Here’s why.
You may already know that a very good RNZ four-part documentary came out in June, called “Fight for the Wild”. It showed very clearly the problems that New Zealand’s environment faces due to invasive mammal predators, and it also showed people how they could help protect our wonderful islands by doing predator control on their own properties and in their communities.
Well, a huge number of people in Franklin watched that documentary and got really motivated, because attendance at our last Hub day in Pukekohe in June was off the charts. At least three times the usual amount of people turned up, and honestly it could have been more, because I was so busy demonstrating traps and bait stations and helping people choose their pest control materials that I had no time to cound exactly how many people there were. What I do know is we had four people working for Predator Free Franklin going for four solid hours without stopping that morning, and we gave away all of our bait, traps and bait stations, right down to the last bag of bait. We’ve got nothing left.
It’s a good problem to have, because it shows how many people are getting into pest control in our district, but it does mean we haven’t got anything to give away at the moment. So we’re very sorry, but we have to cancel the Hub day at Farrell’s nursery this July. We will hold another hub day there as soon as we have re-ordered everything in bulk.
If you’ve already got a bait station from us and you’re close to running out of bait, then you can buy rat and possum bait from Farmlands and Farm Source stores. You can also buy blocks of rat bait from most hardware stores or supermarkets, and it’s just fine to put these blocks into the black Pied Piper rat bait stations. The rats may even enjoy a bit of variety!
