You are doing amazing work Salmoner - keep it up and also your reports Not much to report from me - I am still doing the yards but the kill results have plummeted A change from Ditrac to Contrac has dealt the rodents a serious blow - some bait stations are still moving but most have stopped - the last two trips around one line of about 40 traps have provided no kills - but still plenty of empty un-tripped traps - the cockroaches are enjoying my Possum Paste - no lure = no kills - so I have found some dry old Nara lure plugs that didn’t work and soaked them in neat aniseed oil - back in the Snap-E trap with plenty of oil around them - will see if it works Checked another line of about 20 traps last Saturday - just two rats and a heap of possum fur on a Sentenel - strange because they don’t often escape from those traps - I feel a bit guilty about showing a filthy Doc250 - but I don’t like to touch them if I don’t have to - have caught plenty of pests on manky old bait - even a dry old pilchard - need to buy some new white PP balls Total trap kills around the Park for 2018 = 328 - 291 rats, 15 possums, 20 hogs, 1 cat and 1 ferret - stoats have been seen in daylight but too smart for me
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Cruz
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Re: stoat trapping notes. Reply #332 - Jun 17th, 2018 at 6:42am
Checked my local traps today and a big adult rat and the usual collection of mice.
Did the high country traps last week and my cunning plan of adding mallard feathers in the bait end of the trap wasnt a roaring success in fact i didnt get anything. I saw an adult cat which we will have a go at catching in live capture cages.
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Re: stoat trapping notes. Reply #335 - Jun 26th, 2018 at 6:06am
Checked my high country traps today and put out 2 cat cage traps [ with door fixed open] with a bit of duck as bait. The plan is to get the cat going in the trap, then next time if the bait has been taken I will load the trap.
In my DOC 150 and 200s I caught 1 juvenile stoat, interestingly it was in one of my traps that i had put duck feathers in the trap end with the egg bait elevated on a stand so it can be viewed. This set looks blimmin good.
The only issue i have is my eggs are cracking as they are freezing ! Cruz s suggestion is plastic eggs. I know the guys at Arthurs Pass have the same problem.
Local traps i have been getting a few mice and the odd rat once every 10 ?days.
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Checked my local traps yesterday. First trap a rat [off to a good start i am thinking] and the rest of them drew a blank. Very little activity.
High country traps today. First five traps and i had 2 stoats. One of the stoats was caught in my cunning plan trap where i had placed mallard duck feathers over the trap plate and in the bait end, lots of smell. This idea shows real promise i feel. No more stoats but i caught a rat later on in a trap that i had shifted last time i was there.
Cat update. One of the cages still had the bait in exactly as i had left it but the other had the bait taken, going to give it another week or 2 before i set it.
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The adult stoat that was caught in the feather trap was quite unusual in that the belly fur was a really bright white and there was a white patch on its tail..
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Had a spare half hour so hopped on the bike and checked half of my local traps a few days earlier than i normally would of.. 3 rats ! The trap that caught the rat on 10th july had another rat in it as did the next trap.
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Hi, I've not read all 23 pages of this thread, which I keep meaning to read/post, but for those of you using the DOC200 traps, what weight setting do you use (ie, the weight at which point the trap goes off)? I'm a volunteer for a wetland restoration project near Blenheim, and this includes trapping rats and mustelids. I've been calibrating the traps to go off at 85gms, as advised by a private pest controller. But I understand DOC uses 50gms. Reason for asking what weight setting other people use is that we have baits taken from the traps, but the traps don't go off. Some of the culprits are mice, as evidenced by droppings, or, some actually get caught in the traps (despite the higher weight setting - I've even come across two mice in one trap!). But I often wonder whether any rats or mustelids just happened to be light enough (juveniles?) not to trigger the trap. Hence, might a 50gm setting be ideal? Thanks.
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I would go with the slightly heavier trip 85g if mice are triggering it all the time. I caught a very young stoat a few weeks ago and at a guess it would of been 3 to 4x the weight of a mouse ?
If you are thinking it might be rats i would make up a few boxes and get some Victop Pro rat traps and you will find out but i would think rats would trigger your traps at 85g.
What bait are using ?
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Mr Bean
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I would go with the slightly heavier trip 85g if mice are triggering it all the time. I caught a very young stoat a few weeks ago and at a guess it would of been 3 to 4x the weight of a mouse ?
If you are thinking it might be rats i would make up a few boxes and get some Victop Pro rat traps and you will find out but i would think rats would trigger your traps at 85g.
What bait are using ?
Thanks Salmoner, and also for the You Tube Link - I've had a quick look, it looks very useful - will watch more later.
We have some Victor Pro traps but they are not out in the field. I might have a chat to the team about this.
We're using "Mustelid and Cat lure", made by Pest Control Research - both cream and dark coloured ones. We're still experimenting which works best. We may try rabbit bait, and maybe even cat biscuits!
To prevent mice nicking the bait, most traps have a screw on the roof/walls to keep the bait out of reach of mice, and I have made some excluders to also help stop mice nicking the bait- we will put them in some traps, soon.
I'll try to read all 23 pages of this thread soon, as I hope to learn new ideas.
Thanks.
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Went and checked my high country traps today... all for a big fat zero. Put out a couple of rat traps to try in an area where plenty of birds are roosting. Something is visiting the cat traps as baits are disappearing. Next week hopefully we can give pussy a bad day.
Locally has slowed down again, just a couple of mice.
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have alot of possums on my cyanide lines getting f**ked up by something. mate said most likely stoat or ferret, Is there an easier way to catch these pricks without carting in those heavy bulky doc type traps? Does meat lure and legholds work? I notice many carcasses especially if theres a pile of them get dealt to within 1 or 2 nights, would legholds around these sites be good enough?