1 Mar., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 239 
INGENIOUS RAT TRAPS. 
Aut housewives, especially those dwelling in cities and suburbs, know to their 
cost what nuisances rats are in houses and barns, and devices innumerable have 
been imagined for entrapping this most wary of all rodents But it is as 
difficult to entice an old rat into the usual style of trap as induce a young bush 
colt to approach a steamroller. In view of the many in all parts of the colony 
who are troubled with rats, we offer no apology for inserting in an Agricultural 
Journal the following hints by ‘‘Country Chemist,’ which lately appeared in 
the Farmer and Stockbreeder (London) :— 
Take a common earthenware pot with, say, 4 inches of water at the bottom. 
Fix two boards across it as shown in the figure, and connect these by a trans- 
verse board divided in the middle, fixing each halt by wire hinges at the cross, 
and weighting it at each end with lead. The whole surface is now level, and 
the board is spread with bait. Now the rat steps forward, pop goes the trap 
door, down goes ratty, and the door adjusts itself to receive more, like a 
collecting box. 
LVYATE CR. 
The uneducated rat of early summer is easily enough caught in any sort 
of trap, but as time goes on the young rats have learned the smell of the . 
human animal, and detect it on the well-baited trap which has been too much 
handled in getting that fine adjustment, which is essential to springing it 
easily. 
SCENT TO USE. ; 
This being so, it is desirable to employ some strong scent that will both 
mask the human odour and prove attractive to rats. At the head of these 
stands oil of rhodium, but it has the objection of being too expensive for any 
but the professional rat-catcher. Next in point of attractiveness is oil of 
aniseed. Bruised valerian root is liked by most rodents, but it has the great 
objection of mustering all the cats in the district, and even if you do not mind 
their late concerts, you do not want them to be cavght in clams, or spring your 
trap to no purpose. Oil of aniseed is not too expensive if used with reasonable 
care, and seldom fails to draw. As proof of the scent of rats I have quite 
recently handled a linseed cake on three sides, and not on the fourth, and then 
placed it where rats come nightly, and they have refused to touch the handled 
sides while eating the other. Wire traps and gins or clams being purchased 
traps, I will pass on after remarking that they should be set tm the ground and 
not on it, and that the earth should be scraped away with a mane comb, whose 
teeth haye been anointed with aniseed oil. 
