No. 4. 



RATS AND RAT RIDDANCE. 



207 



Trap arranged for front entrance. The 

 trap should be covered with chaff. 



beneath the wire as he enters (I have seen a small rat do this), 

 by crouching within the sweep of the wire so that it passes 

 over without touching him or by being thrown off by the wire 

 as it rises. Occasionally a rat will be found trapped that has 

 been thrown in this way but carried clear over and caught on 

 its back with its feet in the air. If the trap is set against a 

 wall, with some obstruction like a brick set on either side, so 



that the rat cannot pass between 

 the bricks and the wall, it is 

 likely to run around to the front 

 of the trap and so entering be 

 caught (see cut); or the trap may 

 be set so that it leans diagonally 

 against the wall between two up- 

 right bricks in some dark corner, 

 or even hung upon the wall an 

 inch or two from the floor. It is not practicable, to conceal 

 it if hung up, but if so hung in some dark closet it may now 

 and then get a rat. Another plan is to enclose the trap in 

 a box with a hole placed so that the rat going in will come 

 on the trap from the front, or the trap may be set in a covered 

 grape basket, giving the rat room to enter 

 only at the front under the raised cover. 

 (See cut.) 



The flat trap, different makes of which are 

 shown on Plate VI., has been used mainly 

 in the trapping experiments undertaken by 

 the State Board of Agriculture, chiefly be- 

 cause it is inexpensive. One reason why many people have 

 little success in trapping is that they do not use trays enough. 

 Where rats are numerous 25 to 50 traps should be set, so that 

 a considerable number of rats may be caught at first, before 

 the alarm has spread. Every ten-cent trap that catches a rat 

 saves the owner many times its cost. Rarely a single trap, 

 carefully set, may catch a rat every night for a short time, 

 but where rats are numerous they soon take the alarm, and 

 one trap will not get enough in the end to keep pace wuth their 

 increase. 



A similar trap is the "official" (Plate VI., Fig. 2, lower right). 



Grape basket with trap 

 concealed inside. 



