Each year rats unfortunately swim back to the uninhabited island of St Helens from nearby inhabited islands. This is an important island for Manx shearwaters and puffins, so in order to protect them from rats we need to further understand which types monitoring tools and types of bait to use to detect and remove rats. This winter we are taking DNA samples from the rats to see if they are resistant to any baits and to understand which flavoured waxes they prefer (in 2015 it seemed to be aniseed). Today we set up our sampling stations, thanks to volunteers Alex, Amy and Stuart for assisting us today.