HOW TO KILL RATS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 149, 12 October 1876, Page 2

HOW TO KILL RATS.

There are many ways to destroy besides the short and ready poison or traps, which we find des® in a foreign contemporary. First tfc the old French plan. This is foW chiefly in Paris, by men who make » nial business. They take a deep tu water on the bottom, and a little elefi in the middle like an island, on wjj only place for one rat to sit. The # covered, and has a large balanceopening downward; on the middle J valve a piece of filed pork or cto fixed, and when a rat walks on » the cheese, the valve goes down, 1

th« rat ta the water, and moves back m position. A road is matte from a rat-hole to the top of the tub by mean* "If a piece of board rubbed with cheese, so as to nuvke it; attractive foe rats.. In the; course of a gingle night some fc«r» ami twenty, or even move rata may g;> dawn, »ud if the island was not there, they would bo fuund almost all alive irt the morning, tn«et|y swimming rr-rmd: but thu provision of the little island saves the troublw of killing them, because their ugotistis instinct of self-preservation causes them, to fight for the exclusive possession of the island, on which, in the morning, tile strongest rat is found in solitary possession, aIL the others being killed and drowned around him. Next. we coiuu to » New York plan, with a thin layer of moist potash. When the ruts watte ori this, it makes their feet sore; and the result, that they shun this locality, not ttlonw, but appear to tell alt the rats in the neighborhood about it, and eventually fclie house is entirely abandoned by them, notwithstanding the houses round may be teeming with rats. Thirdly, we iiave the Dutch" method, a very muming device, but probably difficult to experiment about. A number of rats are left to themselves in a very targe trap or cage, with no food whatever ; their craving hunger will cause them to tight, and the weakest wdl be eaten by the strongest. After a short time the tight is renewed, and the next weakest b the next victim, and so it goes on until one strong rat is luft. When this one has eaten the tast remains of any of the others, it is set loose, The animal has now acquired such a taste for rat tlesh that he is the terrur of ratdom, going about seeking what rat llu may devour. In an incredibly short time the premises are abandoned by all other rats, which will not come back before this cannibal rat has left or lias iliud.—Skirrrtijk Aimrimnu