David Hare-Scott wrote:
I have ripe oranges on the tree. Something is stealing and eating them.
Four fruit have been taken off the tree and left a few metres away.
Each has a neat round hole cut in the side about 5cm across, the small
bits of skin were left scattered about. The predator has then neatly
eaten all the flesh of the orange leaving an empty skin with a hole in
it. No bird or animal has been sighted nearby. There are no
identifiable bite marks anywhere to give away the culprit.

The bats have left for warmer latitudes and in any case they cannot eat
on the ground.

A mouse couldn't move the whole fruit and wouldn't need a hole that big.

There are no stray gouges from teeth marks that rats so often leave
when they eat something sizeable so if it is a rat it is the neatest one
ever seen who was very focussed on getting to the flesh while chewing
the least amount of skin.

Rabbits would go for all manner of other things in the garden before
oranges and there are no droppings.

I am thinking it is a possum.

Any views?

David





Rat
Bait the trap with liquorice and wire to the trunk

"atec7 7" ""atec77\"@ hotmail.com" wrote in message

Rat
Bait the trap with liquorice and wire to the trunk

LOL. I think I now get it - last post had a typo?? I had wondered if you'd
figured out a new way of using a truck battery to kill rats :-)) Now that
sounded very promising.

FarmI wrote:
"atec7 7" ""atec77\"@ hotmail.com" wrote in message

Rat
Bait the trap with liquorice and wire to the trunk

LOL. I think I now get it - last post had a typo?? I had wondered if you'd
figured out a new way of using a truck battery to kill rats :-)) Now that
sounded very promising.


You will find the bait is quite difficult to remove hence markedly
increasing the chance of triggering the trap , wired to the tree trunk
does as well when placed in the normal transit path of the prey

On Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:43:15 +1000, atec7 7 wrote:


Rat
Bait the trap with liquorice and wire to the trunk

That is distressing. Wasting liquorice like that.

Reminds me of the pound's advice on how to tempt a difficult to catch tom
cat into the trap; mortadella. Well, it worked. We decided the cat
wasn't get all of it and we'd have a little for lunch and during lunch
the cat promptly walked into the trap which I'd moved to the backdeck
just before lunch to bait after lunch..

"terryc" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:43:15 +1000, atec7 7 wrote:


Rat
Bait the trap with liquorice and wire to the trunk

That is distressing. Wasting liquorice like that.

Reminds me of the pound's advice on how to tempt a difficult to catch tom
cat into the trap; mortadella. Well, it worked. We decided the cat
wasn't get all of it and we'd have a little for lunch and during lunch
the cat promptly walked into the trap which I'd moved to the backdeck
just before lunch to bait after lunch..


Did you make a Daniel Boone type hat? Wait you didn't bait it?

As a matter of interest was your trap like this or did it have a trip
plate: -

http://www.bellsouth.com.au/images/16.1/ptrap.JPG

Mine has a hook at the back which supposedly the cat pushes and the door
falls down. I have lent the trap to people and they used cooked porterhouse
steak to catch the cats.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:09:34 +0800, Loosecanon wrote:


Did you make a Daniel Boone type hat? Wait you didn't bait it?

Nope, we just took it to the pound like the two catches before it and
they destroy them for free.
The load after was the four kittens, of which two were very friendly. The
pound keeps kittens for a while and if selected, they get the full
treatment(desexed, vaccinated and chipped) before being handed over.


As a matter of interest was your trap like this or did it have a trip
plate: -

http://www.bellsouth.com.au/images/16.1/ptrap.JPG
No.

Mine has a hook at the back which supposedly the cat pushes and the door
falls down. I have lent the trap to people and they used cooked
porterhouse steak to catch the cats.

Ours has a tray which, when the animal treads on it releases a catch
letting the door drop. Trick is to put the food in a little container
right up the other end.

Generally we just used cheap cat nibbles. if they don't work at first, we
will drop a thin trail (1/foot) leading away from the cage. Twigged to
that when we threw some old nibbles out onto our unmown lawn and our cat
thought it was great fun to go around sniffing the lawn and finding them
(after ignoring them for a week inside).

"terryc" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:09:34 +0800, Loosecanon wrote:


Did you make a Daniel Boone type hat? Wait you didn't bait it?

Nope, we just took it to the pound like the two catches before it and
they destroy them for free.
The load after was the four kittens, of which two were very friendly. The
pound keeps kittens for a while and if selected, they get the full
treatment(desexed, vaccinated and chipped) before being handed over.


As a matter of interest was your trap like this or did it have a trip
plate: -

http://www.bellsouth.com.au/images/16.1/ptrap.JPG
No.

Mine has a hook at the back which supposedly the cat pushes and the door
falls down. I have lent the trap to people and they used cooked
porterhouse steak to catch the cats.

Ours has a tray which, when the animal treads on it releases a catch
letting the door drop. Trick is to put the food in a little container
right up the other end.

Generally we just used cheap cat nibbles. if they don't work at first, we
will drop a thin trail (1/foot) leading away from the cage. Twigged to
that when we threw some old nibbles out onto our unmown lawn and our cat
thought it was great fun to go around sniffing the lawn and finding them
(after ignoring them for a week inside).




Thanks for that!