PFNZ Trust Webinar # 16: New techniques and tools for stoat and ferret control

Helen Blackie from Boffa Miskell explains how to use landscape features to optimise the placement of traps and monitoring tools to increase encounter rates. Helen also provides insights into new emerging tools for control, such as artificially intelligent traps and automated lure dispensers.

[@tamaking7104]

DOC 250 traps are overkill and not user friendly. DOC 200s with a couple of nail spikes attached to the plate will stop ferrets from pulling themselves out.

[@tamaking7104]

When are you folk going to look at rat houses or chicken pens to lure mustelids to traps. The caged live animals would keep the mustelids focused and make them less wary of adjacent traps. With such a large home range it should be possible to lower the trap density from 1 per 7 - 10 ha to 1 per 50 ha

[@markrm16]

The problem with using a live animal as a lure is that it would have to supervised daily for legal reasons to ensure humane treatment, the same way that you have to check cage traps daily. Using this technique would be very expensive compared to running standard traplines, due to labour and transport costs, so it would only be viable for individuals using a small number of traps that cover a small area. If a farmer visited the same gate every morning, every day of the year, it'd be a great experiment to run.