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Pest control that makes scents

A long-term, novel solution to help New Zealand achieve its predator free ambitions is a step closer, thanks to $1.4 million in Department of Conservation (DOC) funding for University of Canterbury (UC) research.

Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage joins Dr Michael Jackson on a tour of the Fragrance Library in UC’s School of Product Design.

Dr Michael Jackson of UC’s School of Biological Sciences, is the latest recipient of DOC’s Tools to Market programme. He says he is passionate about restoring New Zealand’s native wildlife, a process that begins with the effective control of introduced pests including rats, weasels and stoats.

Dr Jackson plans to use the new funding to expand on an already successful long-life lure product he developed under previous Tools to Market funding. He hopes to adapt and refine it to create a multi-species lure that can be used to catch different types of predator.

“Our current rat lures emit a consistent smell for a sustained period of time, which means they’re always attractive. That means that if a rat doesn’t visit a trap box for five months it wouldn’t matter because the lure inside the box remains as attractive as it was on day one,” he explains.

“We developed our first lure only for rats, and that project gave us the skills and knowledge to know we can make a multi-species lure that will have the ability to catch other small mammals, like stoats, that New Zealanders want to keep well away from their native wildlife.”

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