No. 4.] RATS AND RAT RIDDANCE. 217 



changed the bait to fried bacon and fish, covered it with two 

 meal sacks and a heap of hay, leaving a small opening at the 

 front, and the next morning six rats were inside. If this 

 stratagem be tried in cold weather it is better first to cover the 

 trap with short boards, to prevent the rats from drawing in 

 bagging and hay for a warm nest, and so interfering with the 

 working of the trap. Rats like to burrow in dark and obscure 

 places under hay or rubbish to find food, and advantage should 

 be taken of this tendency; but the plan may not succeed the 

 second time. Some trappers have been successful by keeping 

 one rat, a female, constantly in the trap, feeding her well and 

 using her to entice others. Failing in this, the location of 

 the trap may be changed, and it may be baited daily, covered, 

 and left open at both ends, so that the rats can run through it 

 freely. When they begin to run in and take the bait nightly, 

 they may be fed thus for several days, and then the trap may be 

 baited well and the door at the back closed. Professor David E. 

 Lantz of the Biological Survey tells me that a merchant of his 

 acquaintance succeeded in catching many rats by enclosing the 

 trap in a box, with a hole opposite the entrance. He then left 

 the trap open at the back, so that the rats could go in the front 

 way and feed, pass out at the back door, and jump out at the 

 top of the box. When all the rats had become accustomed to 

 feeding there, he fastened down the cover of the box, and the 

 next morning the rabble was within. The editor of "The 

 Field" states that not a rat would touch his wire trap when it 

 lay in the open, but when it was taken up, baited with refuse 

 fish, and covered with an old mat, some "lovely specimens" 

 were found entrapped the next morning.^ 



A correspondent asserts that he placed one of these traps in 

 a meal sack, leaving the mouth of the sack open and using 

 anise, and that the next morning he had a "trap full" of rats. 



Cornstalks, straw, old rags and any rubbish may be used to 

 cover the trap, but if set on the ground it should be placed 

 upon a board, to prevent rats burrowing underneath and 

 securing the bait through the wires. All the precautions here- 

 tofore recommended for handling other traps, such as smoking 

 the trap and handling with clean or scented gloves, are ap- 



» The Field (London;, Vol. 89, May 1, 1897, p. 692. 



