Recently, I substituted smooth aniseed lure for possum dough. Over a period of 4 years, I’ve used the latter in 15 Sentinel traps to remove over 300 possums from a 3Ha block. I decided to try the aniseed lure because the dough tends to absorb a lot of water in rainy periods. I found that with the new lure, the bait clips were cleaned out every night in a way had not previously occurred. Suspecting mice, i put a cam on a trap and discovered that the bait was being stripped not by mice, but by a weka that was climbing the tree, a blackbird, a tauhou and a bellbird. I could not tell how many of each were involved. In any event, the bait was stripped before nightfall. I stopped rebaiting the Sentinels to discourage the birds. Today I caught a blackbird and a tauhou in D-traps, and a chaffinch inside a Victor box trap. I am surmising that the birds generalised sny artificial structure as a potential source of food. In any event, an unwanted outcome that appears to have been prompted by the pink aniseed lure. Has anyone observed a similar outcome? I have advised Connovation of my experience.
No experience with pure aniseed, and no problems experienced with possum dough. However this time of year I do experience more catches of exotic birds.I have to be very careful not to put the Victor traps too near the end of the tunnel, and not to add anything too tasty near the opening to tempt them (or the rats) inside.
Thanks. This lure is actually a pink paste. Aniseed is a good possum attractant - i used the oil on traps when I was a youngster selling skins, but it could be that the bright colour of the smooth lure - in contrast to the brown of possum dough - is attractive to birds, which wouldnt be helpful! And I was surprised that the chaffinch had gone to the end of the trap for peanut butter. In 4 years I’ve caught one small bird in a Victor box - a sparrow. What I have learned is that birds are much smarter than I had assumed and research repeatedly shows it. I don’t put generalising beyond them.
Hi
I use about 10kgs of possum dough a year in a lure rotation. I agree the dough picks up moisture during wet periods so in my rotation I just don’t use it during winter.
I have not seen the problem with Pink aniseed probably because I haven’t really looked at it but also use blue smooth and yes get some problems with Robins taking the lure, Birds are not supposed to like blue or green but have sometimes had the lure stolen off running boards even before I put my pack on. sometimes I use the 215 ferafeed just for something different but I think you can only get it in 10kg pails.
cheers
Thanks Dave. I might go back to the blue next winter. Overall, I’ve found possum dough to be very reliable. Except in periods of heavy rain. Cheers, Greg
Hi I agree the possum dough is good
the other one I tried was a Pestoff wonder lure works ok and comes in smaller bottles but it is expensive and also it is a runny mayo type consistence so needs thickening for sentinels I found some cornflour and a few minutes in the microwave thickened it, but but gave up because it was a hassle as we use 4 or 5 kgs a month
cheers
Hi Greg
seeing as you are using sentinel traps attached is my info sheet on user friendly sentinels which might be useful, thousands of sentinels set up like this around the country
cheers
Sentinel guidelines std corelute cover version.pdf (712.0 KB)
Hi Dave - a very thoughtful paper. I’ve been using 15 Sentinels on a small block for 4 years now. They are very effective and I’ve never found them difficult to set and service. I can see that your system would make the reset faster, but with so few traps that’s not an issue for me. And I always thought a running board or a perch would be helpful, but interestingly, I couldn’t attribute different catch rates where I’ve used them. Sample too small I guess and these days I’m just picking up the few recent arrivals. The never ending battle. Anyway, thanks for sending. Cheers. Greg