It's raining cats and dogs today so what better weather than to put up a blog about the trapping I do on my section. I have 35 traps set; 1 Goodnature possum, 1 Goodnature rat, 3 Kamate rat, 3 plywood boxes and 27 homemade rat traps. The section is just over 1ha and most of the traps used to be around the boundary track but with some traps (especially those on the back boundary) not catching anything in the 3 years they've been deployed I decided it was time for a change.
The traps get an annual clean; sand the rust off, grease all metal parts with titi (muttonbird) oil and wash the yellow plastic bait plates. In the past I've done this in situ but this year with its unsettled and unseasonal weather I decided to get all of them in and sit in 'luxury' on the deck.
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The morning started off cool and sunny when I collected the first of the
traps for their annual maintenance |
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Before cleaning: the mould is growing on Nutella bait that should
have been changed by now |
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After cleaning and oiling; the can lid provides a hard base for the Victor
trap spring - and it's a handy place to write the trap number on |
The sunshine didn't take long to morph into a Winter's day despite still being in Autumn. Low cloud, sleety showers with snow flurries and hail has a unique beauty that's hard to capture with a camera. Togged up with several layers of polar fleece and a woolly hat I sat and watched the ngirungiru dart around, occasionally stopping to check out what I was doing.
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| Ngirungiru (tomtit) checking that I've cleaned the trap properly |
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| Hurry up and clean this one so I can go and catch more worms! |
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| Can you see the snow flurries? |
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| The deck after a hail shower with snow flurries |
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| Snowy garden |
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| 24 May - an early start to Winter? |
The Goodnature traps need less maintenance as the compressed CO
2 gas cylinder shoots out a spray of silicone and only needs changing every 6 months - or after every 12 possums/24 rats. I haven't caught anything with the Kamate stainless steel vertical traps so think I'll convert them to a horizontal trap with corflute tunnel like my homemade traps. The reason for the longer tunnels and wire netting 'door' is to prevent kiwi and weka getting their bills caught in the traps.
I've redeployed the traps very differently. Traps 1-10 are in the open - around the house and garage and down the drive; traps 11-20 are in mixed scrubby land and traps 21-30 are scattered throughout regenerating bush. The possum trap is on the back boundary but I've bought a couple of extra attachment plates so can move it around. It's more challenging finding the traps (still haven't found Trap 29 yet!) but it's good for exercising my navigation skills - and seeing more of the section.
So far so good for the deer 'curtain; touch wood that it does the trick as there are new leaves shooting up from the rhubarb crowns.
