It is possible however, it can be a bit fiddly
Hi, can you say a bit more? Do you have to attach a LORA sensor to the AT-220? Has this been trialled?
Dear David Thank you for the report. Do you use a plank leading up to the trap or just hang the traps onto the tree? I just bought 10 of these traps and I sort of cannot see the point of the planks. I used A12 traps before.
Kind regards
Robert
Hi Robert, We used ramps early on… but like you, couldn’t see any advantage. Possums and rats climb trees for a living… they don’t need a ramp! Indeed, from the trail cam footage, possums would try to avoid a ramp and climb the tree instead! Cheers David
Has anyone noticed if the AT220 is good at catching Norway rats which I’ve noticed are very neophobic compared to ship rats?
Hi Cam, sorry I have not been recording if I see any Norway rats either under or in the traps so can’t really help. I will try and be more observant from now on. Cheers,
Pat
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I have done a quick comparison from my records. Unfortunately (?) because my rat numbers are rather low right now I don’t have that many kills for the AT220 over the last two years that it has been installed. But my Victor tunnel number represent 820 kills over 4 years. I only have one D-rat trap but that has been remarkably successful with Norway rats. Perhaps this has something to do with the openness of the trap. So the percentages are:
Victor tunnel trap 10% Norway (of 820 kills, over 4 years)
AT220 10% Norway (of 26 kills, over two years)
D-Rat 35% Norway (of 19 kills, over three years)
Final observation, I have seen something of an uptick in Norway rat kills as the rat and mice numbers dip. Anecdotal I know, but this may reflect that a primary food source (ship rats) is in short supply.
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Thanks for the feedback Pat & Dan. I’ll see how we get on. We seem to have very few ship rats in areas that have been trapped hard, but Norway rats have a cunning way of surviving. I think using the right lure is over half the battle.
In my experience, the best way to trap Norway/brown rats, is to lure them as if they were carnivores. Flesh and/or fat lures are what I recommend, and your odds of trapping mustelids will also increase.
If you can find it, tallow is an excellent, cheap lure. If there’s one food that predators can’t resist, it’s pure fat. You can use it on its own or combine it with other lures.
I’ve just started using uncooked cheerio sausages in my Timms traps and DOC tunnels. Regular sausages work well, but having an intact casing should make cheerios last longer in the field. The mold-covered one that I inspected yesterday was in great condition below the casing, which is a good sign. Will the casings keep blowflies out? Ants? Time will tell.
They cost approx. 30c apiece.
The most effective rat lure is another rat, because the strongest rat lure is social interaction. I estimate that 80% of the hard-to-trap brown rats that I’ve killed, were trapped when I used either another brown rat or a ship rat as the primary lure. If the body of the dead rat is in good condition, I rub it against the tunnel and inside it, to make it obvious that another rat’s been around the tunnel and has found it safe to enter. Add a high-quality lure or 2, and the odds of success are really high. It’s a shame that it isn’t a technique that could be used on a large scale.
Good luck.
Hi everyone, our community group has just received 2x AT-220s, courtesy of our local board.
We’re in an urban area, so we are going to put them up, but leave them deactivated with a camera on them to see if any cats go up the ramp and stick their heads in. We don’t want to be catching pets as the community will get super upset.
Does anyone know if we can have them powered on, pumping out lure, but not activated i.e. so that they are dripping lure onto the ramp, but won’t catch anything? We want to do this for the first month as a trial. And if no cats are interested, then fully set them.
Any ideas?
W
The folks at NZAutoTraps might be your best bet. They’re very helpful. Someone else may have some experience in this forum though. You could possibly just set it off and unplug the battery. Run the pump manually every 4 days to freshen the scent. I don’t know that it has a ‘pet’ mode 
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How do you run the pump manually?
You can operate the pump manually if you don’t have the app. The instructions are on underneath side of the lid. From memory it is three presses of the start button, light will go orange, then press the button and pump will operate. To set the trap off it is 2 presses of the same button. Disconnect battery after.
I have a number of these traps and I have caught at least 2 feral cats so far, I don’t think they go after the bait but go after the mice and rats that get hung up inside the cage.
I would be cautious about using them where domestic cats are present, I wouldn’t use a ramp and keep them at least 1200mm off the ground. I don’t routinely use ramps and from the camera observation this does not deter rats, mice or possums but does deter feral cats I think. Mind you cats are perfectly capable of climbing trees.
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People using AT220’s might like to view the attached video, gives you an idea of what they have to put up with. This trap is 1200 off the ground, gives you an idea of the size of the pig. Pig must have been alerted by the trap going off and run over before the possum had dropped out. I have several broken Trapinators in same area. Same culprit I’m guessing.
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Sorry I couldn’t attach a video, only pics and pdf seems to be allowed.
It is a video of a large pig trying to pull a possum out of the AT220 trap. Stands at least a metre at the withers.
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We have a fleet of 175 AT220s. As a matter of policy, we do not deploy within 150m of residential areas. Over 18 months of use, we have caught six feral cats deep in the reserve, we have never caught a domestic cat. The challenge you face is that a month of trial isn’t going to be statistically valid… it just isn’t enough time to be sure that you’re not going to catch a domestic cat.
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Here is that very pig and possum:
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I half agree with you. Firstly your numbers don’t speak to our project - if you have them far away from pet cats, you can’t then say “we catch no pet cats”. Of course you don’t.
But yes, I think you’re right that a month isn’t long enough. In fact, you can never really entirely disprove something like this.
I guess the reverse is true though, in that all we need to see is one cat go up the ramp (yes we have ramps there - I want to make it as likely as possible that pet cats will interact with the trap whilst they’re off and we can see them doing so) to our traps and we’ll know we can’t use them there.
super helpful to have this step by step! Here’s a very basic question though - how did you know there was a blockage in the first place? thanks