Based on a somewhat accidental discovery that when I took the poison blocks out of the rat bait/trap stations and left the rod they were on stuck in the ground next to the station the possums went for them like crazy, I made some possum feed stations that deal with the problem of rats hauling the poison blocks away before the possums can get to them. The main problem apart from rat theft is that the stuff dissolves in rain so you need to both lock it down and keep the rain off it, which these do. The two holes in the bottom are for threading through a loop of wire to hold the bait:
(I have a lot of that paint thanks to the plonkers at Mitre 10 who mistinted a 4L tin of it). Since they’re going to be sitting in/on soggy leaf mulch I added some extra waterproofing to the feet, those super high-tech standoffs are relatively indestructible, easy to wash clean, and easily replaced if one gets damaged:
This should finally solve the problem of rat theft of possum bait.
Oh, and just got another one with the crossbow a few minutes ago. So far this year that’s Timms, 1, Timmy, 1, Crossbow, 2. Now if I could just mount that thing in a drone…
Captain Obvious, in the garden, with a crossbow. These are incredibly trap-shy townie possums that will carefully walk around traps baited with cinnamon apples, peanut butter, you name it, but are quite happy to stare at a torch beam while you stand there loading a crossbow in front of them.
Hi i read this post and was supprised in the first thread about trapinators being useless. Did you know with the instructions in the side you can bend the arm to make it more sensitive? I rate these traps and they are out preforming many others i have in the field. I use possum dough in it and get amazed at how i can still have a fresh possum in the trap a month later. They are easy to set and check and feel they are quite underrated
I wrote to the Trapinator folks and they also told me that (the one I had didn’t have those instructions on it, possibly an earlier model). They’re asking you to reach into the trap and bend a 4-5mm steel rod, that’s like bending a 100-150mm nail with your bare hands. I know that bodybuilders/strongmen will do that as a strength feat, but it’s not practical for any normal person.
I eventually achieved the same effect by cutting some wooden shims and slipping them under the trigger bar to move it downwards slightly, but it didn’t help, the bait would vanish but no possum was ever caught.
I’ve had pretty good success with trapinators using possum dough and Goodnature lure. Some people bait these traps with fruit which I think can make it hard to set off or result in a non humane kill.
