The smoke gun crafted by Bùi Văn Tùng (33 years old, Hải Phòng) utilizes sawdust and dry straw as fuel, designed specifically for exterminating and capturing rats in their burrows.
Currently, there are several types of smoke guns imported from South Korea and China available on the market, but they are expensive (ranging from 15 to 30 million VND each). These devices use both gasoline and oil to generate smoke. Drawing from knowledge gained during his studies at the University of Industrial Economics, Tùng and his colleagues sought to improve smoke devices for more effective rat hunting at a lower cost.
Device for rat smoke application. (Photo: AMS)
The smoke gun improved by Tùng features a compact design, consisting of a combustion chamber and a blower, wrapped in a layer of insulated stainless steel mesh and equipped with a strap.
To operate, users simply need to tightly compress the fuel materials (rice husks, sawdust, dry straw, dry grass) into the auxiliary core. After placing the auxiliary combustion core into the combustion chamber, they can ignite it and blow air by pressing the trigger. Here, the trigger acts as the power switch for the blower. When pressed, the gun blows a dense smoke stream with high pressure into the corners of the burrow, causing the rats to suffocate and flee.
Tùng explained that when detecting signs of rat footprints and freshly dug soil, one should use the smoke gun continuously, sealing all ventilation holes along with the burrow entrance. After a while, the rats will suffocate inside the burrow due to the high concentration of smoke and elevated temperatures. This method is particularly effective during the rat breeding season or in September and October when rats gather in their burrows.
Hunting rats in the fields using the smoke device. (Video: AMS-VN).
The device can also capture live rats. “Simply place traps at ventilation holes or entrances, blow smoke into the burrow for 3-5 minutes, and the rats will gradually emerge,” he added.
According to Tùng, the compression of the fuel materials affects the burning time. Generally, a mixture of rice husks and sawdust has the longest burning time, while straw and dry grass burn shorter but produce more smoke. A notable feature of this device is that it operates for 4-6 hours depending on the type of fuel used, without the need for continuous refueling, and can adjust the smoke output by varying the trigger pressure.
After six months of experiments, the team successfully developed a sprayer with a combustion core that can compress the fuel without continuous ignition. The gun is also easy to disassemble and replace, making it suitable for various environments such as high fields, low-lying rice paddies, and fruit orchards. The price is approximately 2 million VND each.
Bùi Văn Tùng introduces the rat smoke gun in the fields. (Photo: NVCC).
Phạm Thục, an agricultural officer in Tiền Hải district, Thái Bình, one of the first customers to access the rat smoke device, praised its user-friendliness. “I recently sent the village’s rat extermination team for a session of digging and blowing smoke, and they caught 80 rats, both adults and young ones,” Thục told a reporter. He also shared a short clip of using the smoke gun on his personal page, garnering over 1 million views and hundreds of comments.
Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Hương, Deputy Director of the Center for the Development of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Hải Phòng’s Department of Science and Technology, rated the product as quite innovative and practical for farmers and cooperatives due to its ease of use and mobility, utilizing readily available fuel resources. “An external ignition makes the machine lighter and safer; the cost is suitable for farmers,” she noted, adding that the device addresses the shortcomings of machines imported from South Korea and China.
