In illustration of the effectiveness of traps, it may be related that a year or two ago a large department store in Washington experienced heavy losses of gloves, lace curtains, and other merchandise from rat depredations. For several months the damages amounted to from $10 to $30 nightly. After many unsuccessful attempts to abate the nuisance the managers were advised to try the improved traps. As a result 136 rats were killed during the first twenty nights, when the losses practically ceased, and the method has been continued in the store ever since with satisfactory results.
Guillotine traps should be baited with small pieces of Vienna sausage (Wienerwurst) or bacon. The trigger wire should be bent inward to bring the bait into proper position to permit the fall to strike the rat in the neck, as shown in the illustration (fig. 1).
Other excellent baits for rats are oatmeal, toasted cheese, toasted bread (buttered), and sunflower or pumpkin seeds. When seed, grain, or meal is used with a guillotine trap, it may be placed on the trigger plate, or the trigger wire may be bent outward and the bait sprinkled under it.
Fig. 1.—Method of baiting guillotine trap.
Wire cage traps (French) also are useful for catching rats, but in the long run the kinds recommended above are much more effective. While trapping, all other food should be removed and the trap bait should be changed often. Rats are very suspicious, and baits and traps should be handled as little as possible. Increased success may be secured both in trapping and poisoning if the rats are fed for a night or two with the kinds of food to be used for bait.
USE OF FERRETS AND DOGS.
A ferret is useful for the purpose of driving rats out of burrows and other hiding places so that dogs can capture them. An experienced person with dogs and ferrets trained to work together can kill many rats when they are numerous. But the amateur ferreter is likely to be greatly disappointed.
In the rice fields of the far East the natives build numerous piles of brush and rice straw and leave them for several days until many rats have taken shelter in them. A portable bamboo inclosure several feet in height is then set up around each pile in succession and the straw and brush are thrown out over the top while dogs and men kill the trapped rodents. Large numbers are killed in this way, and the plan with modifications may be utilized in America with satisfactory results. A wire netting of fine mesh may be used for the inclosure. The scheme is applicable at the removal of grain, straw, or hay stacks, as well as brush piles.