KAURI DIEBACK PRECAUTIONS ARE IN PLACE ACROSS ALL OUR ACTIVITIES. More details
Backyard Trapping
Now is a great time to start protecting native biodiversity on and around your property.
Building or buying a trap or bait station can help increase the number of birds, lizards, wetas and other living creatures that come to your section. It is also a valuable learning experience for your kids- they often love checking traps each morning to see if anything was caught.
About trapping
There is a huge amount of info on the DOC website about trapping, types of traps, bait, and techniques. This includes info about making your own traps. But if you'd like to buy one, we recommend these ones, from Predator Free NZ.
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This is an excellent source of information about choosing between bait stations and traps.
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Bait Stations
The other way to go is to use a bait station. These are plastic boxes that contain bait for rats and mice. The main benefit of bait stations is that they are a lot less work than traps as they don’t have to be checked as often and you don’t have to dispose of the dead rodents. Generally they will go off into the bush somewhere to die. However on occasion they will die in the walls and/or ceiling of your house.
Bait stations are safe around kids and non-target species. They are not suitable for properties where dogs are present, as there is a slight chance a dog will eat a poisoned rat. Here at STNN we use a toxin called Ditrac which has many benefits including low toxicity to pets (it breaks down very quickly in the rodent and there is also an antidote available should it be needed).
STNN can supply bait stations for $25 each and Ditrac bait at $5 per 10 blocks. A block is enough to kill one rat. Ask your Neighbourhood Co-ordinator for details.
Where to put your trap or bait station
Whether you go the trap or bait station route, placement of your device can be quite important. Rats and mice like to run along borders such as fences and the edge of the bush, or the edge of a stream or the edge of a house.
The other thing to note here is that if you are not having any bait taken or your trap is not being triggered, then simply move it to a different location. It’s not really known why, but rodents can be quite fussy about which enclosures they enter. Simply moving your trap or bait station 5 to 10 metres away can produce markedly different results.
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Collecting data about trapping in South Titriangi
It’s really valuable for us as a community to record who is catching or killing pest animals and how many.
To do this we use the TrapNZ app which can be used on both Android phones and iPhones. (You can download the app at trap.nz)
And then you can set up checkpoints where you have your traps or bait stations and enter in catch data when you check them.
This helps groups like STNN with funding from council because we can show that we have lots of people involved and so any supplies we were to receive would be used. It also helps us get a gauge on how many people are doing pest control and in which areas. This can help us identify areas which may not be covered. It also helps to tell if we are getting on top of the predators or not.
For further information, contact the nearest person to you on the Connect page of this website.