couple of farmers were having issues with deer eating their grass, pilot friend of mine was going to do some spraying so said we will shoot them from machine before we spray, we turn up at daylight expecting heaps of deer we only get 5, we’re wondering where all these deer are, turns out the cocky let some one the day before we turn up he shoots 5 and doesn’t tell us about it until we quiz him.
The same pilot constantly sees anywhere from 30-100 on various farms, he offers to shoot them for farmer, farmer finds it hard to believe there is that many deer on his farm, and says that his boy enjoys shooting the odd one so isn’t interested.
You talk to a cocky he is all keen for you to come out and clean up the deer, he will call you when to come out.... that was 12 months ago.
Cocky wants the deer shot, you tell him not to put any more broady out as the stand down period is almost up, what does he do? Puts more broady out, that’s another 3 years.
Most cocky want some form of kick back, I’m happy to pay per deer, but they have to play the game. One cocky wanted $300 per fallow, couldn’t understand why we were laughing at him, took us a couple of minutes to settle then pointed out we would be lucky to get $80-120 for said fallow.

You'd get 300 per fallow for a meat hunt. But then have to either trust people or find a guide to do it.

A lot of people want to have their cake and eat it too.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

That's a tough one, brodifacoum is widely used for rats and possums. In my area it's illegal not to have some kind of possum control going on, and not all of us have a CSL so brodi is by far the most common choice. If anyone went 3 years between possum bait applications here they would be in court.

I hadn't really considered this seriously enough, does this mean no wild venison from farms could ever be considered safe? Every farm around here has got possum bait stations, so theoretically any feral deer could have had access to it, even if just from spills etc.

You probably know more than me but there's stand down periods and an exclusion zone of X km per different types of animals and if its reapplied before its up then I suppose the period of time would roll over. Meaning that there's no point in time when it can be legally harvested for commercial purposes.

It was for venison not clients

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

You probably know more than me but there's stand down periods and an exclusion zone of X km per different types of animals and if its reapplied before its up then I suppose the period of time would roll over. Meaning that there's no point in time when it can be legally harvested for commercial purposes.

What I know is that every farm inside this defined possum control area is legally obliged to use brodi or some other possum bait, applied 3-4 times per year. Which means we've got 26,000ha (including a very significant deer population) from which maybe there should not have any wild meat harvested?

I've had a bit of a read, seems brodi collects in the liver etc in highest percentages. Eating a small amount of meat excluding any offal should be no problem even if the pest had been eating small amounts of brodi. "should be" no problem....

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

That's a tough one, brodifacoum is widely used for rats and possums. In my area it's illegal not to have some kind of possum control going on, and not all of us have a CSL so brodi is by far the most common choice. If anyone went 3 years between possum bait applications here they would be in court.

I hadn't really considered this seriously enough, does this mean no wild venison from farms could ever be considered safe? Every farm around here has got possum bait stations, so theoretically any feral deer could have had access to it, even if just from spills etc.

Try colicalcifirol don’t need a licence, 1 month stand down and zero distance, worst thing about this is you can have ya brodi out I can’t sell a deer for 3 years within 2 k but you can sell ya sheep and cows even if they have been in the same paddock as the bait stations