A Timms Trap and a Bag of Apples

Man versus possum

My wife and I just bought a house. Mum has taken responsibility for the garden. Our place backs onto a neighbour’s overgrown section. Beyond that is a stand of blue gums. We have possums. At night they cross the wasteland and eat the new roses and strawberries.

For fifty dollars the local council gave us a plastic yellow Timm’s trap. You get forty back if it’s returned in a tidy condition. In the front there’s an upside down keyhole for the animal to nose in. You skewer the bait – I use half an apple dosed with cinnamon – on a kinked metal spike. The jaw is set into its killing position via a chord of nylon that sits outside the rear wall of the trap. The jaw slams upwardly, killing the animal in the mouse trap style of massive trauma to the head or neck.

The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council offers the following: ‘If not secured a possum could topple a trap, wind could blow it over, or a scavenging dog could run off with the dead possum and the trap.’

Most people have a possum story. These stories usually revolve around the creatures’ heavy breathing, how human they sound when they cross an iron roof at night, and, most commonly, variations on how difficult they are to kill. I weigh my trap with a big rock and use the supplied metal pegs to fix it to the ground. Even still, on a couple of occasions I have had to retrieve the carcass and trap from a different section of the garden. Despite a fatal head injury your possum may manage a vigorous death-dance.

But watch this clip to see how they screw with native birds.

I reset the trap to get the jaw free and remove the possum by the tail. They are well-muscled and, as a result, heavy. They have a raptor’s claws and fierce teeth. If it’s close to rubbish day I send them to the dump in a council rubbish bag. If it’s not I hiff them back into the neighbour’s overgrown yard.

Occasionally you get a hedgehog. They have a developed sense of smell and go for the fruit and spice combination. The HBRC suggests setting the trap on blocks. According to DOC one hedgehog they opened up contained 283 weta legs. Hedgehogs eat skinks and the native, giant centipede. They like bird eggs and frogs. I say flag the blocks.

Though cats eat birds, people like them for company. The HBRC website has hints on how to avoid catching cats. Basically a trap set with fruit won’t attract them.

I’m a Pākehā New Zealander. My ancestors brought possums here to cash in on their fur. Hedgehogs were brought in to remind us of Britain. If you like trees, insects, birds or lizards get a Timms trap and a bag of apples. If you like growing fruit, vegetables, flowers or trees get a Timm’s trap and a bag of apples. If you want a better understanding of the circle of life, biology, or the uneasiness killing creates, get a Timms trap and a bag of apples.