Yes, we catch stoats but mainly in DOC 200 boxes. We don’t really understand why we don’t catch many stoats in the AT220… I suspect that as smart predators, they’re just too cautious around the very visible mechanisms of the AT220. Either that or there’s just too much to eat right there under the trap!
Yup, we get rats jammed up everywhere but at least they’re still intact. Mice are the bigger problem with a spray of mouse parts getting everywhere… including on the eyes.
Tony, as our resident expert on the AT220, are your aware of any solutions to the rat hang-up issue. I find it a bit annoying. I sent an email to AT but have yet to receive a reply. Do you have any thoughts, or have you heard of any mods in play? There must be a solution.
Definitely not an expert Dan! And I have no experience of catching rats in an AT220, just a few possums and mice! My understanding of the development of this trap is that our group purchased some of the early ones which had minor problems which were gradually resolved. Those problems mainly related to lure that congealed and got stuck in the supply line somewhere so that the traps were unable to work; also I read of small catches of mice or rats getting stuck. I also understand that modifications meant 1) the trap would only be triggered at night time, as a safety improvement, and that the trap would differentiate between large creatures such as possum which would be dropped out after 30 minutes, and smaller catches that would be dropped out much sooner, hopefully preventing them getting jammed. The only example I have is that after modification my trap caught 5 mice over two nights and none got jammed. On the plus side I have always had good service from NZAT, and it sounds like the best thing at the moment would be for them to answer your query directly. If you like you could forward your query to me and I will follow it up, but honestly from experience I would have expected them to reply straight away. Who did you send your query to? cheers, Tony
This is NZAT’s (very prompt ) reply too my second enquiry: “Thanks for getting in touch. Indeed an old chestnut, but one we are working hard to crack! We have made some modifications to the kill bar of our traps, which seems to help with removing the kill. It is a small modification, but is welded on to the kill bar so unfortunately not one we can offer to customers to fix to their traps already out in the field.
We often find that having fresh kill in the trap can actually attract other pest to the trap, such as feral cats and mustelids, so can work to your advantage!”
Hi Dan, I have the new traps with the mods, less hang ups but still get some On the plus side though they do encourage other predators into the trap a and I have caught 2 feral cats this way, yet to find a stoat or weasel but I don’t see everything caught as others get to the “supermarket” under the trap before me. Cheers, Pat
Hi Dan, I’ll try! Luckily I have some that I am setting up at moment so clean and easy to access. As I said though about 75% fall out the others get smooshed and I pull them out by the tail.
It is a stainless steel bar welded onto the kill plate.
Cheers,
Pat
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
) reply too my second enquiry: “Thanks for getting in touch. Indeed an old chestnut, but one we are working hard to crack! We have made some modifications to the kill bar of our traps, which seems to help with removing the kill. It is a small modification, but is welded on to the kill bar so unfortunately not one we can offer to customers to fix to their traps already out in the field.
