THE RAT PEST 



23 



ning of such legislative action has been 

 made in the United States, notably in 

 New Orleans and San Francisco. 



The State of Indiana has a drastic law 

 providing for the destruction of rats on 

 all premises, and giving the Governor 

 authority to set aside one "rat day" in 

 spring, when the public should join in a 

 general effort to destroy these pests 

 throughout the State. Unfortunately 

 this law makes no provision for rat- 

 proofing as well as killing rats, and until 

 amended will be seriously defective. 

 Meanwhile, through lack of proper pub- 

 lic sentiment behind it, the law is not 

 being enforced. 



Measures for the control of rats should 

 provide for certain fundamental require- 

 ments as follows : 



New buildings should be made rat- 

 proof under rigid inspection. 



Existing rat-proof buildings should be 

 closed to rats by wire mesh or fine grat- 

 ing over all windows and doors accessible 

 to them. ■ Old buildings not rat-proof 

 should be remodeled and concrete, wire 

 mesh, and other material used to render 

 them practically rat-proof. 



Harboring places, such as old sheds, 

 piles of trash, old lumber, wooden side- 

 walks, open stone walls, and garbage 

 dumps, should be abolished. 



All garbage and food waste on which 

 rats may feed should be protected from 

 them and promptly removed. 



All markets and other public buildings 

 should be promptly rat-proofed and fre- 

 quently inspected. 



All ships engaged in sea-going, coastal, 

 and inland waterway traffic should be 

 fumigated at stated intervals for the pur- 

 pose of destroying the rats which harbor 

 in them and are thus transferred from 

 place to place. 



So-called civilized man has had with 

 him from barbarous times a variety of 

 vermin, including insects and mammals, 

 nearly or quite all of which are carriers 



of deadly diseases. Only within a com- 

 paratively few years have advancing 

 knowledge and public sentiment com- 

 bined to bring about any considerable 

 efforts to subdue and eliminate these 

 pests. The public is rapidly awakening, 

 however, to the dangers involved in them 

 and is becoming more and more deter- 

 mined in its efforts to control these causes 

 of enormous losses, both in property and 

 human life. 



Through the efforts of Dr. L. O. How- 

 ard and others, the house fly — the "ty- 

 phoid fly," as it has been well termed — is 

 now under the ban of general public dis- 

 approval. 



The Spanish War developed the fact 

 that the mosquito was the carrier of yel- 

 low fever. Another type of mosquito is 

 known to be the carrier of malaria. The 

 European War has brought to almost 

 universal public knowledge the fact that 

 body lice are carriers of the deadly ty- 

 phus, and many diseases are known to 

 be carried by other insects. 



Among these deadly carriers of death 

 and destruction none equals the house 

 rat in its tremendous drain on the pros- 

 perity of nations by its destruction of 

 food and other property, while at the 

 same time it is the deadliest of all to 

 mankind as a disease carrier. Within 

 historic times it has caused the death of 

 untold millions of human beings and its 

 devastations are still in progress. 



There is little doubt that the time will 

 arrive in the not distant future when 

 persons maintaining rat-breeding resorts 

 on their premises will be looked upon 

 with the same disfavor that now visits 

 those who harbor vermin of a lowlier 

 degree.* 



*A bulletin giving brief practical advice for 

 rat-proofing structures and for destroying rats 

 has been published for distribution by the Bio- 

 logical Survey, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C. Written inquiries for 

 expert information on these subjects may be 

 directed to the same address. 



