With summer in full swing, there has been no shortage of work to do across the entire project area, keeping us busy over the past month. Thanks to the fantastic summer weather, we’ve made great progress on our “to-do” list, with some interesting results—though pest catches remain low.

In January, we caught 44 rats in the Russell Township area. While this number may seem high, it’s important to note that trap servicing in Russell Township was spaced out beyond our usual two-week cycle. This resulted in higher catch numbers as traps were left to “soak” longer. However, considering we have 534 traps in place, 44 rats is still a relatively low number overall.

For January, we recorded two ship rats caught on the outer edges of the buffer for Tapeka. This was expected, as these areas border Russell Township, which is still in the knockdown phase and experiencing some rat movement.

Additionally, one Norway rat was caught well inside the Tapeka project area, behind the public toilet near the boat ramp. Given the increased visitor traffic, we suspect it may have arrived via a trailer boat being launched at the ramp. Since Norway rats make up only 3% of our total catches, this is likely a one-off occurrence.

Our AT220 traps also caught one possum in Tapeka. To monitor any remaining numbers, we have started installing detection cameras, thanks to a generous donation from our local community.

Another key development in Tapeka is the installation of chew cards and the removal of toxin from the area. Chew cards are an essential monitoring tool, helping us detect any remaining rats, stoats, or possums. Since bait uptake has dropped to nearly zero, and remaining pests are interacting more with traps than with bait, we’ve decided to remove bait as traps are currently the more cost-effective solution.

Surprisingly, we caught one ship rat in the Old Russell area, about 300 meters from the car ferry ramp. With the increase in visitors, it may have arrived from outside the area. As a precaution, we conducted a pulse of toxin and installed chew cards across Okiato and Te Wahapu, as these areas haven’t had toxin treatment in the last six to seven months. On a positive note, our trapping network is proving effective in detecting and intercepting any rats that manage to enter the area.

Our incredible volunteers have been busy this month, tackling a variety of tasks at the depot, including maintenance, bait station construction, and weed control, to name a few. Their dedication is a massive contributing factor to our project’s success, and we simply couldn’t do it without them.

On January 29th, we held a workshop to train volunteers for trap line servicing in the field. This was a great success, with seven enthusiastic volunteers attending and eager to learn. Community involvement is a core part of our mission, and we love seeing people participate and share in the success of this project.