I have had an AT220 for a about 18 months. I’d like to share my experiences and hear yours. Any pros and cons, tips, suggestions etc.
For possums: with standard mayo lure, the trap seems to be about as as attractive to possums as a Timms traps. The kill is very effective, I have never had a possum stuck. I have sometimes had multiple kills in a night.
For rats: I would rate it as less effective than a Victor tunnel trap - but still very effective. I have improved (or I think I have) catch rates by rigging up extra branches to make access easier for all types of rats. Problem: rats do tend to get caught in the trap.
One thing I have trialled which was completely successful was to make up my own nutella-based lure to substitute for the mayo. This worked well and was very cheap. The advantage, or perhaps disadvantage, over the mayo is that you only target rats. My nutella-based lure is pretty easy to wash out and non-corrosive. The mayo lure is difficult to clean out and corrosive.
Stoats: never caught one in the AT220 - but they are tricky animals.
I have made up an apple-cinnamon based lure for the AT220, but I haven’t tried it yet…so I can’t say anything useful
Overall I would say the trap is well made, robust and has survived all weather conditions without fail. The battery seems to last months. Some cleaning of the sensor “eyes” is required from time-to-time. The people at Auto Traps are excellent to deal with.
I guess the downside is (and no disrespect to Auto Traps) they are not cheap. I believe some people have had poor experiences with the proprietary mayo lure (solidification?) but they are working to fix the issue.
Nice summary. Thanks.
One thing I’ve been wondering about is the possibility to drill a hole in the plastic base plate and to put a Goodnature (gasp!) ALP under the cover. GN has a nice variety of rat and stoat lures. And it could probably complement rather than replace the possum mayo.
Just a thought…
Yes indeed, I think a stoat lure might be a good idea. I add a little Connovation chocolate lure to my nutella based concoction, but I have also thought of adding Connovation fish/meat scent lures to the mayo or perhaps just use a diluted scent lure in the dispenser. I am not sure why it wouldn’t work.
I don’t know if there is any research on mixing lure types as you suggest. By that I mean robust, primary research rather than speculation.
Not with the AT220 - the frequent delivery of fresh lure seems to combat the problem. Not to say the ants don’t take some lure, but it is insignificant.
However with Victor tunnel traps I find ants a real bugbear in the dryer months. The ants can steal all the nutella-based lure in 24 hours. I have only two solutions: 1) re-fill every day (!), and 2) place some additional lure on top of the tunnel in the hope that the ants will be attracted and predated upon by birds. The second option is mainly wishful thinking and I have no evidence that it works!
I have avoided the used on insecticides because I don’t want to introduce these into the ecosystem.
This is a great initiative Dan, I only have a few (14) which I am trialing with a view to getting more. I have had them for 5 months now and in that time they have recorded 149 rats (or mice, stoat etc), 49 possums and 1 cat. The rats are definitely a mix or rats and mice as they often get stuck in the trap however I have caught a cat which I suspect was going after a stuck rat. This gives a catch rate of 2.13 rats/trap/month and 0.7 possums per trap per month. This is well above catch rates of trapinator possum and T-rex rat traps. I do however check them monthly as I have encountered some issues.
I have feral pigs and feral cats that remove the carcases so I have no evidence available for any stoat/weasel kills. The feral cat was not even touched by the pigs which is not unusual.
I have had a possum stuck in one, got it’s leg caught up on the cage somehow, was easy to resolve.
The main problem has been pump blocking, usually congealed mayo based lure. Can be cleared by changing wires over and running pump backwards. I have converted a couple to having a switch to do this which is great. There is however a permanent fix coming to resolve this.
I am yet to play with my own lures yet but a stoat lure would be a good idea. Connovation make an eggcellent lure for stoats and would likely go through the pump was one option.
They are expensive but if I can get them to 3 monthly checking they would be cost effective for me as I am trying to cover a large area mainly on my own.
The people that manufacture the AT 220 are excellent to deal with, professional with prompt communication.
I have not seen any ants get into the traps.
Cheers,
Pat
Really like your idea of running the pump backwards! Auto Traps told me about the issues they have had with the mayo. I have not experienced the issues myself.
As I mentioned I have had excellent results with my homemade nutella-mix. Not totally straightforward, but happy to share if anyone wants to know. It would be good to experiment with Eggcellent.
One more comment on ants: without wishing to bang on about my own solutions, I have made lures which I call rat truffles Mould-resistant Nutella lure aka “rat truffles”. I have found, while these are eventually hollowed out by ants, they last quite a long time, It may be the cocoa/sorbate coating. I am still using these lures with great success. They last between three and five weeks depending on environmental factors and mould spore levels in the tunnel.
We’ve been trialling a couple thanks to WCC. Work well for possums. Rats do occasionally get hung up once killed. We had congealed lure issues because our trap was in direct sunlight. Has improved since locations changed to shady spots. Good to get records of fires through the app although have not quite worked out how to save or export those records. Watch out for poorly crimped wire hangers. We have had two traps fail because of this. Autotraps have offered to fix as it was a known problem with a batch that had that part outsourced but we are making do with cable ties in the meantime. I would not bother with ALPs as an alternative lure if looking for a long life option as I don’t think they last more than 2-3 months before the gas runs out or the lure hardens off. Always treat the trap as live!
I have had two AT220 traps installed on private land on the edge of a native Bush reserve. Interestingly the Reserve gets an annual bait poison by DOC and more interestingly the week following the last laying of poison (NOV 2022) I suddenly started trapping possums at the rate of one a night over a 2 week period but nothing before or since! Can the laying of poison have ‘flushed’ them out and into my traps? Re the AT 220’s: they have been great at catching both rats (27) and mice (17) over the two years I have used them. Mice and rats do sometimes get caught up in the trap. Like other users I have experienced Mayo coagulation problems with ‘skin’ forming then blocking the pump. (I’ll remember the advice above to run the pump backwards - thanks). I have had a lure pot corrode out which I put down to the aluminum reacting with the timber preservative of the backing plate it was attached to. (Picture attached) The company replaced it at no charge and are great to deal with. I now put a bit of flat plastic between the two to separate them.
Compared to my earlier traps and poisons these AT 220’s are streets ahead with the catch rate. A night camera installed to monitor animals saw many rats exploring and taking mayo low down without getting caught, but perhaps returning next night and getting caught. Cats and a possum have inspected the trap both above and below without being caught. Great to be able to share - thanks.
I had the same experience with the original bottle (identical to the one pictured). I cleaned it out very thoroughly (not easy) and discovered it had hundreds of holes around the circumference (not just at the rear). I believe the cause was that the aluminum alloy was unsuitable for containing a highly acidic liquid and corrosion set in over time.
On the positive side, Auto Traps accepted the problem and sent a replacement bottle of a different type (do you have a white one?) immediately.
We’re trialling a Connovation terracotta salmon lure on the plastic tray beside the battery for mustelids and cats, but haven’t had a chance to see if they’re been successful or not as we’re in Hawke’s Bay and haven’t been able to check them due to Cyclone Gabrielle. There’s always the possibility that any kills may have been scavenged by pigs, or cats for the mustelids and we won’t see the evidence. I do have a camera at one, but have yet to see anything caught although there’s been a number of possum catches enjoyed by a pig.
Thanks Christine, I would be very interested to hear the results of using a terracotta salmon lure. I have used a Connovation chocolate terracotta lure which works a treat (for rats and mice) in Victor tunnel traps.
With regard to experimenting with additional / replacement lures in AT220s …
Here’a comment from one of our trappers back in 2021 when the AT220s were in their infancy!
I recently cable-tied raspberry-flavoured cereal bait blocks on top of the mesh directly above the bait tray in all of my ATs, so that when the liquid bait ran out there would still be something there to attract possums. It does seem to have worked, but there is a big flaw in the plan. The AT220 takes quite a long moment to fire after the beam is broken because the wheel has to turn that last little bit before the tang lets go of the striker plate. When there is a dribbled trail of liquid bait for a possum to lick up to and including the bait tray its attention stays on the bait which keeps it in place long enough for the trap to wake up, the wheel to turn and the striker to fall. But I have just watched a video of one of my traps which had no liquid left, only the cereal bait block. A possum hopped up on the ramp and sniffed at the bait block but it did so tentatively, bobbing its head up into the cage repeatedly as it tried to find its way to the food. The trap fired in between bobs, when the possum’s head was not in the cage, and the trap went off right over its head. I don’t think I’ll be seeing that one again.
I am pretty sure that there was an increase in catches when I put the bait blocks into traps that also had liquid bait in them. But I don’t advise using bait blocks without at least some liquid bait in the bait tray.
With regard to experimenting with additional / replacement lures in AT220s …
Here’a comment from one of our trappers back in 2021 when the AT220s were in their infancy!
I recently cable-tied raspberry-flavoured cereal bait blocks on top of the mesh directly above the bait tray in all of my ATs, so that when the liquid bait ran out there would still be something there to attract possums. It does seem to have worked, but there is a big flaw in the plan. The AT220 takes quite a long moment to fire after the beam is broken because the wheel has to turn that last little bit before the tang lets go of the striker plate. When there is a dribbled trail of liquid bait for a possum to lick up to and including the bait tray its attention stays on the bait which keeps it in place long enough for the trap to wake up, the wheel to turn and the striker to fall. But I have just watched a video of one of my traps which had no liquid left, only the cereal bait block. A possum hopped up on the ramp and sniffed at the bait block but it did so tentatively, bobbing its head up into the cage repeatedly as it tried to find its way to the food. The trap fired in between bobs, when the possum’s head was not in the cage, and the trap went off right over its head. I don’t think I’ll be seeing that one again.
I am pretty sure that there was an increase in catches when I put the bait blocks into traps that also had liquid bait in them. But I don’t advise using bait blocks without at least some liquid bait in the bait tray.
Hi Dan, that would have been quite a while ago, like May 2021. I have just become aware of a blockage with my trap, which is an upgraded version from last August when NZAT updated the trap and software for me. They are always working on improving, and very good at responding and helping. Quote from my latest correspondence today:
"I will attach instructions on how to reverse the pump so it will blow back any blocks in the line. We have recently put a larger elbow onto the bottom of the bottle (where 90% of all blockages occur). If you like, I can send you a new elbow ( and the tubing needed) to replace the one on there so the block should not occur again. ( if this is ok, how many do you need )
Also, we have just changed our bait system on our new traps to a pouch system, if you are interested in converting to that, we have retro-fit packs available for $35 and they come with a Tray, Pump, fully loaded pouch and the required screws, zip ties, instructions, etc. You will also get a new lid without the bottle hole."
BLOCKED LURE TUBE???
First try swapping the pump wires and running the pump in reverse. (Only works on the newer model Sorry)
Swap wires.
Plug battery back in.
Push button 3 times to get amber light.
Press and hold to run the pump.
Look down into the bottle till you see it bubble.
Replace wires, it should now run normally.
Hi Dan, I’d tried a homemade nutella recipe too., but it failed. I strained the peanut chucks out, mixed with peanut oil, but it separated. Keen to know how you did it!
