Laurence Giles’ farm sits in the hills west of the Hauraki Plains and backs on to bush near Morrinsville in the Waikato. Most Kiwis will know this region as dairy country but Laurence’s rat problem made him feel like he was living in rat country.
After too many nights hearing rats outside his house and in his roof, Laurence was at his wit’s end.
“The rats were thick on the ground!” he says. “Even down in the cowshed. I’d see them on the rafters and all around.”
Like many farmers, Laurence tried a few methods to get the rats under control but didn’t get the results he was looking for. “I used poison for a while but with limited success.”
The final straw was when the rats caused some serious damage that cost him some serious money. “They destroyed my califont that heats the water for the powdered milk I feed my calves. It cost me $1,000 to replace. That’s the cost of buying ten good young calves,” he explains.
Laurence was determined to find an alternative way of getting his rats under control. Setting a bunch of A24 rat traps changed what seemed like a never-ending story.
“I could have settled on just one of Goodnature’s A24 rat traps but it wouldn’t have been enough to keep them away long-term. I decided on a network of five A24s to protect my property and increase the chance of a good night’s sleep.”
Since the dead rats drop from the trap to the ground straight away, other animals like cats and even other rats, haul them away before anyone has had a chance to see proof of their success.
“I was a bit of a sceptic at the start,” says Laurence, “but I don’t think I set the first trap in the right place.”
Our detector cards have since made it easy to work out where rats feel safe enough to eat and therefore where best to set a trap.
“After I shifted the trap to the outside wall of my house, I heard it going all night – Bang! Bang! Bang! Living in earshot of the action helped me realise what was really going on.”
Laurence measures his success by what he doesn’t see any more. No signs of rats and no damage to his property.
“Thanks to the A24s, my two sheds and house are rat-free. Without using poison, I can go down to the cowshed at night now and not see a single rat.”