I'd just put up a post about traps we run here and decided it needed refinement, photos, some explanation.
We use kill-traps. They are secured inside boxes that ensure no accidental harm to pets, livestock, native birds (even the curious ones - and we have them... ground parrots and wekas for instance). The hole in the mesh is 50mm (2 inches) for rats, or 60mm where we target stoats. The tunnel ensures the birds with long necks or sticky-beaks can't reach in to the trigger plate. The boxes even have an additional internal mesh guard with the opening on the left hand side so that the target animal has to chicane it's way into the danger zone.
I have been whacked on the wrist when I accidentally triggered one rebaiting it. I'm surprised I got away without broken bones. They are instant death to small animals.
Possums - which are about the same size as raccoons but without any of the cuteness - are not yet on our target list because the best kill-traps for them are very expensive and we (the resident's association) have to do some community fund raising before we can equip ourselves with those.
It's a pity we have to do these things, but needs must . . . I'm glad yours are swift.
ReplyDeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteA good description of the equipment and process... and something my mother would describe as a necessary evil. Not fun but needful. YAM xx
keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we are not allowed to kill our possums. Being native we have to live with them.
ReplyDeleteI’m happy for them to live here. Just not in my roof.
We have resealed the roof many times but they are clever and can get in.
Thankfully this time it seems to have worked and so far we have been possum free for a few years.
Our possums are your possums. They don't belong here. I agree they are a menace if they get into the roof - I have quite funny experience of that (it managed to get down into the kitchen cupboards - old house - and I encountered it in the night in the dark after we had taken the doors off to paint them).
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