TRAPPING VERMIN.

Forest and Bird, Issue 27, 1 July 1932, Page 12

TRAPPING VERMIN.

(By Captain E. V. Sanderson.)

Anyone can scatter a lot of steel traps around and catch and maim birds and a lot of things, but the skill is in catching what you want to without hurting what you don’t want to. The writer has experimented on these lines for years, and, without pretending to know all there is to learn, now gives the results of his attempts. Say we start with the humble mouse which decides every autumn to make our homes its winter quarters. Traps can easily beat a cat, whose natural food is birds and fish, and a wild cat is a good fisherman. Cats are dirty things and disease carriers which we have got used to, like some farmers have got used to tolerating blackberry and Californian thistle. Proximity seems to make us careless of the evil. Cats, moreover, are considered by many able to form a correct opinion, to be the most harmful predatory enemy of birds, especially game birds. Now for the mouse, just use half-a-dozen of the common break-back traps. Those with the wood and tin bait stick are best because they set lightly. Bait with whatever the rodents are feeding on and tie it on. Set traps extremely light and keep them set! Treat rats

in the same manner, but rub the hand all round the ground about each trap, so that the scent is not only on the trap. A trap which is always baited and always set can be made out of a petrol tin if one is handy with a soldering iron. One of these caught seven rats in one night, while hedgehogs fall an easy prey.

Put a few inches of water in the bottom if you wish to kill, but where wekas and kiwis are present this is not advisable. Bury the trap in a likely position up to the rim of the tin, having hinged a broken bridge oi tin to this. Hang the bait over the centre on the end of a bit of fencing wire, one end of which is planted in the ground alongside the trap, and the other bent over towards the centre of trap, but just out of reach of rats. Put wings of tin or netting to lead the rats across the bridge and tin alongside each side of the trap to prevent the animal springing off. The essential is that the bridge must give no movement when first stepped on. This trap can, of course, be made any size with other material for other animals.

Now we come to Mr. Cat. Make a crate 2ft. 6in. by 2ft. 6in. by Ift. 6in. high, which should have a batten running along the centre of the top to rest trip stick on, and cover with wire netting, also the ground where it is to stand. Cut the heads off two 4-inch nails, and drive these into the two back legs as it were. They will act as hinges. The trip stick is merely the old style of thing most of us have used as boys to catch sparrows in a brick trap. Tie the bait on, which can be fresh or cooked meat, a fish head or salmon tin. Shoot the cat in the head with a pea rifle and it never knows what struck it.

Last, but not least, we have the weasel, stoat, etc. This tribe dearly love a dry drain, hole in a log, or other such temporary refuge, so in order to satisfy this call we can make a long box, say, sft. in length, with three pieces of timber. The open side lies next the ground and the entrances should be about sin. by sin. Cut a piece out of the centre top board for convenient inspection, and lay a steel trap very lightly set on the ground under this door-like board. The trap is placed in such a position that

the animal must cross it. A stone or brick may be necessary to accurately direct the weasel’s course. Place the whole contrivance in a likely position on a track, alongside a fowlhouse or wall, etc. A weasel runs in a depression for preference. Erect suitable wings at each entrance, and make the inside dark and inviting to such vermin. This trap catches weasels, rats, hedgehogs, and an occasional cat. No birds will enter it, possibly with the exception of kiwi and weka, but those, if present, can be excluded, with the hedgehog, if so desired, by driving a peg or pegs in front of each entrance so as to lessen the aperture.. The Auckland Acclimatisation Society, in a commendable effort to lessen weasels, is offering a bounty of 1/- for tails of weasels killed in their district. Steel traps are cruel instruments and cause pain and suffering, therefore let us be as humane as possible and inspect traps at least twice daily.

An adaptation of a Maori rat trap is to dig a hole in the ground, making the entrance much smaller than the lower part, and scoop out the hole so as to form a ceiling. Fasten a bait to the end of a piece of fencing wire, and drive the other end into the bottom of the hole. Dogs can be caught in this manner by placing a noose around the entrance, and tying the loose end of the cord to a stake.