SPRING PRACTICE IN ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY. t9 



Dry strychnine crystals may be concealed in incisions made in 

 bits of raw meat, or hidden in Vienna sausage, or in toasted cheese 

 and thus scattered in rat runs, but this method is not advisable in 

 human habitations, since the poison operates quickly and the car- 

 cases are almost certain to remain in the holes, often making an 

 intolerable stench. 



Oatmeal or cornmeal may be wet with a strychnine solution and 

 scattered in the same way. This solution is made by dissolving 

 one-half ounce of sulfate of strychnine in one pint of boiling water. 

 One pint of thick sugar syrup is added and the mixture is well 

 stirred. Use enough of this solution to moisten all the bait. Wheat 

 soaked over night in the solution is sometimes used as a bait. If 

 the animals are fed for one or two nights previous to baiting, on un- 

 poisoned bait of the kind chosen for use, success will be made more 

 certain. 



Trapping is one of the best ways for controlling rats. Guillo- 

 tine traps are best and may be baited with bacon or Vienna sausage 

 (Wienerwurst). Other baits to use with traps are toasted cheese, 

 toasted bread and butter, pumpkin seeds and oatmeal. Handle baits 

 and traps as little as possible. If the hands are gloved with thick 

 material, but little worn, and powerfully scented with aniseed, cara- 

 way, or other strong smelling substance, success is said to be more 

 certain. After traps have been handled a good deal, they are im- 

 proved by being smoked or smudged for a few moments. 



Rats may be destroyed in their holes, when these are located in 

 fields or along banks and roadsides, by fumigation with bisulfid of 



carbon. 



The use of concrete cement for cellars, basements, foundations, 

 barn floors, cisterns, etc., reduces suitable locations for burrows to 

 a minimum, and damage by rats about buildings will largely cease 

 when the use of this material has become widespread. Corn cribs 

 may be protected against depredations of rats and mice by being 

 lined with strong, fine-meshed wire netting. 



Foxes, skunks, weasels, cats, dogs, owls and hawks destroy 

 rats as opportunity offers. Ferrets and a pack of dogs, trained to 

 work together by an experienced rat catcher, can accomplish much 



with a day's effort. .^ . \ 



Mice- About dwellings, trapping is the preferable method of 

 control Tfaps and cats together are often sufficient to keep them 

 subdued in barns and outbuildings, but these sometimes need to be 

 supplemented with poison. The poison baits recommended for 

 i:ats are equally good for mice. Field mice may be destroyed with 

 the same baits, scattered under boards or similar shelters, away 



