Mahurangi Matters, 5 August 2020 – Off the Record

Pic-y rodents

Students trapping rats around the grounds of Mahurangi College have found their local rodents are fussy eaters. The school’s forest project coordinator, Colin Binsted, told last month’s Rodney Local Board meeting that the bog-standard peanut butter generally used for trapping had been rejected by Mahu pests. “They’re high maintenance rats,” he said. “It’s got to be Pic’s Crunchy, or they don’t want to know.” Colin said he had managed to get a giant tub of “not for human consumption” peanut butter from an end of run at Pic’s, which he then mixed with a bit of Crunchy, or sometimes Nutella as well, and it seems his gourmet approach to baits is working. “We’ve caught 30 rats already,” he said. “It’s a long process getting rid of pests, but it does happen and it does work.”