A five-acre block at Jamberoo, Kangaroo Valley or up on the Highlands is not a big suburban yard. The pressure comes from outside the fence, from paddocks, bush and creek lines, and the animals doing the damage are bigger and smarter than the ones we deal with in Wollongong kitchens. This page is about what we can do on that kind of property, and just as importantly what we can't.
What we handle
Rodents around sheds, feed and stables. The biggest rural job by a long way. Grain, chook feed, horse pellets and hay stacks feed a rat population that moves into the house as soon as the weather turns. We bait in lockable stations, trap in the buildings, and go through the feed store and the sheds for the gaps that need closing. Same approach as our rodent control, on a bigger site.
Rabbits. Warrens along embankments, under sheds and in blackberry, and the damage in the vegetable garden and around young trees. We assess the warrens and treat them, and advise on fencing the areas that matter most.
Foxes and feral cats. Cage trapping around the chook run, the shed or wherever they're working, set and checked daily by us. Steel-jaw traps are illegal in NSW and nobody should be offering them. Alongside the trapping we look at den sites, harbour (long grass, timber stacks, rubbish) and the fencing on whatever they're getting into, because a fox-proof chook run does more over a year than any trap.
Rats and mice in the house on a rural block, same as anywhere.
What sits with Local Land Services, not with us
NSW landholders have a general biosecurity duty to manage pest animals on their land, and some of that is done through programs we're not part of.
- 1080 baiting. Bait is distributed only through Local Land Services to accredited landholders, with notification and distance rules. If foxes or wild dogs on your block need a baiting program, your LLS office runs that, on 1300 795 299.
- Wild dogs and deer. Deer are a feral pest in NSW and can be controlled on private land by someone with a firearms licence and the landholder's permission. That's shooting, not pest control, and it needs a licensed shooter.
- Feral pigs and goats. Same: LLS coordinated programs and licensed shooters.
We'll tell you straight up if your problem is in that column. There's a longer version of the line between the two in feral animals on Illawarra acreage: what a pest controller can and can't do.
How the job is set up
We start at the boundary and the outbuildings, not the back door, because that's where the problem lives. You get a plan for the sheds, the feed, the fencing and the house, and a quote for the lot after we've walked the block. Kiama, Gerringong, Berry, the Shoalhaven and the Southern Highlands are all covered.
Common questions
- What feral animals can a pest controller actually deal with?
- On a rural or acreage property we handle rodents around sheds, feed stores and outbuildings, rabbit control on the block, and cage trapping of foxes and feral cats within NSW animal welfare rules. We advise on den removal, harbour clean-up and exclusion fencing for chook runs and yards. Wild dogs, deer and 1080 baiting programs sit with Local Land Services and licensed shooters, and we'll tell you so rather than take the job.
- Do you use 1080 baits?
- No. In NSW 1080 bait is supplied only through Local Land Services to landholders who hold the required accreditation, with distance and neighbour notification rules attached. If baiting is the right answer for foxes or wild dogs on your block, that runs through your Local Land Services office, not through us. We can do the trapping, rodent and rabbit work around it.
- Is trapping foxes and feral cats legal in NSW?
- Yes, when it's done to the rules. Cage traps and padded-jaw traps are permitted in NSW; steel-jaw traps are not. We use cage traps. Traps have to be checked daily and animals dealt with humanely under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. We set, check and clear the traps ourselves and we don't leave them running unattended over a weekend.
- Do you cover the Southern Highlands?
- Yes, for acreage jobs. Our regular run is Helensburgh to Nowra along the coast, and we take feral and rural work up over the escarpment into the Southern Highlands by arrangement. Tell us where the block is and what's on it when you ring and we'll quote it as one visit.