248 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



circumstances at times which make it desirable to evict rats 

 temporarily from a certain spot. 



In the experiments undertaken by the Massachusetts State 

 Board of Agriculture, it became necessary to fumigate a large 

 number of rat holes in a bank, but near by there was an old 

 dike partially timbered which was so loose and open in texture 

 that the scores of rat holes there would not confine any gas 

 long enough to destroy the inmates, and when the rats in the 

 bank had been killed off, it was soon populated again by the 

 overflow of rats from the dike. Hence it became necessary to 

 drive these rats to the burrows in the bank before it could be 

 cleared. 



Among the measures often recommended to drive rats away 

 are: — 



1. Sewing a red jacket on a rat (or pamting him) and then 

 liberating him. 



2. Pouring kerosene over a rat and setting him afire, then 

 liberating him after the fire has burned out. This horrible 

 cruelty is supposed to frighten other rats away. Needless to 

 say we have not tried it. 



3. Placing a collar and bell on the neck of a live rat. Several 

 observers have tried this and all report that it drives rats out 

 of a dwelling or barn. 



4. Dipping a rat in tar and releasing him. This has the 

 same effect as the following. 



5. Tar placed in all rat holes, runs and burrows. Rats dislike 

 the smell of tar and its stickiness. This drives them, for the 

 time being at least, from holes so treated. Also, they are not 

 fond of turpentine. When in passing they rub either of these 

 liquids upon the hair, their attempts to lick it off produce dis- 

 satisfaction with their defiled burrows. 



6. Chloride of lime, loose or wrapped in old rags, placed in 

 burrows. Several experimenters who have used this report 

 success. 



7. Crude carbolic acid, moist caustic potash or powdered red 

 pepper placed in runs and burrows. (Carbolic acid will drive 

 rats, but just now (October, 1914) it is very expensive.) 



8. Feeding the rats oatmeal or flour mixed with plaster of 

 paris. 



