Goodnature traps - any experience?
- Thread starter Apthorpe
- Start date
Triggermortis
Well-Known Member
Yes very good when you follow the instructions and sight the trap in the right place
Took delivery of an A24 on Tuesday, see here: rat problem
I have set it and will be interested to see how it performs.
I will say that the service from Goodnature was excellent - very helpful and responsive via the web inquiry.
I have set it and will be interested to see how it performs.
I will say that the service from Goodnature was excellent - very helpful and responsive via the web inquiry.
enfieldspares
Well-Known Member
Like everything once the patent protections expire these will become reverse engineered and copied in the Land of the Tong and sold cheaper. I've heard good reports of the genuine ones. Do please keep SD updated.
Not for squirrels but stoats, if used outdoors they can malfunction and the costs involved for replacement bait and gas canisters is ridiculous.
Main benefit is it can keep going without being constantly re-set (obviously) but if possible I would use a poison instead.
Squirrels (only the Grey ones, of course!) are glorified rats anyway...
Rizla_green
Well-Known Member
The guy at work had a problem with the bushy tailed rats getting in the roof of the flats he was top floor.
Housing company wanted £450 to put poison and 1 trap down.
Told him about the trap and he set it up out his sky light. Had nothing the first 5 days then 18 in the next 2 weeks.
Peanut butter worked better than the supplied bait, 2 blobs each side and then a bit on the entrance hole edge.
He has not woken up from them running about for the last 2 months
Housing company wanted £450 to put poison and 1 trap down.
Told him about the trap and he set it up out his sky light. Had nothing the first 5 days then 18 in the next 2 weeks.
Peanut butter worked better than the supplied bait, 2 blobs each side and then a bit on the entrance hole edge.
He has not woken up from them running about for the last 2 months
That's a bit of a problem.
I don't like poison (I know the squirrels don't either!) and won't use it. I know that's not the best strategy, but that's my limit. Being able to leave it to do its thing with less than daily attention is the main appeal.
Greys are a bloody menace - the only good thing about the first lockdown was the large number I shot between zoom calls.
I'm not sure waiting 10-15 years is going to work for me.
Triggermortis
Well-Known Member
These do work very well on squirrels, at £130.00 not cheap BUT…
How much to call out an electrician or a plumber to rectify the damage that can result from squirrels in your loft?
Not £130.00 that’s for sure!!!
How much to call out an electrician or a plumber to rectify the damage that can result from squirrels in your loft?
Not £130.00 that’s for sure!!!
Like @Triggermortis says, I figured at £150 for the trap, the stand, and a year’s supply of bait, it works out cheaper than paying the local pest controller to come out twice during the year and throw bait around. Hopefully it also means we won’t have the problem of decomposing rodents and flies.
Mrs Gunn knows the price, yet has already spotted that there are discounts for bulk buys.
Mrs Gunn knows the price, yet has already spotted that there are discounts for bulk buys.
Triggermortis
Well-Known Member
Do you want to sell them?
Not mine to sell, previous employer bought them, they stayed with him when I left the job
Triggermortis
Well-Known Member
Oh ok,cheers.
Anyone on here buys one and can’t get it to work well, pm me i may be happy to take them off your hands .
Anyone on here buys one and can’t get it to work well, pm me i may be happy to take them off your hands .
Thankfully they're not in my loft. Just had enough of the tree damage.
jimmer.13
Well-Known Member
I have a few of the A18 squirrel version and have found them to be very successful.
I found that you need to move them regularly and refresh the bait at the same time.
Smaller trees like Hazel’s seem to work better than a large beech or oak.
My best score was 4 in 24hrs on the same trap.
I also find rubbing the scent of a dead squirrel around the trap works well the same as I do on my fens.
I don’t use the plastic plate anymore which is supposed to to deter none target species and spread plenty of lure at the base of the tree.
Not the be all and end all but a very useful tool if you can’t get to your traps every day.
I found that you need to move them regularly and refresh the bait at the same time.
Smaller trees like Hazel’s seem to work better than a large beech or oak.
My best score was 4 in 24hrs on the same trap.
I also find rubbing the scent of a dead squirrel around the trap works well the same as I do on my fens.
I don’t use the plastic plate anymore which is supposed to to deter none target species and spread plenty of lure at the base of the tree.
Not the be all and end all but a very useful tool if you can’t get to your traps every day.
They work very well indoors and out. But you have to put some thought and effort into deploying them optimally. I have three set in locations I don’t get to often enough to reset traditional traps, and have the ones with the chirp function so I get notification when they have been activated. Mine are for rats, but most of the principles are the same irrespective of target species.
Some top tips for successful good-natured trapping:
Good luck and if you go ahead please let us know how it works out.
Some top tips for successful good-natured trapping:
- Do not keep testing the tripwire for fun. The gas canisters don’t last as long as you think they should. About 20 activations.
- If there is an alternative feed source in the immediate area that you are trapping, don’t be surprised if you don’t catch many squirrels (or rats, whatever). You need to locate the trap smartly so that the animal is lured by scent and then has nothing else to capture its attention. Pre-baiting the area around the trap is very useful to bring the animal to the point of no return.
- You don’t have to use the Goodnature baits. If there is a local food source that you know the target animal is interested in then you can use the factory bait container and clean it out and refill it with whatever you want to use. For rats I once used mashed up sardines and had to change the CO2 cylinder after two days, I’d killed that many. There are plenty of folk here that will use a natural food source that is in season for the target species. You need to experiment. Personally I think some of the baits that are supplied for these traps are a bit optimistic, and in some circumstances home-made baits work considerably better.
- With rats it’s not uncommon for other rats to consume the carcass of the a dead rat. But if rats start to pile up underneath the trap then other rats will get very wary and become trap shy. Because a squirrel will not eat another squirrel (you’d imagine), if your trap is on something like a bird table, you should observe your trap regularly and remove any dead animals promptly. The chirp accessory is very handy for this. Now that I have learned this, for rats I create a series of 3 short, angled baited ramps with the trap about 3ft off the ground, such that when the animal dies it falls down and away from the ramp immediately underneath the trap. That made a big difference to rat kill numbers.
- If your trap is not catching anything, it is not going to be the trap’s fault. It will always be something related to how / where / what, and you just need to experiment until you get the right bait in the right place at the right time. The difference some fine-tuning can make is remarkable. I have watched rats outside a kennel foodstore go straight past one of these freshly baited traps, maybe a cursory sniff or two, as they were too focused on going from A to B. So I moved the trap to a more sheltered corner with only one way in and out, and made a better bait trail to the trap. I watched rats go in, and…. Chirp! on the phone, one after the other.
Good luck and if you go ahead please let us know how it works out.
Thank you all very much for the good advice. I've decided to stick to shooting them for the time being. We have pheasant feeders and, on the advice, it seems like it would be better to wait until we stop feeding at end-March before trapping. Have a more pressing indoor invasion of mainly mice to deal with first with old fashioned traps. 8 head of assorted vermin down so far, a disappointingly slow start. I'll update the thread if/when I do get one of these traps.
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