45 



be kept as clean as possible and should be scented with a drop 

 or two of the oils of anise, caraway or rhodium which have 

 been proved efficient in overcoming human scent. Traps should 

 be well cleaned, before setting, with plenty of water and a brush 

 (or scalded), and dried before a fire. In scenting the bait, a 

 single drop of oil of anise or caraway is dropped on a piece of 

 paper, and this paper rubbed on the bait. This may be used 

 for several traps. ^Slore is unnecessary and may repel the rats. 

 Where gloves are not at hand the following procedure is 

 recommended by rat catchers: — 



Take a large handful of oatmeal; drop on it four drops of 

 oil of caraway or anise; rub it through the hands until the oil 

 is well mixed with the oatmeal, and continue to do this oc- 

 casionally while handling and arranging the traps. This is 

 intended to take up the perspiration and disguise the odor of 

 the hands. Rat catchers in olden times were accustomed to 

 make a trail from trap to trap by dragging from a fishing rod 

 a herring, a rag scented with oil of caraway and another, or 

 a calf's tail, scented with the oil of anise. The soles of the 

 trappers' boots were anointed. Trappers also used mixtures 

 of various oils for drawing rats, among which were the oil of 

 rhodium, oil of lavender and "oil of rats," which, as its name 

 implies, was tried out of the rats themselves.^ 



Where one scent is not successful, or the rats learn to 

 associate it with the trap, another may be tried, or the traps 

 may be washed and smoked. Such precautions may not be 

 necessary in a grocery store or a bakery, or wherever the food 

 is handled constantly and the human odor is over everything, 

 but, ordinarily, traps will give best service if cleaned and con- 

 cealed. Steel traps or flat traps may be covered with chaff, 

 bran, cut hay, sawdust, feathers or dry earth. When a trap 

 is covered with bran or chaff the material should be strewn 

 over a considerably larger space than the trap covers. Two 

 or three traps may be set near together, but they should not 

 be set so near that one in springing will spring another by 

 striking or jarring it. When a steel trap or a guillotine trap is 

 set in meal, shorts or earth, a bit of some light fluffy substance, 

 like cotton, should be placed under the trigger or pan before 



1 Rodwell, James, The Rat, London, 1850, pp. 249-251. 



