We have a rat problem. We thought it was squirrels, and that seems to have been part of it, because shooting them helped, but there are also rats. We see them sometimes. I trapped one in the chicken coop, but nothing since. We just saw fresh rat poo on my son’s truck frame. I have some 2.5” round body grip traps and a bunch of foot hold traps for fox/coyote. I caught the one rat in a foot trap and it nearly cut it in half. That rat weighed about a pound or close to it. The other that we have seen, if it is only one, is about the same size. They seem to be very shy of any kind of trap. I had to use a “dirt set” to catch the one in the coop. I put it under the hole and covered it with straw and it stepped right in it. The rest of the traps seem to be left alone. We found a nest of baby rats when cleaning under the rabbit hutches, about 10 babies. We got rid of them. I would like to hear from anyone who has successfully trapped rats what the best way is. I have heard cooked bacon is irresistible. I set a pipe set in the barn and they clean up around it but will not go in. I am tempted to set one outside buried under some hay or straw and see if they will go in. We have a bucket trap set up in the coop with peanut butter and dog food and it has been empty for over a week. I would love to use a thermal and get them at night, but those things are $$$$. I am looking at thermal scopes and would consider one if it is decent and under 1k.
Good ones are expensive yes. There’s cheap ones on Amazon etc but I’m not well versed in night vision scopes. On the bright side you’d be using it at fairly close range so a cheapy may work. What were you considering mounting it on? They say air rifles are very hard on scopes because they have a double reversed recoil. Also something I’m not well versed on.
I wonder if you need to de-scent the traps and also make sure your hands do not touch them unless wearing de-scented gloves.
Spring powered air rifles are hard on scopes because the lenses are usually only braced for recoil in one direction. The recoil is very harsh going forward because the piston is very heavy. I used to have a couple and sold them to get my pcp airgun. I would be putting the thermal on my 22lr and/or 22-250. The 22lr would be for rats and the 22-250 for coyotes.
Is poison an option? My cousin raises chickens and has rat problems, they get smart real quick to traps. She uses a slow acting poison as rats are smart enough to associate fast acting ones with the bait and learn to avoid it. Slow acting apparently they can't associate with eating it and then dying. Good luck...they are smart!
I’ve been battling them for years. I found it easier to cut off their food source than to keep shooting/trapping them. Once access is gone, they’re forced to move on. They breed rapidly. They are incredibly intelligent and a new trap might nab one or two, but the survivors learn quickly how to rob a trap without springing it.
We had a rat or 2 in the 10 years we had chickens. They are definitely hard to catch. I had to bury thick gauge wire all around the exit of the coup into the run to prevent them from tunneling in to get to the food. That worked for me but no advice for your situation. I’ve watched vids of the thermal image sniping. Looked like fun, at least for a while. Good luck!
We caught it! Not sure if there are more, but at least we got another one. I shot it 3 times just to make sure it was dead. It stepped in one of the foot traps.
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Glad to see you got it. For the record, I avoid poisons. Too much of a risk for poisoning others going up the food chain.
Rats are everywhere. If they find a food source they'll move in nearby and multiply. Usually you don't see them as there are only as many as the food source will support. I had a neighbor that stopped cutting his lawn (coincidentally when his son went off to college) and all the grass and weed seeds from his lawn I started seeing rats. Luckily he moved away after 3 years of that. I was cutting part of his lawn but decided to plant trees there instead.
An IR scope works well. I would recommend using segmenting ammo in your 22lr if that is the route you go. Solids & hollow points will blow right thru the rat. I have had great luck with CCI Quiets on varmits. These are a low velocity 770fps-790fps. Winchester silver tips work well also but they are around 1070fps. I mounted my ATN IR scope on my Ruger 17HMR & it works great for rats. I shoot them around grain bins & in the grain bin fans & have no issues with fan/bin damage. The fragmenting tips won’t be as destructive on objects behind the victim as a 36-40grain pill passing thru the vermin. I was going to mount my IR on a 22lr but the 17HMR works great on lots of critters. Grandad always said if you see a rat at night there are 10 more & if you see one in daylight there are 100 more. I put suppressors on my 22lr & 17HMR. The 22lr & cci quiets is not much loader than a pellet gun. The 17HMR isn’t as quiet but it drops the decibels significantly.
I would have thought a 17 would do a lot of damage in bin steel. I know the lower rings are thicker, but wow.
A regular projectile would but he mentioned using the fragmenting bullets and that makes all the difference.
Don’t get me wrong if you miss it will leave a hole, I have only missed one on the outside rim & it left a small hole. That was in the drying floor ring & I siliconed it up. I am referring to collateral damage after taking out your intended target. With fragmenting tips, pass thru debris is small enough & lost enough velocity that it poses a lot less threat to background material. I have shot raccoons with 22Lr & plucked slugs out of or perforated several unintended structures/objects. The fragmenting tips also leave little chance of the target meandering off & stinking things up when they die. That 17-20grain bullet doesn’t leave much mass after it fragments. The cheapest scenario for you would be to mount a small red light on your 22lr. My son just has a small red light ( flashlight with red lense ) on his 17HMR & you can pickup rats with it. Some standard scopes pickup red light really well others not so much. I use my sniper hog light as a flashlight to quickly & periodically try catch a glimpse of them & then use the non- visible red light ir on my scope after they are located. It hurts my eyeballs to look thru the internally lighted scope for extended periods of time at night.
Another thing about chooting rats at night, I usually sit in the pickup & rest the gun on the window. It keeps the wind off, helps with bug control as well. Once you figure out where the runs are your window already has your gun at the right height so there isn’t much movement needed to sight your the vermin in. Let us know how you get along either trapping or chooting & hopefully you get them cleaned out.
My brother always parked his semi & trailer by his grain bins, it really got to stinking this spring. He cleaned out the dog box under the sleeper & found a mouse Next but it kept stinking & getting worse. He popped open the glove box & about jumped out of his skin, there was a huge dead rat in it. Lol.
