Omori Kuratau Ratepayers Meeting

The first Omori Kuratau Ratepayers Association Meeting for 2021 was held
on Friday 29th January at the Community Hall.

 

The Committee Meeting covered the following topics.

• Taupo District Council long term plan Submissions      •  General discussion on the future of the Newsletter

• Lake shore erosion                                                       •  Rabbit control management plan

•  D2/D3 Subdivision                                                        •  Traffic management

• New Years Eve vandalism including liquor ban signs, security, liason with police, and parent responsibility.

 

Download/View the pdf  for full minutes.

 

 

 

Omori Kuratau Pest Management Update

Omori/Kuratau Pest Management Group Report. January 2021 Tallies for January 2021 Happy New Year to you all. An average January for rats although some of our normally top traplines were right down on numbers or had none at all. The Omori boat ramp to Omori stream again topped the poll with 12 rats (14 last year) so there has been a huge turn-around in where we are taking out the majority of our rats. The Sth Omori Stream line took out 5 and the upper Kuratau River line took out 4. Our mustelid count for January was also right down with only 3 ferrets taken out – all on the Streamblock vineyard line. Last year we took out 5 ferrets and 7 stoats in January. There were however, lots of sightings of mustelids so we hope to pick them up in February. One of the things we have found out about trapping over the years is that there is no constant and irrefutable way to attract and catch rats, hedgehogs, ferrets and other mustelids and possums. Recent examples of this have been: a ferret taken out in a live capture trap baited with apple; another ferret was taken out in a live capture trap baited with fat; and a further 3 ferrets were taken out in DoC 200 traps baited with old fish heads. As mentioned previously we have now found that possums presently are no longer attracted to our Goodnature A12 traps baited with a commercial cinnamon lure but they are now attracted to modified plastic Timms traps baited with slices of apples. We are also often asked why we use golf balls instead of eggs as visual lures in our DoC 200 rat & hedgehog traps. We believed that there was a possibility a conflict existed between the scent of the main crushed fish-paste lure and the lesser scent given off by the egg. We tested this in our traps with half using the golf balls and the other half using the eggs. The results proved our suspicions were correct as we caught 4 times as many rats/hedgehogs in the traps with the golf balls than the traps baited with the eggs. All this has taught us that the longer we trap, the more we have to learn and that the most important thing is to try new methods and attractants and keep an open mind. January Tallies and grand totals as follows: Rats = 37 (41 last year) Grand total now 3537 Mice = 5 (5 last year) Grand total now 718 Hedgehogs = 13 (4 last year) Grand total now 599 Mustelids = 3 (12 last year) Grand total now 255 . (weasels, stoats & ferrets) Feral Cats = 0 (1 last year) Grand total now 524 Possums = 5 (0 last year) but certainly better than the 9 taken out in December. Grand total now 274 Rabbits = 10 (7 last year) Grand total now 100 Timms Possum Traps Now the school holidays are over the Timms possum traps are again being rebated on a weekly basis with a slice of apple. Hopefully we are getting on top of the possum problem. Many thanks for all your phone calls about spotting possums and mustelids. It really helps if we have an identified place where they have been spotted to place a community trap. Cheers Russell Shaw Omori/Kuratau Pest Management Co-ordinator, 180 Omori Road, Phone (07) 386 6667
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