Trapping the ponds

Suddenly a very good and very viable mustelid/rodent trap is available on the market. I say suddenly because I had heard about them, the forum had chatted about them and now they are being delivered! Guy has 10, Mike O'Donnell has some and I plan on getting some for our ponds and for around the hut.

The trap is called the "Henry", named after one of NZ's early conservationists (without googling and from memory I think the dude ended up in Helensville - or Dargaville - killing himself? A far cry from the wilds of the deep south...)and it is a gas operated trap that beans the predator when it sticks its head where it ought not. The single biggest issue of trapping the ponds is resetting the traps. They are always triggered but its a waste of time if the only get reloaded every 6 weeks.



Borrowing Guy's description of what happens - "the rat or mustelid sticks its head up in the clear cowelling to get at the bait (which it can't as its in the little pottle on the right hand side. They have a bait that currently stays active for 6 months and are working on synthetic bait that will last longer. The victim pushes a small trigger that releases a piston. This piston smacks the vitim in the head at 30kg/cm2 which is more than the DOC 200's.
The piston then resets as its spring loaded ready to go again, apperently the dead victim encourages more vermin to come and often they eat the victim 1st before entering the trap!"

Now that's some punch, that's gonna wreck your day if you're a baddie! At $180 a pop and enough CO2 to fire 12 times, 2 traps could feasibly knock out a couple of predators per month. With the rats in the swamp i reckon we'd need more than 1 cartridge per trap per year though....