Managing animal pests - SOPs and technical documents
Find DOC's standard operating procedures (SOPs) and other technical documents that are used when planning animal pest operations.

Documents on this page:

Operational planning for animal pest operations SOP

Standard operating procedure (PDF, 1,570K)
This SOP supports effective planning of animal pest operations for conservation. Proper planning helps to achieve the project's desired conservation outcomes. The SOP outlines the step-by-step compulsory standards for planning, carrying out and reporting on pest operations.

Field trials for animal pest operations SOP

Standard operating procedure for trial work (PDF, 687K)
This SOP sets out a process that allows us to plan, coordinate, and share results from trial work in a more effective and efficient way. When this SOP is followed, our trial results are more likely to stand up to scientific scrutiny and the information can be used to improve our management with greater confidence.

Abridged status list

Abridged status list (XLS, 90K)
This document list all pesticide uses approved for broad scale use in New Zealand. It shows whether or not they are accepted for use on public conservation land and any compulsory restrictions or policies that may apply.

Abridged status list of traps (XLS, 48K) 
This document list trap systems that may be considered for trapping mammal pests in operations on public conservation land, and includes any compulsory restrictions that may apply.

Caution period calculator

Caution period calculator (XLS, 185K)
This calculator helps pest managers decide on an estimated caution period to put into their application to use pesticides on public conservation land. A caution period is the timeframe (usually the number of months) after the last date of bait application (or bait removal) that the risk of pesticide residues to the public is expected to have passed.

Code of practice for aerial 1080 in kea habitat

Code of practice for aerial 1080 in kea habitats  (PDF, 1,430K)
This code of practice sets out the compulsory performance standards that must be followed for aerial 1080 operations in areas where kea may be present on public conservation land.

Pesticide information reviews

DOC maintains a series of information reviews to support risk assessments and assessments of environmental effects relating to the use of vertebrate pesticides.

See also Vertebrate pesticide toxicology manual (poisons) (PDF, 444K)

Current agreed best practice for rodent eradication

Rat eradication using aerial baiting (PDF, 552K)
This document provides detailed information about eradication design, planning and methods that should be applied to operational planning for eradicating rats using aerial broadcast of poison baits.

Mouse eradication using aerial baiting (PDF, 334K)
This document provides detailed information about eradication design, planning and methods that should be applied to operational planning for eradicating mice using aerial broadcast of poison baits.

Disclaimer

We are making the document/s available outside DOC to share our best practice. Any use by members of the public is at their own risk and DOC disclaims all liability in reference to that risk.

The document/s were written for DOC staff and may include DOC-specific terms and reference internal documents only accessible to DOC staff. You may need further help to do the work described and also need to get authorisation. Caveats may apply.