Funding to trial new killer traps announced

Photo / Brett Phibbs

Possums, rats and stoats have something new to fear after the Government and the Green Party today announced $4 million in funding to trial self-resetting traps.

The funding would be used by the Department of Conservation (DOC) to buy and trial over three years 10,000 of the new traps.

Wellington company Goodnature designs and make the traps which can kill up to 12 pests each, resetting themselves each time through a gas-powered mechanism before they need to be set again by hand.

Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson said a significant cost of pest control went on regularly visiting and resetting trap lines, with traditional traps needing to be cleared each month.

DOC estimated the annual cost of maintaining conventional traps for rats and stoats at $96 each, compared to $16 for a self-resetting trap. Employing 10,000 self-resetting traps could save $800,000 in labour costs each year.

They are more expensive per unit, costing approximately $150 each against $47 for the traps currently in use.

The Green Party co-operated with the Government setting up the pilot.

"The Government shares the Green Party's desire to explore more effective ways to control pests like possums, rats and stoats," Mrs Wilkinson said.

"I look forward to continuing to collaborate with them as this project gets off the ground."

Funding will start in the 2011/12 financial year, with the first of the new traps expected to be laid that summer.

DOC spends more than $20m a year controlling possums and ground-based pests like rats and stoats.

"Possums, rats and stoats kill millions of native birds every year and devour thousands of tonnes of native forest. There are two different traps we will be trialling, one for rats and stoats and another for possums," Mrs Wilkinson said.

- NZPA