So like many homesteads we had a pest control problem. When we first moved on our 10 acres it is mostly wooded so we started clearing areas and putting out pens and small padlocks for livestock. Before to long with the abundance of feed, especially left over in the hog poop we started to notice an increase in pest specifically large rats. They were mostly out by the pens running around here and there so no big deal we are on a homestead in a wooded area. Then I started to see a bunch of baby rats following momma rat around so we decided to put out traps. Traps I say because when you have livestock using poison for rats that will end up dead in your hog water dish is not a great option so we did traps. Large live traps, snap traps, stair way to heaven 5 gal bucket drowning traps, and just about any traps out there in the market or homemade on You Tube. They all worked to a point but the rats would get smart fast and after you caught 2 or 3 you would have to change up the traps again along with the bait. To keep it short they were breeding faster then we were killing them.
I thought poison must be the only way so I started looking around at options. Rat X is supposed to not harm other animals which is great for livestock but I bet if they carry it off into my rabbit cages since they are both rodents it would still kill them and we have foxes along with barred owls around so I didn't want to kill any other animals besides the rats. We were very careful to put the poison in the shed areas where other animals would not be and tried to bait the rats. It worked to a point also but it is expensive and they would poop in it and then the other rats would not go for it. We even did the old flour and concrete mix for the rats and we killed some but others were just leaving big mounds of concrete poop around. WTF??? Mutant Rats? They would even run our Guinea hens from the trees at night.
I finally got tired of it and went down to Walmart and got a Gamo .177 air rifle. This thing is very quiet with the Gamo ammo so I could even use it over night when my baby was sleeping without waking her up. This was fantastic and I started shooting rats I would catch running around up in the trees and on top of my rabbit cages with a flashlight and scope on the air rifle that it came with. It worked well and I was killing several a night but still not happy with it.
I ordered a Yukon Nvrs Tactical 2.5X50 with internal focusing night vision riflescope. Now this is not the greatest night vision scope at all. It works but it really never produces are clear image but it is enough to get the job done. You are only taking head shots on rats anyways and with this your really just looking for the glow of the eyes anyways so it does what I needed it to do.
Jackpot! I could shot rats while they were calmly moving around in the tree or on the cages, sometimes even just sitting on the limbs without scaring the others away with a light. I sat out there over night several nights and killed over 50 my first week. The rats would still get wise though and I would change my times I would pop out in the night and shot 4 or 5 and then head back in for an hour or two before sneaking back around again. I have not been able to find a rat to shoot in over 6 months so the Gamo just sits but worked very well for what I needed it to do. This will also work well for just about any other small animals.
