An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but it was certainly a lure for “one hungry little possum” at Hikutaia School.
That’s because a group of students, who put their heads together to create a pest control initiative called The Board of Pestees, left some apple in a possum trap in the hope it would entice the pest.
The board of keen trappers, made up of 11-year-olds Patrick Casey, Noah King, Ollie Silvester, Beau Brown, and 12-year-olds Kaea Koia-Hamling, Evan Brett, and Nehemiah Bennett, had a clear goal.
“We are a group of kids that trap around our school and out the back of our school,” they said.
Their main targets were rats, mice, ferrets, stoats, weasels, wasps, magpies, hedgehogs, koi carp and of course, possums.
“We are trying to make our school and community pest free,” the Pestees told The Profile.
The enviro-kids are determined to help make their dream a reality by the year 2050.
Part of their mission involves handing the torch off to students who will follow in their footsteps after they graduate from Hikutaia School.
Following a recent rugby trip, the young trappers arrived back at school where fellow classmates told them there was a possum in one of the traps.
“We bolted down the back and to where we had put the trap and there it was, a possum feeding on an apple core staring right at us.
“We all jumped with joy, so excited we sprinted back to class to ask Whaea Janna if we could show the whole school what we caught. It was the first time we had caught something rather than a rat or mouse.”
The idea to kick off the Board of Pestees was inspired by a literacy school unit.
Teacher Whaea Jana said the unit was focussed on hunting as a theme, so they looked into different deer, and also the rules around hunting and duck shooting.
“[The Board of Pestees] realised that to get the duck numbers up for duck shooting, the best thing was to do pest control, and so then it just went whoosh from there.”
It wasn’t clear just how many pests the young trappers had caught around the school so far, but there were “a lot”, including hedgehogs, possums, rats and mice.
“We got heaps of mice in the bucket traps, and then there was that time where the rats all came out.”
Whenever the students checked their traps, which are located along the back of the school, they said they were accompanied by the caretaker.
“They need to come with us so we’re safe. If it’s all kill traps we just need to do it once every two days, but if it’s all live traps you have to check every day.
“And if we don’t catch anything in that trap for a few days, we just move them.”
The pest controllers said the school’s garden shed had something mysterious underneath it: they couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
They placed several traps under there and had to remove one of the traps because it “got absolutely smashed”, they said.
“The back door got booted in. It’s like a mystery, [we] don’t know what it is.”
When it comes to the sort of bait they used, the board members said “it’s never really the same” as they tried a range of different options such as peanut butter and chocolate.
“We start off with peanut butter and pilchards and then we move towards some of the shop-bought stuff like chocolate and cinnamon paste.”
One pestee said the pilchards were “good as” for the water rats. “And now we’ve got reset bait things for our new Goodnature traps.”
Whaea Janna said at the moment, one of the boy’s fathers would collect the pests’ remains from the traps for disposal.
“This is a problem we need to come up with a better solution for and we are brainstorming some ideas,” she said.
The Board of Pestees is currently completing a statistical investigation to find out if there is interest among the junior students to become future members.
“They are looking into planting to encourage the native birds to visit more now that the pests have been eradicated, and they are also looking into making more traps to supply local households and educating the school students on how to make, set and clear a trap,” Whaea Janna said.
The posse of Pestees is also on a mission to get more traps and a trail camera for their cause. So far the crew has raised money toward their mission through sausage sizzles and smash burger sales at their school gala.
The most important part was that the young trappers were passionate about the cause.
“We actually get out and do what we like doing.”
DETAILS: To make a donation to the Board of Pestees, call 07 862 4708 or email office@hikutaia.school.nz.
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
