12 



HOW TO DESTEOY KATS. 



Cage traps slioiild be baited and left open for several nights until the 

 rats are accustomed to enter them to obtain food. They should then 

 be closed and freshl}^ baited, when a large catch may be expected, 

 especially of young rats. As many as 25, and even more, partly 

 grown rats have been taken at a time in one of these traps. 



The writer has had excellent success by concealing a cage trap 

 under a bunch of ha}^ or straAV, and has found by experience that a 

 decoy rat in the trap is useful. A commission merchant in Balti- 

 more places the baited cage trap inside of a wooden box having a 

 hole in one end and against which the opening of the trap is fitted. 

 The box is then covered with trash and large catches are made. 



Notwithstanding the fact that sometimes a large number of rats 

 may be taken at a time in cage traps, a few good guillotine traps 

 intelligently used will prove more effective in the long run. 



Figure-4 trigger trap. — The old-fashioned box trap set with a figure-4 

 trigger is sometimes useful to secure a wise old rat that refuses to be 

 enticed into a modern trap. Better still is a simple deadfall — a flat 

 stone or a lieaA^}" plank — supj^orted by a figure-4 trigger. An old rat 

 will go under such a contrivance to feed without fear. 



Steel trap. — The ordinary steel trap (No. 0 or 1) may sometimes be 

 satisfactorily employed to capture a rat. The animal is usually 

 caught by the foot, and its squealing has a tendency to frighten other 

 rats. The trap may be set in a shallow pan or box and covered with 

 bran or oats, care being taken to have the space under the trigger 

 pan free of grain. This may be done by placing a ver^^ light bit of 

 cotton under the trigger and setting as lightly as possible. In narrow 

 runs or at the mouth of burrows a steel trap unbaited and covered 

 with very light cloth or tissue paper is often effective. 



The best bait is usually food of a kind that the rats do not get in 

 the vicinit}^ In a meat market, vegetables or grain should be used ; 

 in a feed store, meat. As far as possible, food other than the bait 

 should be inaccessible while trapping is in progress. The bait should 

 be kept fresh and attractive, and the kind changed when necessar}^ 

 Baits and traps should be handled as little as possible. Ordinarily, 

 traps should be frequently cleaned or smoked. The use of artificial 

 scents, as oil of anise or rhodium, on the bait is advocated by many, 

 but no doubt their importance has been exaggerated. The experience 

 of the writer is not favorable to their use, but they may do some good 

 by concealing the human odor on the trap. 



Barrel trap. — About sixty years ago a writer in the Cornhill Mag- 

 azine gave details of a trap, by means of which it was claimed that 

 8.000 rats were caught in a Avarehouse in a single night. The plan 

 involved tolling the rats to the place and feeding them for several 



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