WAYS TO RID BUILDINGS OF RATS 241 



one-half gallon of fresh water to the chips and boil down to one quart; 

 draw this off and mix with the first water. You have then a solution 

 poisonous to flies and insects, but, in small doses, not harmful to persons." 

 Another very bitter stuff is made in this way : One pound of com- 

 mercial aloes to four gallons of water ; mix and spray. Whale oil soap, 

 one pound to four gallons of water would probably disgust any deer. 



Remedies for Rats. 



Please give some tested recipes for rat killing. 



Rags, saturated with carbon bisulphide, were put down the holes and the 

 rats died, and after two years' time had not come back. If you can get 

 the gases of carbon bisulphide near the rats they will surely die. 



I used a few dollars' worth of all kinds of poisons, but the rats didn't 

 eat it at all. I had a white Spitz dog, who one day was scratching around 

 the woodpile, and I helped him. We got five young and one old rat. 

 After that I dug around everywhere. I found a hole and 'he got, in 

 three days, over eighty rats. One afternoon I took all the hay out from 

 the barn, and he got over fifty rats in about two hours. Joseph Schatzeder, 

 Santa Rosa. 



I took a few small eggs, punched a little hole in the side of each, and 

 put in a small quantity of strychnine, two or three crystals is quite 

 enough. For about a fortnight they took the eggs every night, then they 

 began to leave them, and in three weeks there was not a rat on the place, 

 and ever since they have given this place a wide berth. I tried all kinds 

 of traps and poisons ; traps they avoided, and poisoned bait they wouldn't 

 touch, but eggs, no matter how much you- handle them, they never refuse. 

 Wherever this remedy has been tried it has proved effectual. The eggs 

 must be placed in their runways out of the reach of dogs, as they also 

 are fond of eggs. Sam'l Haigh, San Jose. 



Feed rats dry meal for about one week, always feeding them in ithe 

 same place, and having plenty of water near by, and then add about one- 

 quarter as much plaster of Paris, feeding for the same time and at the same 

 places with plenty of water near, and no raits can live. The plaster and meal 

 must be well mixed and the meal should be very fine. The plaster 

 "sets" in the alimentary canal and the rat soon dies. W. H. Konkel, 

 Kerman. 



We placed hot savory table scraps where rats would get them, in- 

 creasing the amount if it was all eaten, for four nights, to get all of them 

 interested. On the fifth night, plaster of Paris was added to a big moist 

 meal and the rats froze in their tracks not more than three or four feet 

 away. The rising generation were disposed of a little later. Arthur 

 Walton, Yucaipa. 



Buy a cheap sponge, cut it into small pieces, and fry it in grease. The 

 rat being of a hungry and greedy disposition will swallow it whole, as he 

 can't chew it, then the sponge will expand and swell up and the result 

 will be a death from constipation. I have tried it with good results. 

 A. Rensch. 



Poison some fresh meat with arsenic and place the poisoned meat 

 near a dish of water. I have used this system with good success. J. E. 

 Thorp, Stockton. 



