Kia ora koutou.
I’m considering the potential to lengthen the life of flour blaze by adding egg mayonnaise lure. I’m about to try mixing a small amount to a paste that can be smeared better and last longer than 24 hours on posts and tree trunks near the Flipping Timmy’s. This paste is not appropriate for spreading on the ground, the flour blaze is best used this way.
Let us know how it goes @debra_o_connor!
I use either a small sieve or an icing sugar sifter for my blaze to help it spread over the trunk better - it doesn’t work well if the tree trunk is shiny-smooth, but as long as there’s a little bit of texture the dispersed blaze spreads really well and means I waste less (it’s neither all stuck to my gloves, nor in clumps on the ground!).
I’m more concerned about flour blaze washing off in rain and so hoping that the paste might last beyond the wind and rain.
Hi have you considered just using a piece of rigid PVC plastic say 150 x 150 or any bright white plastic you can find for free, I covered this in Possum trapping Tips and Tricks.
some of the research done found that just using a bright white attractant was just as good and lasted longer than the traditional flour blaze. The blaze is just to get the possums attention and if you have a suitable attractive lure in the trap the possum will take the next step to investigate.
you can also scuff up the ground around the trap to help get the possums interest
Thanks Dave. I’ll give it a try.
Hi I should have said if you do a google search you should find some people/groups using white to attract possums, most use Coreflute but I find PVC is brighter and easier to clean and doesn’t degrade, which is why we make sentinel trap covers from it. Walking around in the bush on Dusk it really stands out
good luck
Hi Christina another trick for spreading the Blaze without a mess on hands etc is to buy a couple of old Sports Drink Bottles from the Op Shop and put the Flour in those, as long as everything is dry and opening size big enough you can use it a bit like a puffer bottle
Bingo! Despite the atrocious weather, there remains a decent white smear which I’ll need to check periodically in case it becomes rancid. Until then, I’ll reapply flour blaze to see if it adheres.
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