Does anyone have any suggestions for controlling these pesky blighters?
I have an area of about 2 hectares on my farm that I have set aside to be a mixed fruit and natives garden. Lawns separating clusters of citrus, apples, nectarines etc and various lovely native trees and bushes.
It's been going now for about 2 years and everything was going nicely. Until recently when I seem to have been invaded by bandicoots.
I did a rough count today and stopped when the number of freshly dug holes in the lawns and garden beds went over 5 hundred. They're everywhere.
Of course, these wee beasties are protected so anything terminal is not on. But I would be delighted to learn any effective method for discouraging them - or better still encouraging them to emigrate - perhaps to NZ.
Does anyone have any suggestions for controlling these pesky blighters?
I have an area of about 2 hectares on my farm that I have set aside to be a mixed fruit and natives garden. Lawns separating clusters of citrus, apples, nectarines etc and various lovely native trees and bushes.
It's been going now for about 2 years and everything was going nicely. Until recently when I seem to have been invaded by bandicoots.
I did a rough count today and stopped when the number of freshly dug holes in the lawns and garden beds went over 5 hundred. They're everywhere.
Of course, these wee beasties are protected so anything terminal is not on. But I would be delighted to learn any effective method for discouraging them - or better still encouraging them to emigrate - perhaps to NZ.
Peter
Dump the lawn and garden and call it "land for wildlife"... No mowing, no weeding and you get to enjoy sharing the land with the "rightful owners". Fence your trees and call it detente.
My daughter has about a hectare, and has a resident family of bandicoots.
They have been there for years. They come out morning and evening, and she either feeds them by hand or sprinkles the food on the ground.
They LOVE sunflower seeds. Periodically, the latest young ones come along
too. Strangely, their numbers don't seem to increase, and they don't dig
obvious holes, just disappear into the bush between feeds.
raymo
Perhaps you have seen some bandicoots and assumed naturally assumed they live in the holes.
No, Craig. We're at cross-purposes. These holes are not habitats. They're semi-conical in shape and are about the size of your hand, and about 50mm deep. They're foraging for grubs, spiders etc I suppose. But the sheer scale of their earthworks would put a coal-mine to shame.
Dump the lawn and garden and call it "land for wildlife"... No mowing, no weeding and you get to enjoy sharing the land with the "rightful owners". Fence your trees and call it detente.
Yep, that's pretty much what we've done... We have learned to "reframe" the hole digging as "soil aeration", and have grown fond of them.
The hole digging isn't confined to bandicoots either. Galahs and Corellas, etc are also enthusiastic miners for edible roots (?), nodules (?) or other unspecified goodies.
As Raymo said they're fond of sunflower seeds, and they are reputed to love peanut butter too. So perhaps laying out a very long trail of sunflower seeds and peanut butter heading over the hills and far away could lead them out of what has clearly became a bandicoot paradise and into a new Promised Land? OK, maybe not...
Bandicoots rely heavily on their sense of smell so there may well be a particular smell that deters them (EDIT: The ammonia smell of chook manure is supposed to be a deterrent, as are bright lights, but the sheer size of the area to defend is a problem. Fencing off smaller key areas might be one answer.). Possums dislike the smell of mothballs for instance, but that would be far too expensive and ecologically dodgy on a large scale. "Our" bandicoots are fairly easily spooked by sudden movements too, so maybe some sort of scarebandi that was triggered by motion sensors might be devised?
Or engage the services of the local "police" - they enjoy chasing off the "Bandits" (see attached pictures)
Lewis, I just did the math. 500 holes, say 5 holes per beastie per night equals how many cages? And can you imagine emptying out several hundred angry bandocoots at once. Even transporting them., Besides, it's illegal to even trap them - like snakes and kiwis - they're sacred unto the Gods and you can't even think mean thoughts about them.
We have learned to "reframe" the hole digging as "soil aeration", and have grown fond of them. 
