Start trapping
I have trapped an animal
I have monitored pests
Bird sighting
Great, you are keen to get trapping!
We made you a list of successful traps to choose from. All these traps can be purchased in New Zealand through the link provided. Keep in mind that once you signed up to Backyard Sanctuaries you’ll receive a free Snap-e trap including a wooden tunnel + a mouse trap from us when you join us at the workshop.
Trap comparison chart
Doc 200
| Targets | Price (NZD) | Ease of use | Ongoing cost | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rats, Stoats, Hedgehogs | $65.5 (in wooden box, exl. gst) | Medium, strenght required | No | Medium |
Trap highlights
Multitasking champion: Targets and humanely kills 3 types of pest (stoats, rats and hedgehogs). A powerful solid trap designed to kill humanely and effectively.Click here for more info.
Nooski Rat or Mouse trap
| Targets | Price (NZD) | Ease of use | Ongoing cost | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rats or mice | $17.30 (Rat); $10.40 (Mouse) exl. gst | Medium/High (patience and strength required) | Yes | Medium-High |
Trap highlights
The safety champion. No chance for snapped fingers, No mess, Light & small, Easily cleanable.We found this trap to be a bit fiddly. Rolling the rubber ring up is certainly not so easy, even for us spring chickens. Click here for more info.
Goodnature A24
| Targets | Price (NZD) | Ease of use | Ongoing cost | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rats, Stoats | $169 (includes lure and gas) | Medium | Yes | Very low |
Trap highlights
The Low maintenance-champion & Innovation-champion. Resets itself!!! No handling - dead animal simply falls out.We found people get easily upset about this trap as they just expect a pile of 24 rats under the trap in a few weeks. Stay realistic and you'll enjoy this trap. Click here for more info.
Ka mate
| Targets | Price (NZD) | Ease of use | Ongoing cost | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rats & mice | $21 trap (includes free bait) | Easy/Medium | No | Low/Medium |
Trap highlights
The Long lasting - champion. Quality aluminium trap, 2 strike bars for rats & mice, designed so you don't get your fingers caught while setting.A real quality product, well designed by a passionate trapper in Nelson, NZ. It's powered by some solid springs, but not nearly as scary to set as the Victor traps. Click here for more info.
Victor
| Targets | Price (NZD) | Ease of use | Ongoing cost | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rats, Stoats | 5.90 ($12.90 incl corflute tunnel) | Difficult | None | Medium/High |
Trap highlights
The low-price-value champion. Very Affordable. You can additionally purchase a 'humane cover' ($6), which results in humane kills for stoats too.Lasts about 1-2years. If exposed to the elements it will rust, mold a bit, soak up blood and stain. Parts may start bending after a while affecting it's performance. But when in good shape this trap is doing a good job catching rats. Click here for more info.
Snap-e
| Targets | Price (NZD) | Ease of use | Ongoing cost | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rats | $10.99 | Easy | No | Low |
Trap highlights
Easy-to-set champion. Anyone can set this trap even your 80 y/o grandpa. It's very useful for people who are highly scared of traps. Easy to clean and light. We are not very impressed with this traps spring power to be a humane killer, but are still waiting on the results of the current humane testing to confirm this. This is the only trap in our selection that has not got humane rating yet. All others have been tested and have passed the humane rating successfully.Click here for more info.
Borrow a trap
How to use traps
Here are some videos that can show you how to use those traps (just click on your trap):
Doc200, Victor Rat trap, Goodnature A24, Nooski Mouse trap, Ka mate
How to add a humane cover to a Victor Rat trap.
Click this link to view a video on how to secure bait on a Victor trap properly.
Keep it humane
One of the most off-putting things when trapping is, to discover that your trap hasn’t killed humanely or the animal is still alive. You may have used a humane trap but you may not have used it correctly.
To avoid this do the following:
-Use the trap correctly (scroll up for videos)
-Position bait on the trap correctly (scroll down for videos and info)
-Position trap correctly (scroll down for info)
Using poison
We do not encourage you to use poisons in your backyard. There are kids, people and pets around 
and the risk of harming them accidentally is much greater in a backyard.
Live trapping
Live trapping is another option but you need to check those traps within 24hours of setting it and then kill the caught animal yourself (check animals ethics on how you must do this). Please don’t release the pest somewhere else, as it only moves the problem from one place to another.
Effectiveness of traps
As you notice we cannot comment on the effectiveness of the different traps. All these traps can be effective but effectiveness also depends largely on the person setting the trap, the bait, the location. At our free workshops you can learn everything about how to outsmart the rat and wisely choose trap position, bait etc. If done correctly then trapping is not frustrating but satisfying. We are working on evaluating current trapping devices by doing our own research.
Bait
| Predators | Standard bait | Other options | Changing bait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rats | Peanut butter | Grain/ whole nuts/cooked rice/nutella | Every two weeks (more often for meat and fish) |
| Mustelids | Egg | Fresh meat/ dried rabbit /fish/mayonnaise | Monthly (more often for meat) |
| Hedgehogs | Peanut butter / Egg | Mayonnaise/ dried fish | Every two weeks |
| Possums | Cinnamon paste | Almonds, Anis | Every two weeks |
Some scientific literature has shown that rat’s prefer fatty and carbohydrate rich food.
Pre-baiting & setting the trap
Pre-baiting is a very powerful tool for trapping, particularly for rats and mice. Most rats and mice are neophobic which means they will avoid unfamiliar objects, foods or situation. So a new object in their way (your trap), and a possibly new food source on that object (the lure) may just make them walk around it. However you can be clever about this:
- If you already know what the pest is feeding on (eg. your sunflowerseeds) then use that as a lure on your trap. And if you don’t know this, then just place a few bits of the food you are wanting to use as a lure in an area were you expect activity. Or if you have been monitoring the traps (see more below) then use the bait that was used in the monitoring device (eg. peanutbutter).
- Once the food is gone then go ahead, place the trap in that same area with the same food but don’t set it yet (this step will allow for a more humane kill and also reduces the chance of your rat setting off the trap in the wrong position and getting away-resulting in trap-shyness).
- If the food is gone again, then re-bait the trap and set it in the same spot. Now you have trained the rat or mouse to trust your lure and your trap. Additionally the trap has been scent marked by the rats footsteps, which also makes the trap more trustworthy to the next rat that comes along.
You may also be successful catching something without pre-baiting, but if you end up not catching anything for a long time, or you can’t get the rat or mouse that you are after, then give this a go.
If your bait keeps going missing without catching anything then you probably have mice. Use a mouse trap in this case or if you are using a Victor trap then watch this video to learn how to secure bait properly on the victor.
Trap postioning
Put a trap in a tunnel. Yes do it. Because it will highly reduce the chance of catching non-target animals. Also will it stop something from dragging your trap away (eg. A cat that has found a free lunch will drag it somewhere). Also will it stop your target pest to approach your trap from a ‘wrong’ angle and trigger the trap in a way that may cause more suffering. And lastly it will also make the whole situation safer for kids and other friendly by-standers.
Then position the entrance of the tunnel entrance up against the wall if possible. Small mammals usually travel along walls for safely reasons. If you are setting it in the backyard, pop the entrance into some grasses, or near some shelter. Make sure you put the trap entrance somewhere where the rat can feel safe while investigating the entrance.
Monitoring
Without monitoring you won’t be able to tell whether your trapping has actually made any impact. Many forget this part or don’t understand it’s importance, and therefore don’t end up doing it. It’s really simple and it’s also fantastic as a pre-bait to encourage the pests to fall for your traps later on.
1st You need to get monitoring equipment. We give out some free monitoring equipment (chewcards) at the workshop. Here is a video we made to explain you how to use that equipment. But you can also purchase them here, or use chewcards, or tracking tunnels (links).
- Detectorcards are filled with a nutbased lure. Animals will chew on it to get to the peanut butter and leave distinct teeth marks on the card. And here
is a list to identify chewmarks. They are easy to use, non poisonous. - Chewcards are basically the same but bigger. You can buy them or make these yourself if you want with this DIY guide. And here is a guide how to identify the teethmarks you may find.
- Tracking tunnels are corflute tunnels with ink in the middle and lure. Animals walk through to get to the lure and their foot prints remain. These have the benefit to allow you to detect natives such as wetas and lizards too. They have also been shows to be more sensitive on picking up on pest over chew cards. Here is a guide to identifying the footprints of pest anim
als only or click on this guide which was specifically made for tracking cards and includes lizard & insect footprints you may find. And this link will take you to a NZ supplier of tracking tunnels, or contact us and borrow a tunnel.
Once you used your monitoring equipment and you have identified your pest, you will have a clear idea of what you’ll be trapping for and where they hang out. Lodge your monitoring equipment on our report link so we can keep track of how you are doing.
Identifying tracks, droppings and other pest signs
If you have found some signs and you want to identify them, then we highly recommend this excellent NZ website: Pest detective!
About the pests
To defeat your enemy you must know your enemy. This link will give you more information about NZ main pests including ways to identifying them.
Cats
It’s in the cats nature to hunt, even if it’s just recreational hunting. Truthfully, 
if you have a cat then it will be a lot harder to establish a sanctuary. One really capable predator (such as a cat) can take down all your birds in no time. You can however do a few things to reduce the impact:
-Make your cat be seen by the birds by using hi-vis collar-covers which have shown to be effective. If you have signed up with us you can purchase the covers from us for a highly subsidized price of $5 (incl. postage). Just send us an email, by clicking the ‘contact’ page above. Otherwise buy them at any of these Vets or contact Kiwi Cat collars directly.
-keep the cat indoors only. To train a cat how to do this, you can find help at this link.
-have your cat neutered or sprayed so they can’t produce unwanted offspring which then often turn into feral cats.
This site is still under construction and we are working hard to get all the information on here asap.