HOW TO KILL RATS.

Evening Star, Issue 4208, 22 August 1876, Page 4

HOW TO KILL RATS.

There are many ways of disestablishing rats besides the short and ready methods of poison ot* traps, which we find described in a foreign, con temporary. First there is the old French plan. This is followed chiefly in Paris, by men who make it a special business. They take a deep tub with water on the bottom, and a little elevation in the middle like an island, on which is only place for just one rat to sit. The top is j covered, and has a large balance valve downward; on the middle of this valve a piece of fried pork or cheese is fix-d, and when a rat walks on it to get the chew, 1 the valve goes down, drops the rat in the water, and moves back in position. A road is made from a rat hole to the top- of the tub by means of a piece of board rubbed with cheese, so as to make the walk attractive for the rats. Iu the course of a single night some ten, twenty, or even more rats may go down, and if the island was not there, they would le found almost all. alive in the morning, quietly swimming round ; but the provision of thelittleislandsavesthe trouole of killing them, because their egotistic instinct of self-preservation causes them to fight for the exclusive possession of the island, on which, in the morning, the strongest rat is found in solitary possession, all the others being killed and drowned around him. Next, we come to the New York plan. The floor near the rat hole is covered with a tliin layer of moist caustic potash. When the rats walk on this, it makes their feet sore ; and the result is that they shun this locality, not alone, but appear to tell all the rats in the neighborhood about it, and eventually the house is entirely abandoned by them, notwithstanding the houses around may be teeming with rats. Thirdly, we have the Dutch method, a very cunning device, but probably difficult to experiment about, A number of rats are left to themselves in a very large trap or cage, with no food whatever; their craving hunger will cause them to j fight, and the weakest will be eaten by the strongest. After a short time the fight is renewed, and the next weakest is the next victip, and so it goes on until one strong rat is left. When this one has eaten the last remains of any of the others, it is set loose; the animal has now acquired such a taste for rat flesh that he is the terror of ratdorn, going round seeking what rat he may devour. In an incredibly short time the premises are abandoned by all other rats, which vvill not come back before this cannibal rat has left or has died.— ' Scientific American.' •