Me vs. My Cat

[avator]

Looks like you got it covered pretty good.

[Moke]

Its been warm and sunny over the last couple of weeks. Until this afternoon, neither Kitty, nor myself, have put anything on our lists in quite a few days, week+?.

Me: One Rat, this evening [/drought]

This evenings Whack-A-Mole Gallery shot.

There is an experiment going on here. If you look at the backstop, you'll see wire grid.  And, along the base board, at its top, you'll see a small pile of bacon bits, bacon jerky in a bottle; Hormels Bacon Bits. 
The wire grid is intended to keep Coyotes from lapping it up. It creates a triangular tunnel that allows Rats to pass through it.
The grid size is a 2"x4" grid. But I overlaid at a 90º perpendicular angle, over the main grid, right where I have dumped the bacon bits. That overlap creates a 2"x2" grid at the bait.

This Rat, by the time that I got to stalking it (not seated with a tripod support), was on the floor eating bird seed. But, according to Sarge, she said that it entered on the base board, and ran towards the bacon, until it encountered the wire. It then jumped to the dirt, and started eating seeds.

[Moke]

The bacon experiment,....  not so good.
It got to a point where I was just washing off old bacon after it sat overnight, all night. So, I tried a little cat kibble, along with the bacon - still, nothing.
So, I tried what they were used to, wild bird seed.
I put out bird seed behind the grid, and, they, the rats, cleaned it out.
So, the net night, I placed three food piles behind the grid, in this order.... a pile of cat kibble - a pile of bird seed - a pile of bacon.
The rats came along that night, and literally pushed the bacon and cat kibble aside, and cleaned out the seeds. They had to climb over bacon, to get to the seeds. In my own personal world,... bacon is king.
Right - seeds it is.

Now, the problem is that these rats seemed to be largely nocturnal, and my basic analog scopes are not very nighttime oriented.
My budget does not allow for fancy laser ranging night vision scopes of $1k or more. I need to work with what I already have. So, I started into studying on what makes a Rat tick. And I find that the scientists believe that they are color blind in the Red-Green color bands. Hmmmm,...

So, I start looking into lighting at Amazon, and, I find a garden lamp that is LED, and, it has four color bands of lighting; Red, Green, Gold, and, White. And, it has a remote control, with adjustments for intensity of lumens, length of operations (runs from 2 to 8 hours of automated time) that will also automatically turn on at apprx. the same time each night; you determine how long they stay on for at the remote.

I bought one, and it arrived yesterday afternoon.


So, I learned the remote functions well enough to operate it in the dark, and, ran an extension cord out to the Whack-A-Moe Shooting Gallery. I then waited until it was well enough dark that I could no longer see my crosshairs. I grabbed my Crosman Backpacker 2289 .22, went out to the patio, just to see how the scope functioned with this new lighting.
I went out onto the patio, and a settled in behind my blind.
Well, within mere minutes of time (under 5 minutes), Rat number one came out.  But, I was not pumped or loaded.  So, this one got a free pass.

So, I went back in the house to pump the rifle up, and load it, because I wanted to be quiet.
I came back out, and, back behind the blind, and almost immediately, another larger Rat came out, and quickly ran towards the seeds, which I had placed behind the grid. It settled onto the seeds, I took aim, and POP!, night Rat number one was in the books. This one is fairly large for this area (we don't have NYC size Rats here).















This lamp from Amazon:
HERE

[avator]

Thanks Mike... I may need to grab a couple of these lights.

[Moke]

My pleasure.
This thing worked so well, it is unbelievable.
Amazon has them as a single light + remote, or as a two pack, and single remote. Single light: $19.00'ish Dual light: $35'ish
They are AC voltage, with a transformer that converts to DC voltage (120vAC->6vDC). I went with these for the remote control.

I also made a new patio blind for this effort as well,.... PVC pipe and fittings, and a piece of remnant shade cloth from the patio cover.

Rodents view:

[Back_Roads]

 Mike I think you have an unfair advantage over your cat now IIR one can get the colored landscape lights in solar versions also. Nice setup on a budget!

[Moke]

Well, last night was interesting.
I went out at dark enough to not have been able to shoot previously; 8:30pm+
I had turned the light on a half hour prior to that.

I saw Rats at the outer edges of the backstop, at either end.
It was fairly obvious that they were jittery about the new light, as they were just peeking over the base boards of the backstop with ears nose and eyes only. A couple of them quickly darted out, and, just as quickly would double back over themselves, and scoot back behind cover.
Then one brave one came darting out, and ran less than a foot. It then stopped, and rose up vertically on its rear legs, and leaned into the wall of the backstop, in a posturing of Put Your Hands UP, and Lean Against the Wall, mo'er fo'er literally vertical in stance, and leaning against the backstop wall.
Well, that was too much to not POP it. So it got popped, and, it flopped back into the shrub line, where the rattlesnakes are. So no trophy pics.
So, two nights, two rats, and a missed shot on a third one (on first night).

I remounted the light to be at 3' high off the ground; mounted in a piece of 1" PVC pipe. This was a tremendous help in getting even light distribution.
I also mounted an awning over the seed/bait spot on the backstop base boards. This is to give them a feeling of cover, as we have a mated pair of owls here.







The upward hump in the branch at the backstop wall is the Up Against the Wall spot, ^.

[Moke]

a change of venue,....
this time, the front yard, not the back patio. I'm re-expanding my horizon.

[WhatUPSbox?]

Mike, You inspired me to set up my own red light district. Basically a taillight assembly with a timer and a battery. The hope is to get the rat population down. The top of the stump gets birdseed and the plywood panel is the backstop. I've been running the light from 8:30 to 10:30. It obviously doesn't bother the possum bros who show up early, but they get a pass. The rats show up past my bed time. Hopefully they will figure out they need to get there before the bros clear out the buffet. I'll run the light all night to see if the rats are bothered.

[Moke]

Wow!
freakishly fascinating.

I nailed another Rat tonight.  But, I didn't just dead-drop it, and it got around behind the backstop.
Well, given my history of rattlesnakes here (17 in twelve years), I won't go chasing hit/dying Rats around the bushes at night, especially not around the backside of the backstop (have caught and released two large ones there over time).
So, I grabbed the large MagLite flashlight, and trash picker-upper tongs, and went to look around for the Rat, in safe regions, where I can see with the flashlight, and what do I find?
yep,.... another Rattler, and this one was after dark.
So, I tried with the same tongs, and, it managed to twist away, and got back into the shrubs just wide of the house.

So,... another Rat, and another Rattler (though it still is out there, and caution will be necessary).

[WhatUPSbox?]

Got one of the rats the other night, it'll take a few for the other one to show up early again. The red light on the white plywood provides a great silhouette.

Rattler, after dark, tongs? I would be full speed reverse. Glad it worked out.
We are a few blocks from the nearest greenbelt so we tend not to get rattles. We get Gopher snakes (good guys) and one time, a Coastal Rosy Boa.

[Moke]

It was a small 2-button Rattler; too small to have created a rattling sound. It was perhaps 15" long?
My first view of it was its tail, and for a second, I thought that it was the Rats tail, as it was exactly where I thought the Rat might have gotten to. Then within that same second of seeing it as a Rats tail, I recognized the "coon tail" banding of a Rattler.

So, today, I decided to further the experiment with lighting by elevating it fairly high above the Gallery.
I clamped a piece of 1" PVC pipe to my rain gutter, and extended that pipe out to the front threshold edge of the ratting Gallery.
The lamp is elevated 8'+ off the ground, and aimed downward.



My wife had grouped together a bunch of towels to wash. So, last night, i had them draped all over the face of my patio blind, and it looked like a modern domesticated housewife Gilly suit. I had a slight slit to see/scope through.
The other two lighting locations are at the vertical pipe pieces.

[WhatUPSbox?]

Mine is set up as an overhead light. I just used a bungee cord to strap the light to an overhead branch. 

[Moke]

Mine is set up as an overhead light. I just used a bungee cord to strap the light to an overhead branch.

Do you power from a battery, or, other power supply (like, 120vAC -> 12vDC)?
I really like the concept.

[WhatUPSbox?]

This was put together from stuff I had. The light is an automotive LED tail or third brake light module that I got surplus from somewhere long ago. I run it off of a small 10AH LiFePo battery at around 13V. I added a 12V timer so it comes on at 8:30 and goes off at 5:30. I keep it on all night so they get used to it and don't just wait for it to go off. Right now I just recharge is separately (uses about 3.5 AH/night). If it becomes more long term, I'll add a small solar panel. Where it is, it would be inconvenient to run 120V over there.
If I didn't have the piece parts, the solar powered version of the landscape light you have would be tempting.

[HunterWhite]

Stan, if it is an old type bulb, 1156,1157 then it will draw about 3 amps. If you change to a led replacement bulb it will be less than ½ amp. It will NOT need any "ballast resistor".


H.T.H.




Hunter

[WhatUPSbox?]

Thanks Hunter. It is an LED module. Draws a little less than 0.4 amps on the brighter circuit.

[Moke]

This one is from my 1:30am pee wake-up call, last night. And back in bed by 1:45am

[WhatUPSbox?]

Nice shooting. Based on my trailcam, the rats are slowly starting to come back after I took the one out. They are still avoiding the top of the stump. I think the possums are good for showing them that all is safe. Hehehe

[Moke]

Tonights early, pre bed:30 trip out to the Red Light District.

Its a nice fat one.