The SRCMN’s final event for the year heralded our third visit from Darebin Parklands Senior Ranger Peter Wiltshire. Since our first workshop, Peter has guided residents of the Strathbogie Shire. For his third visit, we moved out of the every beautiful Euroa Arboretum and into the backyards of Euroa.
To put everything we had learned from previous workshops into practice, we needed to get out into the real world. In real backyards, the group was instructed on the subtleties of managing and trapping Common Mynas which included:
- Use dry, preferably red cat food for bait
- Put the bait in a container, not on the ground
- To get Mynas used to feeding, place the bait container in the area you wish to trap for a few days before deploying the trap
- When first deploying the trap, leave the door in the first chamber open for a few days to get the Mynas used to entering it
- Put a light coloured sheet of rigid material under the trap so Mynas can easily see the bait
- Make the bait in the second chamber more attractive than that in the first
- If possible, include a shiny object in the second chamber to further attract Mynas
- Do not check the trap during the day or the Mynas may get suspicious of you
- Include a shading material above the second chamber to protect caught Mynas from direct sunlight
- Include a water container in the second chamber that cannot be tipped over or spilt by trapped Mynas
- Place the trap in a wide open space that is visible to Mynas perching on fences, trees and roofs
- Make other food sources (like chook or dog food) inaccessible to Mynas
Thanks to Darren Mason, Brendan Paterson and Justus and Janet Hagen for allowing us to use their backyards. Thanks also to Peter Wiltshire for coming out and supporting us through our Myna control journey.
