24 



It is believed that a considerable proportion of the great loss 

 of life and property by fire in the United States is due to rats 

 alone, for the foregoing is not by any means the only way in 

 which they set fires. Fires in mills have been traced to the 

 spontaneous ignition of oily rags and cotton waste carried 

 under floors by rats and mice. Gas explosions and resultant 

 fires have been caused by rats eating away lead pipes leading 

 to gas meters, and human lives have been put in jeopardy 

 through the leaking of gas from this cause even when no fire 

 resulted. Rats often gnaw away the insulation from electric 

 wires, and in recent years this has become probably the most 

 fruitful cause of city fires that can be attributed to rats. In- 

 surance companies a few years ago estimated the fire loss in 

 the United States due to defective insulation of wires at 

 $15,000,000 yearly, a large part of which is directly due to the 

 depredations of rats.^ No doubt the annual loss from this 

 source has increased rather than diminished. 



The Cost of keeping Rats. 



The cost of keeping rats has been variously computed. The 

 annual upkeep per rat is estimated by the Incorporated Society 

 for the Destruction of Vermin (British) at $1.80 in Great 

 Britain, $1.20 in Denmark, and $1 in France. 



Surgeon R. H. Creel of the United States PubHc Health 

 Service estimates one-half cent a day ($1.82 a year) as a con- 

 servative figure of the cost of keeping a rat in the United 

 States;^ and this seems very reasonable as it barely exceeds 

 the estimate for Great Britain. At this rate a farmer or stable 

 keeper who keeps 50 rats loses $91 yearly, and he who main- 

 tains 100 rats loses $182 annually. It is a poor farm that can- 

 not sustain 50 to 100 rats. 



Professor Lantz says that the average quantity of grain con- 

 sumed by a full-grown rat is fully two ounces a day, and that 

 a half-grown rat eats nearly as much as an adult. If fed on 

 grain, therefore, a rat eats 45 to 50 pounds a year, worth about 

 60 cents in wheat or $1.80 to $2 in oatmeal. If fed on modern 

 "denatured" cereals in packages, such as are used in our 



» Lantz, David E., U. S. Dept. Agri., Biol. Surv. Bull. 33, 1909, p. 28. 



2 Creel, Richard H., U. S. Public Health Reports, Vol. 28, No. 27, July 4, 1913, p. 1405. 



