New Zealand Garden Diary: Butternut Squash, Possums and Trapping Goodnaturedly

I’m very concerned that the possums we see and hear around our house are going to lay into my fruit, veggies and young trees (they often ring bark them, which kills them).

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But then I found out that the Summit Road Society lends out possum traps in the Lyttelton area. You can borrow one for 3 months and buy them at a subsidised rate.

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So I installed one on Waitangi Day (see earlier post), which seemed appropriate, since possums are not native to New Zealand, having been introduced here from Australia for the fur trade. By the 1980s, they had spread the length and breadth of the country, devastating local flora and fauna in the process.

It should have been fairly easy to install the trap. I selected a pear tree at the top of our section, far away from the house (though they are not shy about coming right up to our front steps).

Initially I thought that the gnarly pear tree trunk was making it hard to install the trap

Then I realised I should have had my reading glasses on to read the instructions and put the tree mount the correct way round.

It was then easy to slide the main device onto the mount

This is the possum bait. It is not attractive to cats (I wouldn’t want to trap the neighbours’ ones!).

After unscrewing the cap, you push on the bitey thing.

Then you either squeeze the bottle or tap the bottle against the tree to charge it, wiping off any excess (I smeared this on the tree below the trap).

You insert the bite cartridge into the trap at the top.

Then you remove the black cap from the gas cartridge.

And screw it in at the bottom of the trap. You will hear a slight hiss as the gas canister opens and charges the trap.

Hopefully the possum will climb the tree and head towards the bait putting his head in here, being killed very quickly.

You can also attach a counter, as the gas canister is good for 12 possums, but sometimes the carcasses can disappear… I had to press the counter to zero it.

Okay possums, my pear tree is ready for you!

Living in New Zealand: Why Having Cats is Different to Owning Dogs

When I was a kid, I had a cat, Tac. I loved that cat and I was very upset when she died in my first year of university. But I grew up in England and having a cat in New Zealand is very different. The bird life has not evolved with this predator (or any mammalian predator) and cats kill native birds in countless numbers.

Yes , dogs can kill native birds too. But there are a lot more bylaws here regarding dogs than there are for cats. Dogs have to be registered and are expected to be kept in at night. In most places in New Zealand they are not allowed to roam free and have to be kept under the control of the owners. When we had a dog, he always walked close to us, But he used to be terrorised by a local cat was allowed to walk wherever she wanted.

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That was pretty funny. It's not funny what cats do to the native birds when they're allowed to roam free and kill at will. So when I saw this book on a recent trip to the library, I felt I had to leave a note.

Passive aggressiveness at its best.

Illustrated Epistle: Predator Free New Zealand Though Not Yet At Our House

I write this as we have insulation pumped into our old villa's timber walls. I wonder what the rats and mice think of this. Apparently, New Zealand is having a rodent explosion and many of them seem to be at our house.

There is a government-backed committment to make New Zealand predator free by 2050 and Kiwis are being encouraged to trap and kill predators in their own backyard. The focus is on rats, possums and stoats, but they would also like to see the back of hedgehogs. I have to admit I couldn't bear to kill the two hedgehogs we found in the sump last summer. Hedgehogs are dying out in the UK but it seems they are thriving here.

We have however been trapping rats. We have 12 traps in the attic that Duncan checks on a regular basis and there are now 6 dead rats buried in the garden. Until recently I had three trap tunnels baited with peanut butter and set up around the house to catch rats. These didn't catch any rats, only sweet little field mice (which are also an invasive species).
Although I didn't like it, I continued trapping these poor mice until one of the traps caught and killed a sparrow. Another "exotic" species, but that was a the last straw for me and I've stopped using those traps for now.

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This is an excerpt from my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out in the middle of the month. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

New Zealand Diary: Rat Trapping in Lyttelton

I wrote the above soon after we arrived back in Lyttelton. But the rats got worse and the old traps didn't work. We set some Predator Free NZ traps in tunnels outside and caught only mice.

And so, this.