Mice

The first in an occasional post on home trapping experiences at our suburban gully section.

I have been losing bait from rat traps without them being sprung. I set mousetraps in the rat trap tunnels but if one was sprung the other would invariably spring too, and Victors are a bit tough on mouse traps, so I have made some smaller trap tunnels and placed the rat and mouse tunnels side by side.

Comments?

And –  we have a visitor:

Time to re-bait and re-locate the Timms.

Regards

Kemble

 

Trapping Workshop

At the new Waikato Environment Centre, corner of Kent and Commerce Streets, in the old Post Shop Building,             Tuesday 1 August, 5.15 to 7.30.

Program includes:
Why control predators
Predator species
Monitoring & identifying predators in your area
The right traps for your area and identified predators,
Setting up and maintaining traps
Recording results
What Predator-Free Hamilton can do for you.
Questions and discussion
See you there!

Cats

An interesting article by Chris Smuts-Kennedy in the Waikato Times of Friday 23 June. It’s a good summary of the ecological place of cats. See the pdf file:  CATS_0001

Urban Restoration – the big picture

Professor Bruce Clarkson is currently delivering the Charles Fleming Memorial Lecture Series – see http://royalsociety.org.nz/whats-happening/our-events/urban-ecological-restoration-the-new-frontier/ for the programme. He has also been interviewed by Jesse Mulligan on National Radio:  http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201842483/how-to-bring-nature-back-to-cities

It’s an excellent overview and puts our predator control efforts in context. Meanwhile if you would like to know more about rats in particular, here’s an interview with Predator-Free Hamilton member and Landcare Research scientist John Innes:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/summer-days/audio/201829629/everybody-has-rats

Happy trapping!

Plant sale fundraiser

The Waikato branch of Forest and Bird will be having its annual plant sale this year on the 6th of May, from 8am until midday, at 88 Nixon St, Hamilton East. As usual, there will be a great range of healthy trees, shrubs and grasses for you to select from, at good prices. There will not be EFTPOS, so please bring cash or cheque. The funds raised will continue to be put into the work of Predator-Free Hamilton.