Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1878 — Exterminating Rats and Mice. [ARTICLE]

Exterminating Rats and Mice.

Perhaps the best exterminator of rats and mice is a screeching old winter like thatof 1874-’75, which occurred at the termination of the droughty period, and beginning as far back as 1870. Unlike cats, dogs, wolves, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, etc., rats ana mice will not stand a great degree of cold for any considerable length of time, whether their nests are uisturbed and broken up or not; and the ultimate consequence was, that after the conclusion of the scries of cold winters which ended in the first quarter of 1875, rats and mice had become a comparatively scarce article in the farming districts of the Northwest. But since that date, there have been two warm winters and only one moderately cold, and at the present time, rats and mice swarm in stacks, corn-shocks and corn-cribs—-about, in, and under barns, sheds, stables, cellars and dwelling-houses, and so far during the mild weather of this winter have aqne an immense amount of destruction to corn in shock standing in the field. Since they can easily and readily be got at and compassed when nesting in, or burrowing under corn-stocks, an active terrier-aog, and an equally active man with a spade and club, will, when working together and with a good mutual understanding, make away with them rapidly. The samo manner of destroying them is a good, one, tod. where they gather in woodpiles, heaps of brush or rubbish, or heaps or stacks of grain or hay, and is far preferable to attempts at either poisoning or trapping them; neither of which methods is likely to succeed except in the hands of an expert. For ages rats have pitted all their wit and all their cunning against a small portion only of those two (jualities belonging to man—Mid up to this time the advantage in the contest has been on their side. But for the protection of houses and oollars, barns, sheds and outhouses, to say nothing of stacks and corn-cribs, from the depredations and intrusions of these vermin, there is., nothing equal to the employment of their natural enemy, the cat—one, two or three male cats, according to the piaeof the premises and work to be done—care being taken to procure the kittens of large and healthy mothers, and fixing them early in life, so they will stay at home and attend to their business. ::: :1 ....... There are. to be sure, few cats, however large and vigorous they may be, wiiling to attack a full-grown rat when they can avoid the contact; but they hunt and destroy the young ones all the more actively, for the reason, perhaps, that, they have so strong a dislike for their parents. IP . Very little success usually attends attempts to trap or poisqn them ui the

usual way. Traps, the whole crew of rats, in given premises, will avoid after ono or two have been caught or injurod; and after the first or second dose of poison has been swallowed, it is rarely a third will be taken; and after a short time the trapper and the poisoner is much more likely to be caught in his own toils than the vermin he nns sought to destroy. Kata and mice both may be driven away by the uso of substances hurtful or disagreeable to them, placed in their holes and runways in such a manner that they cannot avoid coming in contact with them. For this purpose Cayenne-pepper, perhaps, Is tho best, as it is certainly tnc safest to use; but it is costly. Potash does well; but it is not only a nasty and erosive substance to have about, but a dangerous one to all domestic animals to come in contact with; and chloride of lime, against which no other objection lies than it is an almost harmless compound, which rats soon come to regard witli contempt and indifference.

But it is well to remember that, to drive rats away from our premises is not to destroy them, but simply to transfer sjmething which is a nuisance at home, to our neighbor, where it will bo a nuisance abroad. To kill thorn outright, then, is tho only way to get rid of them; and if one does not choose to avail himself of the services of their natural enemy, the cat, perhaps the best exterminators, acting as poisons, are some of the many preparations of phosphorus got up for that express purpose. Phosphorus is said to have a certain and perhaps a similar attraction for rats and mice that catnip and valerian have for cats, which draws them to where it is from considerable distances. But the ordinary preparations are not only comparatively costly and disagreeable to handle and have about, but they are virulently poisonous, and sometimes contain so much phosphorus that the preparation repels rather than attracts the vermin. But there is a method of its use, known and practiced in the Bahama Islands, to protect the pineapples, that are grown in such enormous numbers, from their only enemy, the rats, which swarm, as they always do in warm climates, where the ignorance and prejudice of the natives and the people have almost exterminated the cat A fair-sized yam or sweet potato is boiled in the usual manner, and while it is still hot, but not very hot, a common phosphorus match is thrust into each end, and, in course of a few hours, the poison has been taken up and penetrated through the § citato 1 s substance. These are then istributed about and under the pineapple plants, and are greedily devoured, and with fatal results, by the rats. How far such a remedy would succeed in cool and moist climates, and upon vermin which have access to more or less animal food, it is difficult to say; but the remedy is a cheap, easy and comparatively safe one, which deserves to be tried, and, if found to be an efficient one, should be widely and generally advertised as a discovery of no inconsiderable economic value and importance. —Home and Farm.