II78 



Rat Destruction. 



MAR. 



fowl houses and styes, and has the additional advantage of 

 cheapness, being easily made from old material. In order to 

 make the apparatus the procedure is as follows : Take 

 an old paint drum (A) of about 12 in. in length and 8 J in. 

 in diameter, fasten the lid to the side with a link hinge, and 

 punch a hole in the lid to admit the point of a pair of small 

 bellows {d). In the base of the drum punch a hole 2 in. in 

 diameter and in this hole fix a piece of metal piping (B) 9 in. 

 in length. A strip of metal 2 J in. high should be ri vetted on the 

 inside of the drum at (c) to prevent the cotton waste {e) and 

 small sulphm- (J) choking the orifice of B. To facilitate carrying 

 a small handle can be fixed to the side of the drum as shown. 



When the apparatus is to be used the lid should be opened 

 and some old oily cotton waste placed within and ignited. 

 If necessary, the lid should be closed and the cotton waste 

 fanned with the bellows to a good glow (if the lid is left wholly 

 or partly open, free contact with the air will often be sufficient 

 to cause the cotton waste to glow). With a view to finding 

 out connecting runs in a burrow, in banks and hedgerows, as 

 soon as smoke issues from spout B of the apparatus the spout 

 should be placed in a hole, if possible to the windward of other 

 holes. All holes from which smoke issues, except one of the 

 lower ones and the highest, should then be plugged lightly. 

 The drum should then be opened and a layer of sulphur (/) 

 be sprinkled on the glowing cotton waste. The spout (B) 

 should then be inserted into the lower hole and the bellows 

 (d) be used. In a few minutes colourless sulphur dioxide 

 will be generated, and in about a quarter of an hour or longer, 

 according to the size of the burrow, the rats will either succumb 

 to the gas or try to bolt — in the latter case to be easily dis- 

 patched by sticks and dogs. This gassing has the advantage 

 of killing both large and small rats at a minimum cost, and the 

 fumigated burrows, if not immediately destroyed, will not be 

 used again for some timx. 



****** 



Organised Measures for Rat Destruction. — As a consequence 

 of the Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act, 191 9, which 

 came into force on the ist January, the 

 Organised Hinistrv of Food have revoked as from 

 Rat Destruction. ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ 191S-19. 



Local Authorities have no longer, therefore, the power to 

 pay rewards out of public funds for the kilHng of rats. What 

 was previously encouraged by way of reward is now imposed 



