Trapping what I think is a weasel

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Trapping what I think is a weasel

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chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 7:50 am Post subject: Trapping what I think is a weasel
I think I need a cage-type trap. I've got eight dead/dying quail in two cages this morning; the holes in the wire are too small for a rat. It's in my shed, so I don't think a tunnel trap will work; although a bloke is lending me some tomorrow night. Any advice on what sort will work best? I've got plenty of fresh dead quail to bait it with ETA: Would this do it?

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 8:24 am Post subject:
am I correct in thinking that you have a choice: weasels or rats?

chicken feed

Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Posts: 2677

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 8:34 am Post subject: Re: Trapping what I think is a weasel

Chez wrote:

I think I need a cage-type trap. I've got eight dead/dying quail in two cages this morning; the holes in the wire are too small for a rat. It's in my shed, so I don't think a tunnel trap will work; although a bloke is lending me some tomorrow night.

Any advice on what sort will work best? I've got plenty of fresh dead quail to bait it with

ETA: Would this do it?

should do the trick chez we used one similar when we had the same problem.

we were told in addition to eggs/bird as bait to put in something fishy

it seemed to work so there must have been some truth in it.

hope you catch the b***er

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 8:35 am Post subject:

As my preferred predator? I think that's supposed to be mice or rats, rather than weasels or rats.

Or as the culprit in this particular instance? I think that it's more likely to be a weasel because a) my rat-bait is not being taken and b) the only place it can be getting in to each cage is the little hole in the wire that is cut underneath the drinking mechanism to allow it to wiggle up and down. I've not had rats actually get in to these cages through this hole in the last eighteen months, although the little buggers are everywhere.

I'm just having a look on ebay and it seems like the size of trap you need for rats and weasels is the same; so the size of mesh on the cage suddenly becomes less of an issue.

SteveP

Joined: 23 Jan 2008
Posts: 155
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 9:35 am Post subject:
I sympathize with you as I lost my quail to what I am convinced was a weasel. The predation was not rat like. Can I suggest that if you know where it is likely to be getting in the quail are blocked off from that part and a simple mouse snap trap placed behind the hole. Steve

Colin & Jan

Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 203
Location: Dover, Kent

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 12:41 pm Post subject:

I'll put a pound on it being a rat. I've lost 11 bantams this week to a rat. 10 half grown and 1 Pekin last night who roosts in a blue barrel half full of wheat. I've got bait down, fenn traps and live traps + JR and cocker spaniels. It's normally a bitch rat, feeding young that gets a taste for meat.

The old gamekeepers were right in their stance that rats were enemy No1. Tonight the Pekin will be going back in the barrel with fenn traps set into the wheat.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 2:29 pm Post subject:

now if it is a weasel....

many years ago I read an article in the HDRA newsletter of a gardener who was plagued with rabbits, after his brassicas and stuff, so he set a trap and caught a passing weasel. Being unfamiliar with the blighter, he kept it for a couple of days in an old hutch. Having satisfied his curiosity, he released it. However, he now had a hutch that ponged of weasel - and that kept the rabbits away!

From what I can make out, weasels and stoats are such vicious predators, rabbits and rats are terrified of them.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 6:05 pm Post subject:

They are really interesting creatures - they are solitary and have a *huge* area that they move around in, only meeting up with the opposite sex to make more mustelids.

My poor cockerel down at Ma's looks like he's going to pull through - it didn't severe the muscle at the back of his neck and he can hold his head up quite well.

The cage I've ordered is good for both rats and weasels/stoats, so hopefully it should solve the issue either way and I can use it in both locations.

I'm pretty fed up; luckily it took the older quail, not the POL I've just invested £4.50 each in. But I've not got an airing cupboard full of day-old chicks I don't want to put out there, just in case it comes back tonight and somehow gets in to the brooder.

VM

Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 1748
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 13 6:31 pm Post subject:

We had something from that family - decided was probably a polecat - at our allotments a few years back, which killed several chickens. I spent some time looking up stuff about them trying to work out what it was. Got the impression that a weasel, natural born killer though it is, probably wouldn't kill something the size of a chicken, so was more likely to be stoat, ferret or polecat.

But I guess quail are that much smaller. The one we had was sometimes getting in through small gaps in wire and sometimes through holes dug by rats previously. We did eventually manage to keep it out of the run but it's hard - they are so small and sinuous but yet so vicious!

Hope you catch it.

But yes, they are fascinating creatures - and such little cute furry faces.

I remember our chicken and a friend's all being bitten at the back of the neck - sounds familiar.

clydesdaleclopper

Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 100
Location: N E Scotland

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 13 11:26 am Post subject:
You need an Egyptian Mau - ours regularly kill both rats and weasels.

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 13 11:55 am Post subject:
Lovely looking cat.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 13 6:34 pm Post subject:

My Mama's boy has killed two weasels so far this year; he needs to up his game to keep on top of them. I was chatting to a bloke who has lent me a fenn trap this evening, he says there seem to be loads more than usual of them around this year.

My live-trap has arrived and I have baited it with tuna and put it in the shed. No more fatalities this morning, so I have risked taking the chicks out of the airing cupboard and putting them in the brooder out there.

chicken feed

Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Posts: 2677

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 13 7:36 pm Post subject:
fingers crossed

Liz in Ireland

Joined: 27 Jan 2009
Posts: 1287

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 13 8:14 pm Post subject:
I wasn't sorry to see the polecat I've been seeing regularly, lying dead on the road this morning.

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