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.
Hey, that might be a good activity for his get-together! Jerry Clower told some good stories about rat killin's.
Have not seen any in a while, but it is cold. Ow and they are pretty scared after losing about 50 of their comrades. I suspect there are a couple holed up in the coop and under the rabbit pens. No sounds or anything, just open holes that get reopened and missing feed from the ground and feeder. It’s too cold to sit now, so I have to wait for warmer weather or place traps and hope one is dumb enough to go for it. (Not likely, but it’s cold so they need food, so maybe) I still have my round body grip traps that I could try again… it’s just a pain to try to mount them to anything. I’ll think of something. If they are still here for the gtg, feel free to bring night vision and thermal and we’ll set up a crossfire and wipe em out. Hell, we can even smoke em out.
Reading that reminds me when I was a kid. We had a shed at my parents house that we kept rabbits in. Not sure what critter made home under that shed, maybe ground squirrels? Anyway I can remember the old tractor getting backed up and the exhaust hooked to one of the holes in the ground. Then all the guys stood around with their guns in case some tried to make a break for it. They got gassed in the hole.
My Grandfather & uncle used an 8n Ford for that for ground hogs. Except there were a couple of dogs that grabbed whatever came out.
That's funny. We had an 8n too. Made it easy to hook up to the ground with the exhaust going down and out back rather than just a stack. Plus she was a smoker, not a diesel lol, so you could kinda find the other holes.
There are still a few at the grain bins here but the are damm leery. The dogs get one occasionally. At my brothers bin site the rats are plentiful, so there plenty of shooting there if I get time. I use little giant mole killers ( smoke bombs ) occasionally, they seem to work. An athlon thermal should be showing up here any day now. If things work out this summer, a trip to Wisconsin would be great.
My uncle used an old Briggs engine...took the muffler off n screwed a piece of pipe in, rigged that up into one of the many rat holes around the chicken coop...a little oil added to the gas made it easy to see all their holes...we were standing by with bb guns loaded to pop any excapees...big fun.
The vacuum trap is cool, but spendy. Wheels have been turning, and I think I’m going to make a rat zapper. I remembered that I have a neon transformer that makes 12-15k volts. Commercial zappers are close to 10,000 volts, so I can definitely zap those suckers. Just have to make the box and alternating grate floor. Have to figure out a timer to turn off the power after 2 minutes. (Mouse zappers are 30 seconds and rat zappers are 2 minutes)
