Trev's had enough of the sparrows. Apart from nesting in the eaves and making a mess (which we tolerate for native species) they outcompete small native bird species, eat the chook food, peck holes in our vegie greens, eat raspberries, pull out seeds and even small seedlings and we have hundreds and hundreds of them. And in the past years they've been the vector for strains of salmonella that has passed from birds to other species.
They're non-native having been introduced in 1862 (though one would assume that their descendants should be able to claim nationality by now?)
Trev looked up traps and found this plan. The guy who build it claims to have wiped out his sparrow population with no by catch. We're not interested in wiping them out, only reducing their numbers in order to allow native birds to co-habitate. The trap doesn't kill them, only catches.
8 comments:
Once caught though you kill them yeah? I'd be interested in what humane method you use. I'm looking for humane ideas on rat erradication...
Barb.
Well Trev does, so only by association. Which is the same thing I guess. The most humane way we can come up with, (because death in any form is an unpleasant occasion) is taking the trap up to the dam and drowning them. It's very quick.
Cane toads the go was to refridgerate for half an hour than freeze when in QLD. Rats I made up an organic mix of icing sugar and plaster of paris, but eventually they passed white poo and continued on, so I built a trap which involved walking over tightrope with a copper loose sheath in the middle where the cheese was and they fell in a bucket of water and drowned. How do Bhuddists manage?
Do you have a link to the trap plans, Linda? Or some more photos of Trev's trap? I'd love to learn more about it!
I have an Indian mynah trap - coincidentally, we call them flying rats. I just fish them out of the trap with a gloved hand, and snip their neck with garden shears. Very quick and humane.
I researched this a little when having a rat infestation. Killing small animals with carbon monoxide is said to be more ethical, as is breaking an animals neck or brain concussion (these last two require skill.) From memory there are some home-made recipes -for want of a better term- for creating carbon monoxide safely and killing rats with it using vinegar and bi-carb. (Is there anything that vinegar and bi-carb can't do?). I presume it would take a LOT of bi carb and vinegar to kill a big rat.
But we found the best thing was a "rat zapper". It is a rat/mouse trap that electrocutes. Expensive but solved our problem and eased my mind. They have a website.
Here's the article with links to the plan.
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2009/01/23/44051_latest-news.html
Can you share your indian minah birds Darren? Trev's keen to do something about the blackbirds too.
Cheers
Could you please tell me what size Trev made the holes?
The size of the holes in the sparrow trap are: 25mm, 32mm and 38mm. It seems that the 38mm hole might let them escape at times; I (Trev) have yet to try blocking it up to see if they can get through the other two smaller holes.
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