There are tons of blackbirds and thrushes here, but I’ve never trapped one. They have a lot of food here, so they might not be that interested. I’ve trapped a number of rats in my Timms, so a large bird should be able to set one off. There are magpies, pheasants and flocks of quails here (20 strong), but they haven’t shown any interest in my Timms, either.
I’ve trapped a few blackbirds in DOC tunnels, though. By-kill sucks, but the dead blackbirds kill a rat about half the time that I use them as a lure, so they aren’t dying in vain.
I need to get some of my Timms back in proper shape - some cleaning, WD-40, and lanolin spray. I’d love to buy replacement strings for them, because they do stretch after a while.
The Timms has been a great possum trap for many of us over the years – we get some possums but miss some and most of us don’t know why – apple gone off or poor presentation, unattractive lure, poor trap mounting (ground, ramped or vertical) insufficient lure around the trap, in the trap or on the ramp etc. I have been using Timms for twenty years or more but should have stayed with Sentinels or Possum Masters now I know how poorly that Timms really work compared to Sentinels and Possum Masters.
I have been using cameras on a few sites over the last three months or so and they really open your eyes to how animals are reacting around traps. Rats seem to be experts at getting inside a Timms and setting it off without getting caught. An unset Timms is a great place for a possum to lick out all the sweet treats – possum paste, blue, vanilla and green stuff. I recently observed a possum hanging in a vertical mounted unset Timms with just his back legs hanging out and enjoying thre various lures inside the box – so I remounted the Timms horizontal and on the top of the ramp. I then observed the possum well caught in the trap – front legs out and working hard to escape. The next video clip showed him pulling out and running off. I have reverted to the vertical mount and now see the same possum coming back to carefully lick all the sweet stuff just inside the trap – he has been very careful not to pull the bait rod – a very high risk operation and I expect to catch him on the next lot of videos I will retrieve tomorrow. He is also very careful not to touch a possum master 50m down the track – but one of his mates did make the fatal mistake a few days ago.
I always thought that rats and possums were rather dumb, but after watching them on video – I have a new respect for them. How could that possum with the sore neck experience keep coming back to lick out all the treats – all of his head and neck inside without tripping the trap.
If I was advising anyone about what possum trap to purchase – I would start with a Possum Master for ease of use and for rapid kills, then a Sentinel (with advice and tools from Dave.e), then a Flipping Timmy (as I like a vertical mount) – then a Timms mounted vertical or on a ramp.
It has also been surprising how fast the rats learn about a deadly snap.e trap with meat lovers – one kill and they wont go near it or wont touch new Contrac bait blocks mounted below the Timms trap – nothing seems to want to go near the SA2 trap mounted on a ramp on the other side of the tree – even though a cat walks past every few days.
Cameras are an amazing tool – I should have had one years ago!
Hi Mindie
I have some video from about 5 years ago a possum escaped from a trap it sat on the ground under the traps groomed itself then went back up the tree and ate the lure from the sprung trap, Landcare have seen similar examples in pen testing.
I mentioned to you before that some people were using heavier springs in the timms it is covered in a thread somewhere here, but a problem with using heavier springs is that unless the trip weight is set up spot on it also creates a higher trip or pull weight from the possum to set the trap off.
Plus the Timms is not NAWAC approved for possums,
I know I covered bait block sizes before but in the same research paper they also found that if the bait was loosely attached possums were more likely to pull it, just like a fruit on a tree, but if it was fixed firmly they tended to sit there and lick the bait which could be similar to if the trip weight on the trap was too high.
Last week I set up a few Sentinels in a bush block using your Carpet bait block idea on the logic that it is more loosely attached compared to the std plastic block, plus hopefully the lure will last longer, I will let you know how they
In the tips and tricks two people have posted mods to mount a Timms like a flipping Timmy
