Hi yes I did try electrical tape basically the same as Duct Tape it was winter when I played around with the idea, same temp but as I mentioned for me anyway it was different to touch than the steel treadle
I did have another play around today and tried an old motorbike inner tube and slide that over the entire Treadle, looked good but hit a snap because with the fold on sides of treadle the inner tube hung down a bit and sometimes the trap would not go off, also 30 grams so starting to get to the point of being too much.
Attached are two photos of the other tape idea this is wide electrical tape as I didn’t have any Black Duct tape at home again it feels different to the touch, I did not wind the tape around the treadle as it would have caused the same binding underneath as the inner tube did. one layer of Duct tape would be 2.25 grams so even using a double layer would only be 5 grams so not a problem with trip weight, and as already suggested by willowflat you can rub a bit of dirt on the tape;
I have worked on other more difficult ideas to make, I made some tunnels/boxes with no floor and 200 traps sat in the ground like we did with the Fenn’s and sprinkled a bit of fine leaf litter on the treadle,
so you had a nice dirt floor leading up to the trap. and treadle plate is level with the ground and the whole tunnel is run through. Next to NO interest so the design never went anywhere
@willowflat_warrior great to hear the raised floor/ramp has worked well for you for some time!
Regarding treadles, kjs has used feathers and this has worked well for him on mustelids. But as he said they can blow around which isn’t ideal.
Most of my treadles are filthy. Sometimes I can’t check my traps frequently so there is always a rat or hedgehog rotting on the treadle! However I haven’t found a filthy treadle to perform much better than a new, clean treadle.
I believe, as dave_e talks about, the temperature differential of the treadle vs ply can be off-putting for wary pests. While a filthy treadle will disguise the texture and how it looks, it will do little to change the felt temperature. That’s why I use ply on the treadle. It looks the same as what the pest has already walked over, has the same texture, and importantly, is roughly the same temperature.
BTW @willowflat_warrior thanks for the tip regarding tallow/dripping, it is my new favourite lure!
Hi I mentioned 14% of rats in some NAWAC testing were not caught, in some non NAWAC testing ZIP had a heap of rats not caught so there retested with a std DOC doc box to compare to their own design, this what happened,
with the support of the Department of Conservation, in late-August to mid-November 2018, we [undertook a trial to assess the animal welfare performance for ship rats of the standard DOC200 in a standard wooden Haines box.
Of the 32 rats tested in that trial, over the 60-minute period that each animal was tested for, 37% of the animals interacted with the trap but were not caught by it! That is, they either sprung the trap but escaped without being hit, or entered the box, tested the treadle and then exited the box without springing the trap. These results demonstrate how cautious ship rats can be. That’s not to suggest that these animals would never be caught
I’d be interested to know what the temperature difference is between the ply/timber base of the tunnel, the ply on the treadle, and the exposed treadle on a cold night.
I’m glad to hear that you’ve been having success with the fat. I hope that there are a decent number of people trying it, because it’s a killer. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I think that there would be a considerable spike in kills nationwide if trappers put the peanut butter away for a few weeks and tried tallow/dripping.
Hi one more comment I think the ply is a great idea as long as it does not add too much weight to the treadle. also when after stoats etc I would be reluctant to fixing it in place with silicon which has a highly chemical smell, all animals have better senses that use humans so even when it is set probably still smells to a stoat, Maybe even some thing simpler like heavy material off an old pair of jeans laid over the treadle and down the side might be good enough and easy to dispose off, might even hold some interesting scent when you do catch an animal or you could even rub some scent into the material.
As I said before I find it disappointing that this problem has been noted by research people so many years ago but they put in in the to hard or not my job basket, would not have taken much 2050 money to come up with some solutions to this and other simple problems out there
happy trapping
Dave
@dave_e the ply I added is only 2mm thick and is very light. The trap was calibrated, pre fitting the ply, at 85gm. After ply fitted it only just triggered at 80gm. I re-calibrated it.
Regarding the silicone, I too was worried about that. But I wondered if the glue in the plywood that the DOC box is made of doesn’t put pests off then maybe the silicone wouldn’t? I also used neutral cure silicone and only the thinnest smear of it to just hold the ply in place.
But, heavy denim would probably be good too! It would be good for others to try different approaches.
I don’t have mustelids in my main place of trapping, just hedgehogs, rats, possums, and mice. So I can’t really say if it would put stoats off unfortunately.
Hi I think it is great that you are trying things, just a thought but seeing as it is thin maybe the ply could be held in place with a couple of paper clips on the inner side of treadle where there is no rolled edge, one each side of the treadle arm, but I don’t know if the ply would sit flat, same could apply to the denim or similar covering, paper clips would be away from where the animal enters.
Tomorrow I will take up 4 150 trap boxes to one of my Canty high country lines that I have built up the floor to almost the height of the treadle and I have added a piece of 2mm neoprene [courtesy of 7th wave wetsuits ] that covers the treadle and extends slightly on to the raised floor. It completely covers the “jump” between the treadle and floor. Sorry I am a computer clutz so cant post a photo . We shall see how it goes.
Hi sounds good interested to hear how it goes
adding weight to the treadle plate can be a problem as there is very little real adjustment in the set off weight, on one play around the cover I had on the treadle was fairly heavy and when I adjusted the tab up to try and compensate the problem I had was the trap wouldn’t always go off as the treadle hit the trap lower frame before the trigger would release, I could have bent the treadle up a bit but that creates other problems
good luck
@dave_e you can also bend the bottom of the trigger arm to alter the set off weight. I find altering the sear to be rather lacking in precision, but will start with that and then fine tune by a combination of altering the trigger arm hanger and the angle of the bottom of the trigger arm where it contacts the sear.
Bending that towards the treadle increases sensitivity (ie reduces set off weight), and bending it away from the treadle increases the set off weight.
I like to have my treadles as horizontal as possible so bend them accordingly and then alter the set off weight to what I require. 85grams is working well for me in my modified DOC200 as it comes down on hedgehogs head/neck.
Hi one other thing comes to mind, if people try putting any sort of covering on the treadle plate, rubber, cloth etc then maybe it would be a good idea to take the covers and burry them in damp leaf litter or even fine soil for a few days to help them become part of the environment
great that people are trying things, Long ago I came to the conclusion that if we wait for the powers higher up to come up with worthwhile incremental improvements we will never get anywhere
have a good day
Neoprene in the treadle… Um, I am not convinced it is the answer. I went back after a week and checked some traps and to add a few luregards [with tallow inside them]. One of the traps with the neoprene on the treadle, well the neoprene had blown back off the treadle and had now created a closed door effect to mate stoat getting on the treadle and also seeing the lure. We will give it a few more months and see what happens…
Hey Dave, thanks very much for the post in tips and tricks.
I am convinced of the benefit of both a ramp and covering of the treadle. On un-modified traps I have recorded numerous mice leaping onto the treadle arm rather than walking across the treadle to get to the lure. And as mentioned previously I have had issues with hedgehogs refusing to cross the bare treadle.
I have one fully modified DOC200 (raised floor, flat treadle, and thin ply on the treadle) and have experienced zero refusal, of a good number of hedgehogs, to cross the treadle. I have a camera on this trap 24/7. Have only had one rat visit and that did not hesitate to cross the treadle either.
The treadle ply is untreated 2mm hobby ply from Spotlight and is proving very durable.
See photo of trap in previous posts on this thread.
Another hedgehog in the modified DOC200. That’s 4 hedgehogs and a ship rat in two weeks in that trap.
With the camera recording everything, I have seen there has been zero hesitation in the pests crossing the ply-covered treadle, from the plywood steps. This is in contrast to my observations with unmodified DOC boxes/treadles.
I will be modifying all my DOC boxes in the same manner, having tested the modifications with excellent success for over 6 months.
Hi Great work, I hope this gets others thinking outside the Box, all logical thinking really
It would be great if DOC Landcare could replicate in Pen Trials and peer review some of what is going and possibly give it an endorsement but looks like they have their own internal issues to deal with
