A comparison of trapping efficacy of 11 rodent traps in agriculture

Abstract

A trapping study was conducted to compare the efficacy of 11 different small mammal traps—seven live-traps and four lethal-traps—in capturing pest rodents in agricultural fields and orchards. The 9-year study was carried out in various regions in Israel, and comprised of 648 trap-sets, totalling over 32,000 trap-nights. Mice comprised the great majority (over 85%) of captures, with Tristram’s jirds in the second place (about 8%). Among the traps, the Victor Mouse snap-trap displayed the greatest capturing rate (10.05%), followed by the Sherman live-trap (8.88%) and the Ugglan live-trap (6.28%). Pairwise comparisons were performed only between the four most abundant traps—Victor Mouse, Box, Victor Rat, and Sherman. For mice, the most attractive trap was the Victor Mouse, second in attractiveness was the Sherman, third was the Box live-trap, and the least of the four was the Victor Rat snap-trap. For the larger jirds, the attractiveness hierarchy was reversed, with Victor Mouse being the least attractive. These results shed light on rodent traps and rodent trappability in various agricultural environments and with regard to target species. A careful choice of trap types should be exercised to best address mission goals.