Hi this report from DOC covering trials on mesh and baffles on trap boxes might be of interest, it’s a pity the research did not go further and cover things like covering treadle plates etc but i guess they had to work to the Brief of work they were paid to do
To see the photos of all the setups they trialed you need to scroll right down to the bottom of the last page
Final Report - Biosecurity device efficacy testing on ship and Norway rats - DOC-10936502.pdf (1.8 MB)
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Some surprising findings there - especially the decrease in interaction just from adding the trap into the box. They did recommend further research on the treadle plate treatments, so hopefully there will be a follow-up paper soon!
Hi In other work I did last year like on the kiwi Safe Boxes etc I did suggest to DOC that when it comes to designing a new Trap Box having input from other sources like community groups, contractors, etc would be good as that it where the progress seems to being made, but that never happened.
It is good that they at least mentioned the possible aversion to touching steel which I and other have been on about and hopefully will be in a later trial.
regarding the Trap in Box making a difference a few years ago both Cam Speedy and I made different Boxes with holes in the wooden floor so the traps sat on the ground and the Treadle plate was very close to level with the inside of the floor, which made them more open to look through. The ones Cam did sat lose inside the recess and you set the trap outside the box with a tool, mine I screwed a piece of steel on the underside and bolted the trap to that. Problem is without backing and support it is just too hard to run trials that will stand up to peer review
One thing they may have overlooked was that the best practice internal Baffle is fairly restrictive as they had to make them like that to get more head strikes , a more open Baffle and body strikes did not always pass the NAWAC time to NO eye reflex