Plant Pest Control

Begun in June 2016, every week on Tuesday, from 9am - 12pm, regardless of weather the "Tuesday Weeders" or “Blackberry Busters” meet at the car park and then head off to attack and eradicate weeds

Currently (June 2021) members are: Liffet Stewart, Lynette Francis, Sue Blaikie, Dawn Bush, Richard Lambert anf Alexander McManus

The team is mainly grubbing or "cutting and pasteing" and use as few chemicals as possible

All newcomers are welcome! Send us an email at whareroa.guardians@gmail.com to find out more.

There are activities for all levels of fitness, physical abilities and knowledge levels (plus the Blacberry Busters are all really nice people).

Pest plants sighted on Whareroa Farm: you can find the list, with photos and links to web resources here

Bring gloves and sturdy shoes. Tools are provided. We are very keen to learn and share our accumulated knowledge

Animal Pest Control

Currently in the Animal Pest Control group: Share Cave, Shane Williamson, Darrel Sutherland, Rodney Hopkirk, Jason Bohmer, John Rowland, Brian Solomon, Scott Hill, Ray Molineux and Tom Bruynel

Box traps, Leg-hold traps, self-resetting traps

There are over 100 box traps in 10 lines throughout Whareroa. These are checked regularly in the course of a month by the team and target mustelids (ferrets, stoats & weasels), rats, mice and hedgehogs.

There are over 120 leg-hold traps in 16 lines throughout Whareroa. These target possums and when set and baited, are checked daily until de-set.

Self-resetting traps consist of some 40 goodnature (www.goodnature.co.nz) A24’s (targeting mustelids, rats and mice) and a small number of A12 traps (targeting possums), as well as AT220s.

Since February 2021, we have active in the field 15 AT220 self-resetting traps targeting mainly possums, but these traps also catch mustelids, rats and mice. The traps are battery powered and reset themselves after an animal is killed. They are mounted on a tree so the carcasses fall to the ground as the trap resets. A short ramp is fitted under the trap so carcasses are deflected to the side when they fall and new animals don’t have to walk over dead animals to get up to the trap (although video recordings - done by others - show that target species are perfectly willing to walk over corpses to get to traps). The traps have an electronic beam trigger so the animal doesn’t have to push any physical trigger to activate the trap. The lure is dispensed by a pump at regular intervals and only needs to be replenished after several months. The batteries are rechargeable using an ordinary phone charge plug and and a USB attachment supplied by the manufacturer and the latest batteries seem to have a good life. They even turn themselves off during the day to conserve battery life as the main target species, possums, are nocturnal. They are New Zealand designed and manufactured in Whakatane. We like! :-) The new traps are deployed eastwards from the gum plantation then up to and along some of Campbell’s Mill Rd. This still leaves plenty for us to do, dealing with the possums that get past this line and enter the farm from areas where these traps are not deployed. This means that for the bulk of the farm we will continue to use the leg hold traps.

Rabbits, Hares

We have a number of members who are capable and approved to shoot rabbits and hares.

Goats

Wild Goats on Whareroa are sadly a quite destructive pest and turn up at irregular intervals in varying numbers. Jason and Ray are capable and approved to cull them in Whareroa.

If you see goats on Whareroa, please send an email to Jason (jasonbohmer@gmail.com) or let us know by email (whareroa.guardians@gmail.com) and we will forward it to Jason. Let him know when, approximately where and how many goats you saw