retired from town to country -still trying to see whatswhat

hi all we are helen and john gill (please excuse no capitols as i dont know enough about this machine to do all the fancy stuff)and we have shifted to a little place in the waikato as a retirement project from auckland .we are in the process of doing fencing,planting trees and various other job to get home as we would like it .today i have seen a stoat in our yard and we are wondering if anyone can tell us how to get rid of them,are the vicious,in fact any detais at all as we are complete newbies at this thjank you ----oh and by the way i will be probably asking a lot of the time for various clues on how to do things so please bear with me thank you

Hi and welcome Helen and John. How exciting for you. You won't get bored. I think you can get stoat traps, someone else will let you know. If you are going to have chickens you will want them gone. This is a wonderful helpful site. The only dumb question is the one not asked. Enjoy.

The DOC traps are possibly the most effective.
Perhaps go in to your local council or join a local Forest and Bird society, bound to be one in your area

Welcome from another 2 Waikato retirees[]...what part of the Waikato are you in ?
Cheers

Welcome aboard. How good a shot are you? This may not be relevant to your situation if the neighbours are too close. You can catch stoats with gin traps but you need to be careful where you set them to avoid catching non-target species. I set mine in a timber box structure with a pipe entrance to avoid catching our chooks and the neighbour's multitudinous cats.

What do you bait a stoat trap with? We inherited one when we bought this place, but as I have only seen one in 2 1/2 years I have never bothered with it. It would not be possible for even our smallest cat to get into it.

terralee;500680 wrote: Welcome from another 2 Waikato retirees[]...what part of the Waikato are you in ?
Cheers

we have moved to Manawaru which is a school,church,and hall between Matamata and TeAroha and loving it

Welcome Helen & John, have a read here for Doc's info regards stoats.

They suggest "Fishy cat food or freshly killed rabbit or chicken is excellent but does not keep well. A longer-lasting alternative is an egg which can be left whole or broken. Alternatively two eggs can be used. Make a small hole in one egg to provide a scent and leave the second egg whole to provide a long-lasting visual lure."

retired? you will find you have never work so hard! but its a different kind of satisfaction

Welcome

Either side of the keyboard next to the a or the ? Either called shift or ^ arrow...for capitals ��
You can get all sorts of interesting info on this site .....

Sounds like you will have a great retirement....but probably not relaxing.

Welcome to LSB! I'm sure you are going to have lots of fun on your new place, and you'll learn heaps of new things too!