FAQ
Traps should also be furnished with some vegetation cover to prevent predation and/or overexposure to sun, a float in case of flooding, and a mammal ladder, a thin dowel up which mice voles shrews etc can climb, but newts cannot.
A pitfall trap usually consists of a straight sided bucket approximately 300mm in diameter buried in the ground with the top rim flush with the surface.
The bucket should be placed against the membrane or panel of the newt fence. In this way, newts meeting the fence are forced along parallel to the fence until they meet the trap, which they drop in to.
The correct installation of a pitfall trap is one of the easiest things to get wrong in the newt fencing process.
To prevent the buckets being pushed out of the ground by rising ground water, small holes should be drilled in the base to allow the bucket to fill. If a lid is fitted, this should also have a breather hole. It is essential that the soil is well compacted around the rim of the bucket. Voids here provide great opportunities for newts to hide.
Pitfall traps should be provided with lids to prevent fauna from falling into them until the trapping starts. Unmonitored, open traps can create a significant wildlife hazard, and possibly expose the developer to prosecution through negligence.
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