Making Rat Traps

Between the 2nd and the 14th of January I dedicated myself to helping out at Venture Inferno. For those who don't know, a Venture is a 10 day camp for Venturers or 'older scouts' (14-18 yr olds).
The venture is split into two phases:
Phase One - five days when you go on an expedition of your own choosing,

Phase Two - five days on site at the main camp with a variety of activities on offer including a party each night.

Inferno was the theme of this years Venture. It was based in Rotorua, and offered a very action packed programme.

For Phase One I helped as a line leader, my job was to look after nine venturers. Our expedition of 80 people were set at Waitomo where we did three days of caving among other activities.

For Phase Two I offered my help at the hands on base, a marquee full of hands on activities ranging from making bracelets, decorating mugs, making nail wire art, and of course making Rat Traps.

We had a couple of piles of wood and a few rolls of steel mesh; some screws and staples; and some hammers and drills. The basis of the trap.

Someone had kindly setup some example traps showing the method of making it in four easy steps.

Step 1. Get first piece of wood, the base, staple one piece of mesh to it about 100mm from the front.
Step 2, Using the drill/driver screw the base piece to the two other pieces of wood to create the boxes sides, staple the mesh to the two added sides.
Step 3, Get two wooden studs and screw them into the top corners of box to hold the trap in place.
Step 4, Cut a hole in one of the bottom corners of the mesh. Cover both ends of the box with more mesh. cut a hole in the front mesh in the opposite bottom corner.
Done.

It took a little bit of time to make my first trap, but as I continued, the process got faster and faster. More people joined and I was able to teach, observe, learn, and adapt my methods. I found that cutting the mesh was the hardest, most tiresome part, so I would work at that so the venturers could get on with the more fun construction part. The mesh was also quite sharp so when handling it you had to take care. It was encouraged that any sharp ends be cut off so that when using the trap the person doesn't cut themselves. We also learned to use any left over bits of mesh too to make the most of the resources that we had.

On the third day Didymo Dave came to help out, he was the one who organized the supplies and would be using the traps to control pests on the Waitahanui River. As well as refining the trap making process he also educated us on the traps and their use. Although we call them rat traps the traps would be used for not only rats, but also ferrets, weasels, and stoats. all rodents that kill our native birds for food or just for fun. The traps are made with the holes cut in the mesh on opposite corners to prevent kiwi from getting its beak inside and snapped off in a trap.

Didymo Dave also encouraged us to write a message on our box to the pests that would be caught within. One creative venturer wrote 'Dear Rodents, Gluttony is a deadly sin'.

Over the course of  four days I have gone from not knowing how to build a rat trap to not only building around twenty of them, but teaching others how to make them, empowering people who usually wouldn't give something like this ago, and allowing them to do it themselves and leave feeling that they have made a positive contribution to the native bird life of New Zealand.

Below is a link to Didymo Dave's facebook page, here you can find out more about the pest control along the Waitahanui River.
Rat Traps made with Didymo Dave