THE RAT NUISANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10152, 31 January 1911, Page 7

THE RAT NUISANCE.

A NOVEL REMEDY. The veterinary contributor ' to. the Farmers' Union Advocate writes as follows: —'Plaster of .Paris is a very useful thing for use in the destruction of rats. It should be ,well mixed with sugar and placed at night where the rats are likely to find it. Shallow howls of water should be placed near by. The rats eat the mixture, and as a result contract a violent thirst. Then they drink copiously of. water, which .causes the plaster to "set" in a solid mass in their stomachs, death quickly resulting. This is somewhat "rough on rats," but effective. Plas-' ter of Paris is not poisonous, and cats and dogs are not likely to eat it when mixed with sugar, hence there is no danger to these animals. In wooden houses rats often become a nuisance by running about in the space beneath the roof. I have known them to be cleared out of a house by freely distributing there pieces, about an inch square, of solid non-poisonous disinfectant material, strong in odour, but not at all unpleasant-to the human sense of smell. Such material can be got from any good chemist, apt being about the consistency of ord' • ary.soap it can be easily cut up., i-'iooes can also be dropped into the rat holes. Rat virus,has been tried often, though not always with a good deal of success. Dr. Danysz, of Paris, some time since elaborated a-virus of this kind, which has been largely used, but as far as I am aware it is not obtainable in New Zealand in a sufficiently fresh state to be at all reliable. The principle is to infect the . rats with a contagious disease which, while fatal to them and to mice, is not communicable to human beings or .to other aniI mals.