traps

All traps are placed inside an tunnel or other enclosure to ensure the safety of children and that of pets and other non-target animals.

Rat Traps

We have a variety of rat traps in use, with the two most common being Victor Professional and D2K Monster traps, followed by T-Rex traps.

The Victor Professional is a very durable trap but many people find them difficult to set. The D2K and T-Rex traps are made of plastic and much easier to use but the D2K trap is not very durable and has quite a short lifetime before the setting mechanism fails.

Possum Traps

Auckland Council have strict rules about the use of possum traps in public reserves. They should be out of sight and where practicable at least 10m from paths and at least 1.5m off the ground. This provides quite a challenge in both the narrow esplanade reserves adjoining our waterways and in the public parks which we would like to expand into.

We use Trapinator traps provided by Trap Library East Auckland.

Mustelid Traps

Weasel, stoats and ferrets are collectively known as mustelids and are all ferocious predators. They are not commonly seen but are definitely present in our area. We were fortunate to catch a small one in a rat trap beside the Pakuranga Creek in early 2021.

Rat traps are generally not strong enough to kill an adult stoat and we have installed one DOC 200 trap along the creek reserve to target other mustelids.

lures

We do not use poison baits. Lures are foods and odours that attract target animals to the traps.

The difficulty with lures is that they lose their attractiveness over time and may also be taken by insects, beetles, or small animals not big enough to trigger the trap.

Different lures are believed to be more or less effective at different times of the year, depending on what other food sources are available.

Rats

Peanut butter is a cheap and effective lure but it is not very durable. In many areas we find that it disappears from the trap within a few days. Nevertheless it remains our most commonly used lure.

During the winter of 2021 we performed a trial of peanut butter, mayonnaise and a commercial paste. The trial was interrupted by the August delta outbreak but is now completed. We found that there was no significant difference between the efficacy of all three lures.

We have looked at commercial solid lures and intend to trial other options to find a suitable lure for use in areas with low catch rates. In areas with high catch rates and frequent trap visits the relatively poor durability of peanut butter is not such a major issue.

Possums

They say that possums love cinnamon, and our experience bears that out. We haven’t tried to methodically test different lures but we have tried a number of them. Peanut butter and a commercial paste both worked but the bulk of the catches were made with apple sprinkled with cinnamon.

Mustelids

An egg is the main lure in our mustelid trap, supplemented with mayonnaise and raw meat.