Borrow Traps

• Locate near possum trails or favourite food sources (eg fruit trees). Possums avoid wet long grass and thick weeds. If possums are living under your roof, try placing traps on the ceiling rafters.
• Best baited with a piece of fruit, eg. apple sprinkled with cinnamon.
• Secure the trap to a mature tree trunk, approx 1 to 2 metres off the ground.
• Possums dislike heavy rain, so you need not trap on very wet nights. Try the nights before and after instead.

If your trap has stopped catching, change its shape by placing a rock or branch on top, or move it a few metres. This may cause a curious possum to investigate this "new" object.

This is a kill trap. Make sure you have received training from a Landcare trapper, attended a training course, or fully viewed training information online.

Cats and dogs are unlikely to be attracted to a Timms trap if baited correctly (eg with fruit). If you're worried about children or pets interfering with it, un-set the trap each morning and re-set it in the evening.

Further information: Flipping Timmy Possum Trap — Predator Free NZ Trust

Ideally suited for rat trapping in our native forests, but they can capture native birds, so they should be set in a tunnel.

• Use peanut butter as bait and refresh often.
• Place them on a flat surface near walls, compost, or under cover.
• Secure them appropriately, eg peg into the ground.
• If you're not getting results, try a different spot.
• Check the trap daily until your catch rate goes down, then check every two to three weeks.

Further information: How to set a Victor Trap safely

Designed to trap stoats, but will also humanely kill rats and hedgehogs.

• Set in a fairly quiet area, away from people and pets.
• Set on a flat, level surface.
• Set along a wall or fence line if available, most animals will travel along this type of guide. If in the bush or farmland, set along ridges, tracks or creeks.
• For bait, try fresh rabbit meat or eggs.
• DOC200s have a very powerful trap mechanism. Make sure you have received training from a Landcare trapper or attended a training course.

Further information: predatorfreenz.org, how to install a DOC200 trap

Non-kill trap. Must be checked daily.

• Set in a fairly quiet area, far from people and pets.
• Set close to a water source.
• Set on a flat, level surface.
• Set along a wall or fence line, if available, most animals will travel along this type of guide.
• Place the trap on level ground. Pests are unlikely to enter a trap that wobbles or moves.
• Place your bait in the tray at the back of the trap, as far from the trap walls as possible so an animal cannot steal it.
• Try apple for possums, fish or cat food for feral cats. Consider salmon lure for feral cats and mustelids.
• Try making a bait trail leading into the trap.
• Know what you'll do when an animal is caught before you set the trap.
• Try camouflaging the floor and roof of the cage with fern fronds, and suspend the bait with wire to keep it fresh.

Reference: trapworks.co.nz