Finger on pulse of rat removal

We’re coming into autumn, a time of change. The days are getting shorter and cooler, leaves on deciduous trees are yellowing, and we start thinking of the winter ahead. Rats and mice are also getting ready for the colder months, moving around in search of their winter homes – it’s at this time of year that you find mice coming into the house, and occasionally rats as well.

To combat this, in my garden I have mouse and rat traps. Whether using traps or poison, it’s better to fix the problem in the garden rather than after the problem has moved into your ceiling space or garage. I rarely catch a rat but a friend put a trap in his compost bin and caught eight rats in two weeks. Maybe my neighbours also trap, so I’m lucky. You never quite know how it will go.

Usually you start by catching a rat or three, and then numbers taper off. A line of traps set up around Orewa Estuary last year (a project supported by Hibiscus and Bays Local Board) caught 18 rats in the first three months and only two since; another caught 15 in three months and five since then.

A question this raises is how we’ll alter our trapping method when numbers taper off. There seems little point in continuing to check the traps every week for very few catches. There must be a simpler way – and there is. It’s called pulsing; you trap for four or five weeks then take a break till the next pulse. There are four pulses a year (April, August, November and January) and it is particularly effective when a group of neighbours work together to knock down rat numbers.

In doing this not only are you taking care of your own garden but you’re adding to growing pest control over the Hibiscus Coast and Auckland wide. Forest and Bird’s pest free projects on the Hibiscus Coast (Pest Free Peninsula and Orewa Estuary Restoration Project) and others such as the Eaves Bush trapping group and The Pied Pipers at Waiwera are all making life better for our wildlife and for us in our homes. Also benefiting is the Shakespear Open Sanctuary, which would love to have fewer rats knocking on its door.

We can all help with this, either in your own backyard or by getting a few people together in your street. If you need a hand getting started, get in touch with Hibiscus Coast Forest and Bird (email above) who would be happy to help. Join the April pulse!

Richard Chambers has lived on the Hibiscus Coast for almost 30 years, and for all that time he has been observing nature and helping to look after it. A member of Forest and Bird, and coordinator for Pest Free Hibiscus and Bays, he is keen to see the community become pest free so that the birds and wildlife spilling out from Shakespear Open Sanctuary can live in our backyards.