Friend of mine gave me some advice last year when dealing with squirrels in my soffits. If you break up the poison up, they'll eat it and not carry it away. Not a fan of poison myself because some other critter higher up the food chain might eat the dead animal and then that animal gets poisoned. He had a huge rat problem (final total was close to 100 rats ) and told me that poison, and rat traps with peanut butter on them were how he finally eliminated them.
We have cats and there are eagles, owls, and hawks nearby. We know the cats eat the rats, so poison is not an option. We tried that ratx stuff and they ate some but we didn’t see much change. Traps have been unsuccessful as well, even baited with slim jim. I did get a chance to try out my light tonight. It works pretty well. I got one rat and he didn’t seem to notice the light. I had it as low as it would go and had to focus the light a bit to prevent it from shining on the wall of my blind and blooming out the scope. I could see into the coop quite well and had a pretty detailed picture. The rat tested for danger by poking his head out a few times and then walked right up to the feeder, where he met his end. I think the dimmer was just what I needed to keep the rats from sensing the light. The light is plenty bright at the lowest setting and the scope has to dim the image if I turn the light up, so I think it is just right. They say rats can’t see the color red because they are dichromates, seeing mostly blue and green. Those are the cone cells. There are also rod cells that just sense light and allow black and white vision. Rats must have rods that are sensitive to IR and near IR light, because they can tell when the (extremely dim) red light is on or off in the coop, and they can definitely see the 850nm light on the scope as well as the 940nm light when used at higher brightness levels. That kind of sensitivity is amazing. They might not see the red color of the light, but they do see the light, or at least sense that it is there if the intensity is high enough.
Nothing tonight. I sat twice and didn’t see anything. The action has slowed to a crawl and some nights are a bust. There is no more crawling noise in the walls of the coop, and the smell of rat is pungent when you open the door. I am sure there are quite a few dead ones in the walls. We have noticed a few holes under the rabbit hutches, so we will be setting up a few game cameras to try and see what is going on. It could be squirrels or mice, but my gut says it could be a few deserted rats. They can’t hide for long. Our outdoor cat continues to prowl for rats. She would not touch them before we started shooting them, but seems to have developed a taste for them. I have to admit, there is a LOT more meat on a rat than a mouse. I brought home a 10x14 shed and still have to get it off the trailer. Once that is set up, I could use it as a hide to watch the rabbit pens. We use strings of lights along the tops of the rabbit hutches to give ambient lighting at night. The rabbits love it and we can see what we are doing without needing to hold a light. I would have a VERY clear and bright image with the night vision. No rat would stand a chance. My wife is planning to release a new book in a month or two, and if things go well, it would be nice to get a thermal scope. Then I can put my son on one side with the NV and I can be on the other with the thermal and have a 60-90° crossfire angle so they can’t hide behind anything.
Another option is to get a few sticky pads. I dislike using them due to animal suffering. Then I remind myself they are vermin.
