Figure 1.—An automatic garbage can, always closed
Neatness is of prime importance in keeping a place free from, rats, and providing facilities for keeping it neat should be considered part of the rat-proofing program. An incinerator, which can be made from a discarded metal drum or rolled-up poultry netting, is convenient for burning all trash and combustible waste; and a deep, covered pit with a trapdoor will take care of tin cans and other noncombustibles, if it is not practicable to haul them away at regular intervals. A covered garbage can is also indispensable on farms where table scraps are not fed directly to poultry or hogs. ([Fig. 1.]) Raised platforms, 18 or more inches high, should be provided upon which to pile lumber or other materials that if placed on the ground would afford shelter for rats. ([Fig. 2.])
Large piles of cut stove wood on many northern farms become rat infested. The same is true of manure piles adjoining barns and, to a lesser extent, of hay and straw stacks near farm buildings. These do not provide food and are attractive to rats for harbors only if near a source of food supply; moving them to a place at some distance from where foodstuffs are handled will usually solve the problem.
Stone walls at times furnish excellent harborage for rats but, like the woodpile, only if there is ample food near by. Stone walls supporting embankments and driveways on sloping farmsteads are most frequently infested, and when this occurs the inviting openings can usually be readily closed with small stones and cement.
Ditch banks often are a source of rat infestation, but in most climates during the warmer months only. The rodents concentrate in such places because they are less likely to be disturbed there. Rat proofing the ditch bank consists merely of burning or otherwise destroying the protective vegetation. This, of course, affords only temporary relief and should not be considered strictly rat proofing.
The use of concrete in the construction of most farm buildings is usually the best means of permanently excluding the rat. Fortunately, many of the fundamentals of rat proofing are also principles of good construction. As am example, in order to support a building properly, the foundation should extend well into the ground below the frost line; rat proofing likewise requires that the foundation wall extend at least 2 feet below the surface. Rats seldom burrow deeper than 2 feet unless natural passageways assist. Foundation walls should project a foot or more above the ground in order to protect the wooden parts of the building, and this also lessens the opportunity for rats to gnaw through the wall. A rat is not likely to cling to the exposed exterior of a building a foot above the ground while it gnaws a hole through wooden sheathing or siding. It would do so very quickly, however, if such siding extended to the ground, where its work could be under cover of vegetation or behind some object, particularly when the siding becomes somewhat rotted, as would soon happen were it close to the ground.
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