Related to this topic, I’m interested to know how often other trapping groups swap out the battery and how often they top up the (smaller) 350g pouch? I try to combine both jobs every 4 to 6 weeks. cheers, Tony
Thanks for this great feedback. It’s brilliant to learn from others and their trials. The tubing is super important to get right. The metal straw idea is a really great one and I’m going to look at doing this for our up and coming trap upgrades. Is it possible for you to post a photo of this, David Or you can email a photo to me operations@opbg.nz
Our AT220 schedule is a 3 monthly check.
Our batteries are coming up to 3 years old and some are older snd starting to wonder about their life so we are sending them up to Autotraps to test them.
Cheers
Paula
I’ve just bought the AT220 and on the second night after trying to luring rats with rat poison screwed to the tree just under the trap, the bait was taken. I thought he’ll be back so didn’t replace the small block of poison. However the thief was a possum and he did come back. We were woken by this periotic banging and it took a couple of goes at investigation as to what was making this sound. To our disappointment it was a live possum caught by it’s head in the AT220 and he had been suffering. I had to put him out of his misery so I’m really hoping this was a one off incident. I took a video of it but this site doesn’t allow it to be uploaded.
I recommend you get in touch with NZ Autotraps about this. They will want to know: Contact Us General Enquiries – NZ AutoTraps
Did you get a response to this?
The response is that you can’t leave them powered on, pumping out lure without them also being in the ‘kill’ state.
So for a month I went to our traps (they’re nearby my house) and manually pumped lure out - by connecting the battery, pressing the button 3 times to get it into ‘pump mode’, pumping out some lure and then disconnecting the battery again.
With fresh batteries and a full lure pouch I’ve exceeded 4 months. Aiming for 6 next time.
I wondered if anyone had tried making their own mayo using fish oil?
Those of us with a penchant for fishing often purchase fish oil as an attractant - it can be purchased from a number of fishing/hunting stores e.g. https://www.kilwell.co.nz/product/kilwell-nz-tuna-oil-2-litre/
Would be interesting to run a comparison of different lures/scented lures in the AT220’s to see if this improves stoat kill numbers.
I would be keen to hear other groups experience with council rules on setback from residential areas. Wellington currently asks us to work on 500m setback which is quite limiting in a periurban area. Im not convinced the AT220 poses more risk than Timms or Flipping Timmys when it come to cats or humans.
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Hi Paula, sorry about late reply. I have converted 14 of my AT220’s to the pouch system. I did it in the field but did wear my glasses. It was very simple to do. Be particularly careful not to get any twists or kinks in the soft tubing. It is a great system and well worth the upgrade.
I have 35 and the interval for battery and pouch replacement varies with the number of catches. After a year in place 6 months seems easily achieved. However at the start I would stick to 3 month battery replacement and pouch top up. Cheers Pat
I think one issue that is different to traps like Timm’s is if someone did manage to get their hand caught in an AT220, how would you ever get it out. It will open reasonably quickly as long as you stayed dead still (unrealistic) otherwise it will stay on your hand while you keep shaking it. Not sure if you have ever tried opening one but you need a long lever and a lot of patience.
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Thank you Pat
Your response is helpful
Kind regards Paula
Hi David, just going thru some older threads. Keen to see your report pls. We have around 65 AT220s, impressed with possum tallies… wekas drag kills away including possums. My email alecmilne.nz@gmail.com
Cheers
We have 2 AT-220s in suburban Auckland. Noticed this today:
I do worry about a cat being interested in a rat stuck like that. And going to get it and getting caught in the trap. We don’t want to catch cats in this area. Lots of pets around.
With or without rats the trap may be of interest to cats, feral and domestic. WC council has imposed a 500m setback for trapping in its reserves for that reason. We have not yet any problems with cats over 12months in with a number of traps. Clearing hung up rats is important to keep the trap clean and to prevent repeated setoffs if the trigger eyes are obstructed.
Great idea, will definitely try this.
Has anyone experimented with e.g. apple/cinnamon or lemon-based versions of Dan’s home-made AT220 lure, to target possums but exclude domestic cats?
Hi Davo. Interested in how you got on with this cat trial - did you get any domestic cats going up the ramps?
Hi, no, we didn’t film any cats going up the ramps. We did film them walking by, sniffing around etc. So they were there, but uninterested in going up a ramp to check out the traps.
So we now have had 2 set for a while, no cats caught. Bush urban suburb.
Interesting. I’ve heard the opinion that domestic cats don’t have the same drivers to investigate a mayonnaise lure that feral cats would. I’d tend to agree although there is always the chance it might happen. We’d like to use them in urban areas so will look at developing a fruit-based lure for the AT220 if possible (apple/cinnamon or lemon perhaps) to avoid cats as much as possible. We’ve tried the NZ Autotraps blue juice but haven’t had much luck with that.
The default AT-220 lure has cinnamon in it I think. At least, the NZ Auto traps guys said it did. Precisely to deter cats.
When you say you haven’t had any luck with the blue juice what do you mean? Catching pests? Or deterring cats?