THE HOUSE RAT 7 



Other feeding habits are even more destructive, such as the killing 

 of baby chicks. When certain rats start killing chicks they often 

 go to extremes, apparently purely for the lust of killing. Eats have 

 been known to destroy several hundred baby chickens in a single 

 night (fig. 4). Even full-grown hens and ducks, baby pigs, and 

 lambs are killed, and large quantities of eggs are commonly destroyed. 



In the destruction of fruits and vegetables (fig. 5) the' actual con- 

 sumption does not reveal the true extent of the losses. For example, 

 many farmers complain that rats are destructive to apples in storage. 

 In the majority of such cases the rats cut into the .apple to get at the 

 seeds, and in a single night one rat can ruin a large number of apples, 

 not only those cut into but others as a result of the rot following. 



Figure 



B232.M 



-Spotty sprouting in cornfield where planted seed corn has been dug up by rats. 



Rat damage to property includes holes gnawed in many articles, 

 such as lead pipes (fig. 6), grain bags, boxes, doors, furniture, and 

 books; flooding, caused by burrowing in embankments; fires, caused 

 by gnawing and short circuiting of electric wires (fig. 7) ; and the 

 undermining of the foundations of buildings. 



ANNUAL LOSSES APPALLING 

 FAKMS 



Another big item on the debit side is the expenditure of large sums 

 of money in combating rats on farms. In an attempt to obtain more 

 definite information about rat losses on farms, questionnaires were 

 sent to farmers participating in cooperative antirat campaigns in 

 the Northeastern and Midwestern States, conducted largely by Bio- 

 logical Survey district agents. To these, 14,650 replies were received, 

 reporting annual losses that averaged $35 per farm. It is evident, 



