Witches kill mice

With a trap without bait, a farmer destroyed millions of hateful mice, from house mice to hamsters and rats. He was dubbed the "witch" to kill rats.

"King of rat-killing", "Professor " or "Witch of rat-killing" are names that favor many people in village 9, Binh Vong village, Van Binh commune, Thuong Tin, Hanoi for Mr. Tran Quang Thieu by the ability to kill rats on all terrain with the baitless trap he created.

Previously, like many other farmers, the main source of income for Thieu's family was mainly based on grain, but despite trying hard, working from morning to night, every year his rice fields and neighbors suffered The mouse broke, the year was lost.

Now living in a spacious house on a hundred-square-meter plot of land, he and his wife still remember the hard time of that time.'We built the property from empty hands with our own intellectual strength with the sale of mousetrap , ' said Thieu.

Mr. Tran Quang Thieu tested the sensitivity of
mouse trap with paper instead of mouse.

In early 2000, people trusted Mr. Tran Quang Thieu to be the production leader and the village deputy, he had a duty to buy a scale of super-prototypal rice seed to the village for the farmers to transplant, this is a promising rice variety. High productivity, so people are excited to cultivate."But when I was sowing, the mice came from everywhere to destroy the wild. I was so worried on the second day that I was determined to take revenge on the rats." The transplant that year, the damage caused by rats to his native people was estimated at 10%.

"Since then, I have always cooked how to erase rats. I do not want to look at the scene of people suffering from crop failure. Saving them is also saving my family , " said Thieu, 59 years old.

Deciding to destroy the destructive animals, Mr. Thieu went to the market to buy all kinds of mousetrap, but this rodent was "calmly" going through the traps, exterminating the rice fields and crops of the villagers. Do not give up, he immediately ambushed the day and night in the field to observe each "path of water" of them.

After a few years of observation, he discovered that mice only ate prey, did not like to die. " I mimic life, the mouse immediately grabbed it. I also tried a live crab and the dead crab was placed in two traps, the mouse only liked live crabs. Still calm them not to eat," said Thieu.

Also due to his hard work, Mr. Thieu discovered the moving characteristics of the mouse to attack them."The rats are not as smart as I thought. He just goes and returns in a single way. Find their way, put traps there, make sure no one escapes."

Also according to "watering" , rats are very active at certain times, from early evening to 21 hours and from 3 to 5 am the next day to morning.

The mousetrap on the market (on the left) and Thieu's mousetrap. (Photo: HT)

So far, "Professor of rodent killing" only needs to hear the cry or see the way the mouse runs is to know what rats are, like what to eat. He said he had captured and formatted 38 species of mice (in the scientific literature of 43 species) and knew each of its characteristics.

"The long-tail mice work in the main house, the mice with the tail and the body are the same length, and the rat is longer than the body, the indoor rat cannot climb, only runs underground and has a shorter tail than the body, and the ground mouse outside the tail is shorter than the body ".

He feated in detail to divide 38 species of rats and found each species has its own characteristics. Hamsters operate from dusk to 3 o'clock the next morning. Mice of hilly forest operate all day, going into 4-5 groups of animals and water rats will go alone.

"The above information about rats is not known to any expert, in one time held by the Ministry of Agriculture, after listening to me, I presented the characteristics of mice and how to kill mice, many speakers in and out. the country was surprised and admired , " he said. Some foreigners also offered to invite him to kill mice for Asian countries.

Knowing the path, behavior and characteristics of each mouse, Thieu thought of how to find "weapons" to destroy them. First, he researched traps on the market and found that his points were limited such as: weak ovens, wide traps and dislocated joints, short and insensitive prey, so rats ran right, left or pulled. the back of the trap does not collapse traps and trap too wide so when falling down, the small mouse will be in the trap but then escape, the trap is very costly.

Since then, he has improved on the disadvantage of becoming an oval semicircle trap. The trap is made of steel, small in size, with a foam counterweight in the middle, a strong spring. Traps are placed on the track of the mouse. The mouse that only touched lightly was a trap."Sticked is impossible to escape" , Mr. Shao "witch" affirmed.

Activity cycle diagram of rats that Mr. Tran Quang
Lots of records to set traps to destroy them more effectively. (Photo: HT)

Thanks to its small size, the rat-killing trap that Mr. Thieu invented can be placed in any terrain on strings, trees, ground and water surface.

But one day, a 70-year-old uncle called Mr. Thieu at 1am, said very heavy words to scold the person who made the trap that made him clasped. During the night, Thieu did not sleep, and he thought of the device as a safety pin for users.

After many years, his mousetrap became more and more complete. Safety latches avoid the risk of hand clamping for users. In particular, his trap does not need to use bait.

How to use Thieu's mousetrap is very simple, everyone can use it. Compared to the traditional semicircular traps, Mr. Thieu's improved mousetrap has a 90% higher killing efficiency, he said confidently.

More than 10 years of research, all that is observed, Mr. Tran Quang Thieu has recorded the rate into a book of more than a thousand pages. He described in detail the activity characteristics of male or female rats; house rats or rats ., at the same time and the right way to trap them.

Every year, he is invited by local authorities in the provinces to teach farmers how to kill rats. Not only does the country know his talent for catching mice, some foreign companies hire him to Thailand and China to help them kill rats. Each of his traps costs between VND 9,500 and VND 17,500.

'I don't remember how many mice I killed, perhaps millions of dead mice under my hand. I am happy to help farmers have bumper crops. I myself have more income, ' said Thieu, who now owns a company that produces mousetrap with an annual sales of up to 5 million units.

With the usefulness of rats without bait, Mr. Tran Quang Thieu received many awards such as the first prize of the 10th National Technical Innovation Contest and the Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister. He has just been invited to television in the "Inventor" program , introducing useful and practical inventions to everyone.