204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



will set a trap, keep it set for weeks, and catch nothing; 

 another will take the same trap, and by handling and setting 

 it in a skillful manner make a catch the first or second night. 

 There are three types of trap easily obtained, all of which are 

 successful if properly handled, and although I have tried many 

 others experimentally, it never has been necessary to use more 

 than these to clean out the rats, provided conditions have been 

 first made favorable for their use. Often in such a case one 

 style of trap will suffice. 



Some rats may be taken by traps where food is plentiful and 

 easily accessible, but trapping will be much more effective 

 if they are deprived of all other food than that offered in or 

 about the traps. Dr. Creel mentions a case where an ex- 

 perienced trapper set traps in and around a bakery for two 

 weeks, changing his bait from time to time, but each morning 

 his traps were ratless. Cheese, bacon, meat, vegetables, flour, 

 nuts and other attractive baits were used unavailingly ; but 

 later, when the baker moved out and the rats had eaten all the 

 loose flour and food remaining, more than 30 rats were trapped 

 in a morning and in four days 80 were taken. "Traps or 

 poisons," Dr. Creel says, "placed in the neighborhood of an 

 overflowing garbage pail, in a pantry with open bins and ex- 

 posed food, or in groceries and warehouses having foodstuffs 

 spilled over the floor, will only result in wasted endeavor." ^ 



In a general way this is true; still, I have taken rats by both 

 traps and poisons in a large barn where grain bins were open 

 and where grain lay half an inch deep under the straw on the 

 floors of the lofts, and have seen eight rats caught, one each 

 night for eight nights, in a single trap set in a grocery where 

 they could easily obtain a variety of food, but it would be very 

 difficult, if not impossible, to clear premises of rats under such 

 conditions. Where rats are very suspicious one of the first 

 requisites in successful trapping is first to treat them well for 

 a time and feed them well, so that they will feel at home and 

 become confident and careless; then set many traps, taking 

 away all other food than that in or near the traps. Rat- 

 hunting dogs and cats are a detriment to the trapper, as they 

 frighten the rats so that they become cautious and suspicious. 



1 Creel, Richard H., Public Health Reports, Vol. 28, No. 27, July 4, 1913, pp. 1407, 1408. 



