House Rats and Mice

Washington, D. C. October, 1917
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WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1917

The rat is the worst animal pest in the world.
From its home among filth it visits dwellings and storerooms to pollute and destroy human food.
It carries bubonic plague and many other diseases fatal to man and has been responsible for more untimely deaths among human beings than all the wars of history.
In the United States rats and mice each year destroy crops and other property valued at over $200,000,000.
This destruction is equivalent to the gross earnings of an army of over 200,000 men.
On many a farm, if the grain eaten and wasted by rats and mice could be sold, the proceeds would more than pay all the farmer's taxes.
The common brown rat breeds 6 to 10 times a year and produces an average of 10 young at a litter. Young females breed when only three or four months old.