Using Traps
On this page:
- Basic steps
- Setting traps
- Setting traps in rabbit burrows
- Setting traps against trees and stumps
- Farmer experience
- Hints
Basic steps
- Think about the siting of traps.
- Continue trapping until no more ferrets are caught.
- If population density is high, you are likely to get reinvasion after 2-3 weeks, so continued trapping is recommended.
Setting traps
- Traps should bet set down into, and level with, the ground.
- Site preparation is important. Make sure traps are firm and stable in the ground. Adult ferrets do not go into unstable traps or tunnels.
- A good method is to put traps in rabbit holes with bait at the back (see Figure 1).
Setting traps in rabbit burrows
Figure 1: Preparing a rabbit burrow for a ferret trap Rabbit burrows provide a good site for ferret traps. Smetimes it is necessary to enlarge the hole, the sides of which will then serve as a natural guide with the bait at the back (see Figure2). In this way the bait is also protected from the sun, therefore staying fresher for longer in hot weather.
Figure 2: Placement of trap and bait in a rabbit burrow |
Setting traps agains trees and stumps
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Setting traps against trees and stumps provides a natural back for the trap
Figure 3: Ferret trap set beside a fallen log This can be improved with the use of guides (see Figure 4) to encourage the ferret to come over the trap to the bait. By putting the trap on the shady side, bait will stay fresher for longer in hot weather, and it also helps provide some shade for the trapped animal.
Figure 4: Stones used to guide animal into trap |
- Remember that your traps have the potential to catch animals other than ferrets, e.g. domestic cats, Harrier hawks. It is important that the latter do not get killed. Covering your traps with tunnels (commercial models or home made, e.g.clay pipe, Novaflo, old drench containers) can prevent non-target animals from being captured.
Farmer Experience
- Rutherford (1996) successfully used Jamieson traps, baited with a piece of dried rabbit, either a head or a skin. He also used a few pellets of cinnamon cereal bait (same as used in possum bait stations).
- Rutherford (1996)
also had success with bait stations
loaded with non-toxic cereal pellets
and a cinnamon lure. Leg-hold traps were placed below the bait station.
After possum catch declined he started to catch ferrets in the traps. This could be due to the blood from dead possums or the bait itself. In areas with high ferret numbers, two or three more leg-hold traps were used within a few metres of the bait station.
Traps at different sites will differ markedly in their ability to catch ferrets suggesting that site choice is critical.
Tunnel-type traps made from long narrow wooden boxes with small entry ports to exclude hedgehogs and containing leg-hold traps set with a rabbit as lure, have been found an effective control system.
- On Mandamus Downs (Hammond, 1996) traps
were placed with the jaws inside a six-inch tile pipe leaving the handle outside the pipe. The other end of the pipe
was blocked off so that the ferret
had to enter at the trap end
and run over the handle of the trap.
The 6-inch clay pipe resembles a rabbit burrow. A 4-inch tile is too small and jams the jaws of the trap as it releases. A whole rabbit was used for bait, pushed well up the pipe, with the trap set in place.
After the first ferret was caught, no further baiting was needed, as the ferret scent attracted other ferrets, and the natural curiosity of ferrets meant that they entered the pipe. In one trap, a ferret was caught every day for 43 days using no bait at all.
- Boyd 1996 from Haldon Station initially started with small clay tiles, with sheep offal at the rear and a possum leg-hold trap at the entrance.
He then changed to using a wooden tunnel made out of three equal pieces sized 6x1 inches, nailed in the shape of a tunnel with the one end sealed. He found the best bait was freshly shot rabbit cut into smaller pieces and put at the rear of the wooden tunnel.
Hints
- Number your traps and keep a record of captures. This way you will find out whether there are some traps that are non-productive, or not functioning.
