"0tterbot" writes:
I just think snap traps are the best
way to go with rodents, in the absence of predators. and just lately my dog
has been stepping up to the plate re our mice (which makes a nice change :-)

I find rat traps to be too impractical. They are difficult to place in
position when set to a hair trigger.

how would one kill the rodents on a sticky trap? drowning? if there's only
one stuck onto the trap & you drowned it, wouldn't that just be a waste of
the trap? or does the stickiness remain, so after you unstick the dead rat &
dry off the trap, you can use it again?

Tanglefoot is a sticky resin that you apply using a caulking gun to bits
of scrap timber, old paint-tin lids, tree trunks, or whatever. Apparently
it is not water-soluble.

can't you? why do you think rabbit & dingo traps were banned? it's not
because the setters of the traps would thoughtfully do the rounds twice a
day checking if they caught anything.

We were talking about rat traps set around the house. Now you are talking
about animal traps set kilometres or tens of km from the house. Big
difference.

The old rabbit trap was banned because the trap is cruel, not the trapper.
Its steel jaws crush the leg, causing the animal to needlessly suffer. My
understanding is that rubber-jawed traps are still allowed; maybe I'm
wrong. As for trapping wild dogs by the leg, some dogs will gnaw the leg
off to effect an escape, so leg trapping of dogs is not only cruel but can
be self-defeating if it leaves a maimed dog to survive on the only food it
can now catch -- slower-moving sheep or calves instead of roos or rabbits.

Besides, foot traps are so indiscriminant that they can catch and maim
untargetted animals, including the grazier's own dog. It was not uncommon
for pastoralists to set rabbit traps around lamb carcasses to catch eagles,
too, before the eagles' real worth was appreciated.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)