Hi Gary, good advice from CTM,
Also, some projects have found salted possum works almost as well as salted rabbit, when rabbits are in short supply. Eggs for winter/spring as a visual lure and when birds start to lay eggs in their nests. Good luck.
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I’ve found plastic white eggs work also I salt my own rabbit but have now started put rabbit heart liver and kidneys to the trap with salted rabbit which gives a good kick
And also don’t bare skin touch the traps wear gloves
Fresh rabbit works well for me, but has limited life in the field before the maggots get into it! I’ve also used cooked chicken scraps (Norway rats love this too). Maybe trap entrances inviting and I tend to expand the first entrance one square wider, but may depend on your by-catch situation. I’ve seen ferrets poke their head into a DOC250 and decide perhaps it is too tight/risky and back away. Good luck!
And then if you finally catch one, make the best use of it! I had the egg (and golf ball) and mustelid cube as bait and was taken by surprise to see the first stoat on 22dec. Popped it back in the trap as had been recommended by a local trapper and bingo! The next night. This has worked for three of our group in the last few weeks. Good luck. (This was in a road reserve between two lots of farm paddocks - no waterway nearby, just a bit of lying water in the drains.)
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Ha Ha love that Golf ball idea, I keep finding them in the bush. Maybe that is why?
I wonder if a dead rat would attract them as well, but I’m guessing these have a limited time span?
Gary
The golf balls are said to be a good (and longlasting!) alternative to eggs as a visual attraction in conjunction with the Erayz or mustelid cubes that smell good. One of our group found a half-chewed rat in a doc trap so put it back in as lure - caught a stoat that night, put the stoat in as lure and caught a second stoat that night. So yes, both seem good options but neither last long once the flies find them!
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…or Nutella!!?
As unlikely as it sounds I caught this stoat yesterday with tunnel/Victor trap baited with Nutella.
Meanwhile my stoat traps baited with eggs haven’t caught anything in 18 months.
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The stoat would have been attracted to the smell of rat on the trap not the Nutella.
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Try baiting the stoat trap with rabbit meat and chances should increase significantly
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Thanks everyone. Yes I suspect it may have been the smell of previous rat catches, and I am moving to other baits than eggs.
We caught a Ferret last night using dried Rabbit Jerky, the Sardines and Eggs never caught anything.
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Hey Bevan, based in Waitakere and run the Predator Free Waitakere group.
Where are you based?
Gary
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Hey Gary
I am based in Whangarei.
Has anyone tried the eggsellent lure from connotation for stoats?
I did try eggsellent and although it looks like great stuff, it wasn’t overwhelmingly effective for me, but def get more opinions on that one. I think I gave it away to someone. Rats may have liked it, but I’m a bit rusty on the details. I just use fresh rabbit meat which is awesome, although with so few catches now, I’ll switch to those erayz bait squares for a while as our rabbit numbers are low right now. I haven’t seen a stoat here for many months.
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There is a very thorough research paper on meat preferences for stoats available here
Spoiler: Plain rabbit wins by a mile.
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We don’t bother with eggs here
- Predator Free Aoraki.
Hi Gary,
The basic principle with mustelid (stoats, weasels and ferrets) trapping is to provide their favourite food source but also to take in consideration the animal behaviour.
Stoats and weasels are primarily predators so they prefer fresh bloody meat (rabbit, possum or chicken hearts work really well - you find chicken hearts at the offal section on Pak N Save). This means traps have to be checked more regularly to replace bait before it goes “off”.
Ferrets are both predator and scavengers, dried salty rabbit or possum meat works well and bait will last longer.
Traps should be set along fence lines, ridges, stopbanks and near waterways (ponds, streams etc - good practice to check weather forecast and remove traps, if possible before heavy rain or you run the risk of losing traps due to flooding). Move your traps every couple weeks, if possible.
As suggest by another user, eggs are a visual lure and you can also use golf or ping pong balls.
Smearing a dead animal along a fence line or trapping site may help increase trap catches however due to the large home range of these predators (in particular Stoats and Ferrets) trap catches can be frustrating.
The young juveniles are the easy ones to trap but male and female adults are harder to get.
Focus your trapping efforts between September and February (maybe a bit longer where you live) since they have an high mortality rate during winter and also tend to “semi hibernate” and not move around much.
Cheers
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