Just thought I’d show y’all my custom bird feeder/pellet trap. “What the heck is that,” I hear you ask? Well, allow me to explain. I live in the Sonoran desert outside of town. We get A LOT of wildlife from quail, dove, hawks, ravens, ground squirrels, rabbits, bobcats, coyotes, badgers, rattlesnakes, and sometimes even deer. They all get a pass from me on my property… all EXCEPT our region’s much hated white-throated wood rat, aka: the dreaded pack rat. 
I’ve lived n this house (my parents’) off and on my entire life and they very generously left it to me after they passed on. Through the years I’ve had to replace thousands of dollars worth of wiring in classic cars and vintage motorcycles due to pack rat damage. They LOVE chewing off the insulation on automobile wiring and have even been known to start fires because of this.
I work in pest control so I’m familiar with the negative effects of poison bait and its horrible consequences up the food chain. I refuse to use it at my home and on the job. For rodents we use Black Cat snap traps. They are tough as nails and when they close on the head/neck of a rodent it is instant lights out. A very quick and clean solution. The problem with them, however, is that they also kill non-target species like birds and snakes.
I came up with this bird feeder/pellet trap as a solution to this and as a way to put a little trigger time in my pack rat elimination strategy. With this, I still get all the wildlife activity on my porch but I can target my nemesis.
Since pack rats are strictly nocturnal, I have a home security camera pointed at it to alert me when the feeder has activity. When it alerts me I go to my “sniper hide” on my porch about 20 yards away and wait for my quarry to appear. Once they show themselves it’s a simple matter of putting one to their dome. One shot, one kill. No non-targeted species are harmed or poisoned, and I get the satisfaction of a little revenge for all of those wiring harnesses I’ve paid for. I use a PARD 007 NV unit on my scopes or I use some strategicly placed green solar lights to help illuminate my crosshairs. This way I can use any rifle in my collection for pack rat duty!
As an added bonus, I toss the dispatched rats down onto my driveway from my porch and the corpses are gone by daybreak. Nothing gets wasted in the desert.
I hope you enjoy my setup and please feel free to use the idea to make your own. In areas with chipmunks and squirrels that do damage to homes, it’s a great way to take care of the problem without alerting the neighbors!
I’ve lived n this house (my parents’) off and on my entire life and they very generously left it to me after they passed on. Through the years I’ve had to replace thousands of dollars worth of wiring in classic cars and vintage motorcycles due to pack rat damage. They LOVE chewing off the insulation on automobile wiring and have even been known to start fires because of this.
I work in pest control so I’m familiar with the negative effects of poison bait and its horrible consequences up the food chain. I refuse to use it at my home and on the job. For rodents we use Black Cat snap traps. They are tough as nails and when they close on the head/neck of a rodent it is instant lights out. A very quick and clean solution. The problem with them, however, is that they also kill non-target species like birds and snakes.
I came up with this bird feeder/pellet trap as a solution to this and as a way to put a little trigger time in my pack rat elimination strategy. With this, I still get all the wildlife activity on my porch but I can target my nemesis.
Since pack rats are strictly nocturnal, I have a home security camera pointed at it to alert me when the feeder has activity. When it alerts me I go to my “sniper hide” on my porch about 20 yards away and wait for my quarry to appear. Once they show themselves it’s a simple matter of putting one to their dome. One shot, one kill. No non-targeted species are harmed or poisoned, and I get the satisfaction of a little revenge for all of those wiring harnesses I’ve paid for. I use a PARD 007 NV unit on my scopes or I use some strategicly placed green solar lights to help illuminate my crosshairs. This way I can use any rifle in my collection for pack rat duty!
As an added bonus, I toss the dispatched rats down onto my driveway from my porch and the corpses are gone by daybreak. Nothing gets wasted in the desert.
I hope you enjoy my setup and please feel free to use the idea to make your own. In areas with chipmunks and squirrels that do damage to homes, it’s a great way to take care of the problem without alerting the neighbors!
