Posted: 25 May 2006
Bid to develop 'self-setting' traps
Revolutionary self-setting pest traps may be a step closer to reality after a $5000 research grant to the Northland Regional Council.
The Regional Council – which spends about one million dollars on a variety of animal pest control annually – says there have been rapid advances in pesticides in recent years.
However, despite these advances, the Council’s Biosecurity Team Leader Don McKenzie says there remains a place for traps, especially on small blocks, in urban areas or where pesticides are not wanted by local communities.
He says the problem with traps – live capture traps in particular - is that they require daily checks to re-set them and remove any trapped animals.
Mr McKenzie says the recently awarded Foundation for Research, Science and Technology grant will fund research designed to establish how existing, conventional stoat and rat traps can be set more easily and become less time-consuming to check and reset.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to set a rat or stoat trap once and know it’s going to continue catching without having to check it as often? Researchers and trappers need to collaborate on this one and a good dose of lateral thinking applied to help produce new tools.”
Mr McKenzie says the lateral thinking could extend to water or even wind as a possibly way of powering humane self-setting traps.
“Many small block owners have wind or water as a natural energy resource on their land; one school of thought suggests this energy source might be able to be used to power self-setting traps, particularly when only a relatively small number of traps are needed.”
Mr McKenzie says the Council recognises the fact that many landowners already have Fenn traps and wooden covers used for pest control.
“We need to think about what we might be able to do to modify or enhance these existing traps, rather than replacing them with totally new devices. In addition, we also need long-life baits that don’t require regular maintenance and to develop ways for any self-setting traps to automatically eject any dead animals.”
Mr McKenzie says there could also be advantages in tapping into the skill bases of a wide range of New Zealand’s Crown Research Institutes (CRI) and universities.
“For example, Industrial Research is a CRI with mechanical and electronic engineers who could bring design and technical skills to the project, and another CRI, Landcare Research, has animal biologists and scientists with a worldwide knowledge of different traps.”
He says while a successful end product may be some time away, there are already a number of new devices in the pipeline - including refinements to existing traps - which need proper field testing.
“I believe it’s looking increasingly likely that we will see some new tools on the market - possibly as early as within the next two years.”