Thread: The state of pest populations in NZ

Originally Posted by Sarvo

Well - I gone back to the old fashion way of trapping
Turn over turf - nestle trap in 50-75mm hole approx spade squared
I use a piece of shade cloth over - then sprinkle dirt over that - paper or Dock leaf will do too

Rabbits go to fresh turned turf instantly evey night
Had 2 out of 2 sets - last two nights
Bloody modern Poison etc - prob all BS as it aint reduced # here
Prob just makn then breed faster and get fatter

Talking to two property owners who go to great details to remove "pests", both have purchased the electronic gas operated rat killing units that are being sold. Both have been informed to their phone dozens of times that the unit has been "fired", yet to find a dead "pest" on site.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

Yeah, we're 100km N of you and it seems everywhere in between has the same problem. I had no deer at all until about 5 years ago. A guy I met who farmed at Porongahau said he had none and then suddenly they were there, and then there were masses all over a short period. It's got potential to become serious, and the firearms law changes will make it worse. Maybe if every farmer from Wellington to East Cape applied for P someone might start to get the point.

The firearms law changes wont make it worst...you can still use a rifle and shoot deer and hunt.
It appears to me the main deer problem in this country is on private blocks , farms, forestry, locked off blocks next to private etc.
Big percentage dont get 1080,and either dont have hunters or the ones that do the private blocks are not getting enough animals shot. Its a easy fix, but thats up to the land owners. Either go shoot along more or
get someone or three to hunt it for you on a regular basis.
PS never hunted a private block in my life for deer............so anyone got too many animals running around and thinking its a problem i sort them

Originally Posted by berg243

possums get a hammering for free as you can make some money from them rabbits not so much as i dont think there are that many that do them for petfood where as deer are seen as a decent bit of meat and a lot of farmers dont even realise how many they have roaming around till you take them out with a thermal. for proper rabbit control you need paid controllers as most casual shooters will go out maybe once a month and have a blast for a few hours then give up for the night .with the cost of ammunition now shooting somewhere like central otago i would expect to use $300 to $400 worth of ammunition a week doing real control work plus having a small tractor or digger destroying warrens during the day to make a decent impact add in a quad and or a side by side plus a ute and trailer and a mobile home plus all the various firearms that you need thats a lot of money to have tied up if not being paid properly.

That's the exact setup old man has, big goose neck trailer with living quarters and can fit side by side or quad in the back along with all the gear, hes away most weeks and mum is lucky if she sees him for a day in the weekends but it's mostly work targeted at wallabies and pigs and a few jobs doing deer from a chopper. Has a small digger also and can do the work properly on rabbits but it seems that theres not a lot of farmers willing to put the money into it to have it done properly. Some of that land that carrys the big numbers may be pretty expansive but the farmers usually struggle to turn a dollar on it as is so it turns into a vicious cycle where the money isn't there to put into rabbit control, and the land becomes less productive as a result, theres a mindset of "this is gonna be the year we will make a decent profit off this block and put some dollars back into it" but it never quite happens

Originally Posted by tetawa

Talking to two property owners who go to great details to remove "pests", both have purchased the electronic gas operated rat killing units that are being sold. Both have been informed to their phone dozens of times that the unit has been "fired", yet to find a dead "pest" on site.

Unless you check the next day they are likely to be scavenged. I've been running 6 of them. I've caught rats, mice and a hedgehog, so I know for a fact that they work.

[QUOTE=HNTMAD;935006]

Originally Posted by tetawa

Well they weren't brought here for that, they were brought here as gifts and sport for the rich folk

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

They were not brought here as sport for the rich folk. They were released onto public land so that all may hunt in the future to avoid the only the rich can hunt situations our ancestors had to suffer.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

IIRC on some of the smaller more remote islands they were released as an emergency food source for shipwrecked sailors.

So then we are farming "pests"??? If we farm something then I think it's pretty strange to define it as a pest. I guess it's fair to say deer can be a pest. You can define people as pests by the environmentalist logic.

Promoting hunters/shooters as a threat to society isn't going to help you with pest control.

During the depression the big stations survived by mass netting and shooting rabbits for skins.

Originally Posted by deer243

The firearms law changes wont make it worst...you can still use a rifle and shoot deer and hunt.
It appears to me the main deer problem in this country is on private blocks , farms, forestry, locked off blocks next to private etc.
Big percentage dont get 1080,and either dont have hunters or the ones that do the private blocks are not getting enough animals shot. Its a easy fix, but thats up to the land owners. Either go shoot along more or
get someone or three to hunt it for you on a regular basis.
PS never hunted a private block in my life for deer............so anyone got too many animals running around and thinking its a problem i sort them

Unfortunately when it comes to recreational hunters they either/ or do not have the ability and/or mind set to do just what the Land owner wants . And in short it is to find and kill and keep on killing . And for most that is not something of which they are capable of .

Originally Posted by Tankd

Unfortunately when it comes to recreational hunters they either/ or do not have the ability and/or mind set to do just what the Land owner wants . And in short it is to find and kill and keep on killing . And for most that is not something of which they are capable of .

In my limited experience anywhere I have had the privilege to hunt private land they are quite selective....Ie only shoot stags or only shoot spikers or yearlings etc.
Because they are literally farming the "pests" as well.
The only exception was one place we were shooting bunnys on that was shoot as many as you can.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

"Government subsidy"? Taxpayers pay? Taxpayer subsidy but fa hunting access?
Like the DoC heirarchy refusing me tuckrr air drop to help me create a decent access route into an area holding deer, then the following year they airdrop thousands of hectares of food (poisoned food) for animsls and birds ! Go figure.

Originally Posted by Woody

"Government subsidy"? Taxpayers pay? Taxpayer subsidy but fa hunting access?
Like the DoC heirarchy refusing me tuckrr air drop to help me create a decent access route into an area holding deer, then the following year they airdrop thousands of hectares of food (poisoned food) for animsls and birds ! Go figure.

Spose it would be a bit like the taxpayer filling Aucklands coffers all the time eh....

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

In my limited experience anywhere I have had the privilege to hunt private land they are quite selective....Ie only shoot stags or only shoot spikers or yearlings etc.
Because they are literally farming the "pests" as well.
The only exception was one place we were shooting bunnys on that was shoot as many as you can.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

I agree with you however , the ones with a pest problem want them gone . I shoot in an area where there are/was a goat problem , and have shot hundreds , but in the end we could not keep up and other methods were used . It has given me access to deer but having to shoot lots of goats can get tedious/mind numbing which to a recreational shooter can cause a loss of interest where to the Pest Controller it is a job to be done .

Originally Posted by Tankd

I agree with you however , the ones with a pest problem want them gone . I shoot in an area where there are/was a goat problem , and have shot hundreds , but in the end we could not keep up and other methods were used . It has given me access to deer but having to shoot lots of goats can get tedious/mind numbing which to a recreational shooter can cause a loss of interest where to the Pest Controller it is a job to be done .

I am not aware of anywhere near me with anything like that kind of problem....If I did I would be knocking on the door.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

Personally, I think goats are an under-appreciated resource. They are a good quarry for the novice hunter and the young animals make reasonable eating. I don't think we should be wiping them out as recreational hunters. Obviously, if a farmer has requested that as many animals as possible are removed from private land then that's a different matter.