your nana and pop might get a bit tichy finding rabbit blood on there dried apricots bro!!! i havnt tried dried rabbit but have used salted rabbit quite a bit, it did catch but not as good as eggs, could be worth a crack with the dried. traps definatly seem to catch better once a stoat has been caught, must be the scent they leave in it i think, rabbit piss could be a good plan, i think rabbit blood would go rotten smelling and maybe only work when it was nice and fresh. ive heard of a guy putting folded up paper from his kids pet mice cage in the traps as well as bait, the paper reaked of mice piss and he rekoned it worked as a lure, could be worth a try but i think plain old eggs works ok for me. the lure paste i read about was a concentrated rat smell, designed especially to target mustelids so there must be some merrit in it.
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meathunter72
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200 metres is a good spacing for stoats. But like Chris says location is the key. The boundary edge is a good place to start, along with any existing tracks on the property. Ridge lines too, If you were not going to check them for a month or more go eggs, but if you can check them weekly or better then its hard to go past fresh rabbit with skin on. Besides, it gives you an excuse to go and knock some bunnies over.
I experiment a lot with the trap site, I believe if something is not quite right most dont go near. I found no bait is required if you got them set up in the right spot and I think lures and baits may alert the smarter ones to the danger actually reducing the catch rate, my understanding is they like live food and this is why 1080 has no effect on them and so its better to think of providing them cover rather than food. I check mine daily along with my possum line, this gets them going big time, once I get it right I often catch every day in the same trap for a bit - up to 30 on the trot and once 2 in one day. This is how to get the numbers up more than any other trick. Also I make it natural as possible, heres another pic of the punga tunnel set which is productive year in an out, Also fully agree with every attention to the way the traps are set, bed well, hide with local material, guide with same, and set light as possible and check from a distance without touching.
now that is a quality set!!! it looks like its set on a rock wall? rock walls are very good sites because they provide a lot of shelter for all sorts of critters that stoats like to eat. spot on traps!
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meathunter72
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Keep us up to date with how effective you find it. As in the next couple of months I will probably start to trap ferrets/stoats as I don't think the AHB are going to be doing any control here this coming year.
"the only good Wallaby is a dead one"
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engage
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Got 70 traps to manage over 14 kms for 10 years down here. some of us took the plunge and bought 70 DoC 200's. It is an all volunteer trapline I am going to be asking you a lot of questions Chris and Traps if you do not mind, I can learn something here. We are protecting mainly Whio with Kakariki Mohua and Kaka benefiting. yeah one tagged stoat spent 10 days in the middle of a trapline and never went near the traps
"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”
I was contemplating the same for here! Kiwi are getting nailed badly in the beech country now. Where did you buy yours from Weathered? Was considering getting local High School involved to try and keep up a good stream of young ones in the bush.