Tamathli Plantation has been using the TMS system since the first of the year (2009). I am convinced that by reducing operating costs we will pay for the complete system in less than two years. We have doubled the number of traps we run and still spend substantially less time “checking” the traps each day. The system is working well and we have made the trapping changes – improvements you have suggested. We are using plastic eggs with holes drilled in the ends, filled with cotton balls that we have puts drops of trapping “stinkem” on. In each trap the eggs are placed on a piece of 2 x 4 (with a hole drilled in one side so the egg will stay in place) thus providing critters with a better view of the egg. Because of our more efficient trapping we are continuing to catch animals at the same rate we where achieving when we had one-half as many traps. The entire system including transmitters and receiver is working well. I would be happy to show our system to anyone interested.
We began using the trap monitoring system about two years ago and according to our break-even analysis, it has already paid for itself. It simply takes less labor and vehicle cost to drive directly to two or three traps versus running the entire route of 115. There is also the opportunity cost of freeing up an extra worker and equipment to accomplish other projects. Another critical benefit is the freedom to place traps deep in the predator travel corridors. Before we had the TMS we placed our traps along the smooth well traveled roads where we could zip by and visually check traps on the fly. Now that the traps are in the travel corridors, our trap line has become much more efficient.
We were simply amazed at the range of the scanner. To say our property has a high degree of topographical relief is an understatement. Yet the scanner picks up tripped traps at the lowest point on the plantation, which is over four miles away.
We have been very pleased with American Wildlife Enterprises and the degree of service and support they give their clients. Brad Mueller is a renowned quail biologist who is not the least bit shy about pointing out how you can improve your quail habitat. Thanks to his advice and our Trap Monitoring System, our bird population has grown by seven fold in three short years. We could not be more pleased.
We run 400 box traps on a year-round basis and consider the predator control program to be an integral part of our quail management success. Five years ago we started with a 74% visitation rate on our predator survey and virtually no quail. After 5 intensive years of understory management, feeding and aggressive trapping we have dropped our visitation rate to around 10% and have increased our wild quail population to around 1.5 birds per acre. We have been using the TMS for 3 years and completely paid for the system within 1.5 years of implementation. Rosemary has over 90 miles of rough trap lines and it would be physically impossible to “run” the entire line on a daily basis. The use of the TMS system allows us to effectively have one more employee that can be used for management activities as opposed to checking 400 traps on a daily basis to capture 4-8 animals.
Brad has been a pleasure to work with and has provided excellent service whenever we needed it. I am amazed that the system has not caught on faster in the plantation community. Once people see the tremendous cost savings of the program I believe it will be implemented wherever an aggressive, consistent trapping program is needed. I strongly recommend the TMS and would be delighted to talk with anyone concerning the merits of this program.
We are happy to report that TMS has helped Rosemary, LLC eliminate the vast majority of our varmint predators. As important, the radio telemetry system has reduced our committed labor costs by more than 2/3rds and our capital costs by almost half when compared to our prior trapping efforts. In addition to greatly improving our productivity, the TMS approach also insures that we remove trapped animals in a most timely manner.
We cannot recommend Brad Mueller and TMS more strongly for those interested in a comprehensive and effective program for controlling varmints. I will be happy to talk to potential users of your services. They can contact me at 901-761-2474.
This is our third year using the TMS system on Mt Pleasant. I can say without a doubt that we would not be enjoying our quail management success without it. Mount Pleasant is an island of quail habitat and has three miles of boundary along a river swamp. For the last three years we have seen our predator index steadily decline with this year being the absolute best (2%).
Prior to using the TMS system, we had one of our four employees doing nothing but checking 100 traps on a daily basis. He was covering a 25-mile circuit (9,000 miles annually), which took him 8 1/2 hours a day (3,100 man hours annually). If he had to rework the traps, bait or remove animals, he could not keep up on a daily basis. Now that we are using the TMS system, my trapper can check 100 traps before we make a pot of coffee in the morning and only spends about 30 minute “running” the traps.
When we add up the man-hours, vehicle fuel, maintenance, and all the other costs associated with our old style of trapping, we recovered the total cost of the system within 16 months of purchase. While this seems very efficient, imagine what the return on the investment will be in 5 or 10 years. The bottom line is that I have effectively added an employee by using the TMS program.
We have been running 100 traps with the TMS system for approximately 2 years and have been very pleased with the cost savings benefit of this system. Our traps are spread over 5000+ acres and the TMS system saves us a lot of man-hours. For one man to run our entire trap line would take 6-8 hours each day. With the TMS system it takes only minutes to scan all the traps. We travel only to the traps that have been tripped, thus saving a tremendous amount of time.
Not all of our traps are along the roadside, so the time saved in not having to walk to traps is substantial. The TMS system has improved our trapping results exponentially and I would recommend it to anyone serious about reducing their predator population.