54 



plicable here. The following directions by Dr. W. Colby 

 Rucker of the United States Public Health Service are ex- 

 cellent: — 



Before setting, the lever on the trap should be tested to see that it 

 works properly. The trap should be placed on a hard surface, with the 

 rear end a httle higher than the entrance, so that the trap Avill close 

 promptly. When setting the trap in the open it should be fastened to a 

 board on which about an inch of soft dirt has been spread. Place the 

 trap where the rat usually goes for food, or in a runway, and disturb 

 the surroim dings as httle as possible. It is sometimes well to place the 

 trap near where there is dripping water, as the rats come there to drink. 

 If the trap is set in hay or straw or wood it should be covered (with the 

 exception of the entrance) with this material. . . . The bait should be 

 fastened to the inner side of the top of the trap with a piece of fine wire, 

 so that the first rat in cannot force the bait underneath the pan and thus 

 prevent the entrance of other rats. A few grains of barley should be 

 scattered near the entrance of the trap and a small piece of cheese or 

 meat fastened to the pan with a piece of wire. It is often weU to touch 

 the pan with a feather which has been dipped in oil of anise or oil of 

 rhodium. Before leaving the trap it should be smoked with a piece of 

 burning newspaper to kill the smell of the human hands or the rats which 

 have been in it. Do not handle the trap after burning it out. When 

 trapping in a neighborhood where rats are known to exist the traps should 

 not be moved for three or four days unless they have rats in them, as it 

 is weh for the rats to become accustomed to seeing them and thus become 

 careless about entering. It is not wise to kill rats where they are caught, 

 as the squeahng may frighten the other rats away. ' 



The three styles of trap given above ought to be sufficient to 

 clear any premises of rats. There are homemade traps, how- 

 ever, which have been often and highly recommended. 



Barrel Traps. — Prof. David E. Lantz speaks of a writer in 

 the "Cornhill Magazine," "about sixty years ago," who gave 

 details of a barrel trap by duplicating which over 3,000 rats 

 were caught in a warehouse in a single night. The rats were 

 enticed for several nights to the tops of barrels covered with 

 coarse brown paper, upon which bait was placed. Then a cross 

 cut was made in the paper, so that afterwards the rats fell into 

 the barrels. (See cut.) 



Another plan is to make a barrel head of thin light wood or 

 cardboard, fixed to turn on a pivot. This tip-up is fastened 



' Treas. Dept., Public Health and Marine Hospital Serv. of U. S., The Rat and its Relation 

 to the Public Health, by various authors, Washington, 1910, pp. 154, 155. 



