MODUS OPERANDI FOR RAT-CATCHING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 368, 12 July 1946, Page 21

MODUS OPERANDI FOR RAT-CATCHING

Wellington's Rodent Control Officer Has Slain His Thousands

«¢CXOME people look on mine as an insignificant, degraded sort of job. They expect to see a lout or a drunkard doing this work. But my profession requires a knowledge of psychology, toxicology, powers of observation, and, above all, intelligence. And .... yes... it needs courage." The man who said this was P. Procter, the Wellington City Corporation’s Rat Detective. "Why did I take it up?" he echotd my question. "Well, my father and his father before him were farmers in England. I was the youngest of the family and regarded, as youngest sons were in England, as a bit of a nuisance. My father gave me the job of destroying all the vermin about the farm; perhaps

: he wanted to destroy me too. But I had to catch all the rats and I suppose it became second nature. "How do you go about it?" | "The modus operandi of rat-catch-ing would fill a book. And let me tell you, it’s no joke entering someone’s premises at midnight, groping for the light switches and finding 50 or 60 rats staring at you. How would you like that?" "Not up my street," I said. "Mind you, it’s interesting. I started with the council in 1923 and have been rodent officer or, to give it its proper title, Inspector of Rodent Control. for the last eight years." Mr. Procter then settled down to deal with the science of rodent detection. "There’s more in the rat-catcher’s jobthat’s the tin-tacks name for it-than killing them with a stick. Take the psychological aspect. I deal with all sorts of people. I might have to go into a pub or a lady’s boudoir. And for tha‘ sort of job, you know, you have to have a certain mentality. You must be able to sum up the person’s reactions in five seconds and decide what line o’ diplomacy to adopt. The Right Approach "When I call at a rat-populated house [I watch my step. I casually inquire about general conditions. I might even be told a story about the old cat next door, but I generally find that there is a neighbourly feeling and that most people are jolly decent folk. There are narks, of course. "But the job needs specialisation. Let me put it this way. Say your wife was ill. You would telephone the doctor and try to explain her symptoms. The doctor would simply say: ‘I can’t do anything. unless I see her.’ In the same way I am consulted about rats. I make my investigations and determine the methods of approach and attack, and what is best to use-poison, my dogs, or the trusty cane." "So you keep trained dogs?" "Three beauties; fox terriers who have been rat-catching all their lives. They got 95 one night. Some rats are fierce: they swing on a dog’s lip; they bite the hand, the teeth closing over like a nosering. It takes years to learn the job. To-day I can stand on a doorstep and tell immediately if there are any rats about." "Do you smell them out?" "Not exactly. You see, I have developed a sort of sixth sense. In my profession you get highly developed. I can find rats where other people can’t. I'll tell you of a curious case. "I was called to a business man's office. He had a fine polished desk and his room was heavily carpeted. I said: (continued on next page)

MAKING WAR ON RATS

(continued from previous page) *You have a rat in this room.’ He said: ‘How do you know?’ I said: ‘You pull out that right-hand bottom drawer and see.’ Out popped a large rat which ran into a corner. He said: ‘By Jove! It’s a rat all right, and a whopper.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘it’s certainly not a canary.’ ‘Now,’ he said, ‘how on earth did you know?’ "*You have,’ I told him, ‘a very good wife who is very fond of you, Every morning when you leave for the Office, she slips a couple of nice home-made biscuits into your coat pocket. You are having morning tea when a visitor is announced. You must get rid of the biscuit. You don’t put it in the top, drawer where all your nice stationery is kept; you hide it furtively in the bottom drawer. Pull out that drawer and see if I am right.’ I was. Among the crumbs of bygone biscuits was a nest of nine young rats. He thought it was marvellous. ‘There you are, I said, ‘simply nothing in it-when you know how. Every man to his calling.’ " ' The Rat Detective took a deep pull at his cigarette. "Let me tell you something else, if you have the time to listen. There was a big office building said to be over-run with rats. They were heard but never seen. There was no food about, so what could have attracted them? That was the problem before me. ' "What did I do? I went straight to the desk of a petite little blonde, opened it and there I found apple cores, lipstick, chocolate and biscuits. A delectable feast for a rat. Now a plain girl has more sense than to fill up her desk with a lot of truck like that. In this profession you learn to discard all illusions." "Where do you carry out your modus operandi’ chiefly?" (Rat catching etymology was catching, too). "At all sorts of places in the city. After these eight years I am surprised at nothing and nothing disgusts me. If | were to tell you. .. . But we can’t mention any names. Last year I killed be. tween 3,000 and 4,000. They go to the laboratory at the Wellington Hospital

to be tested for plague; then they are incinerated."

Mr. Procter then told me about the Two Types. They were, he explained, the Norwegian or Brown, and the Plain Black. Each required a different method of extermination. The Black, fully grown, weighed half-a-pound; the Brown went up to a pound. Cannibals, they were, the Brown eating the Black. Expensive Poison "Have you ever been attacked by rats?" "Bitten once or twice when I cornered them. I’ve had them run up my trouser leg and out of my coat-sleeve. What would be really handy in the chase is a pea-rifle, sawn off to about the length of a revolver, but you can’t use firearms in a public place." "What is your equipment?" "A cyanide gag-pump and some other poison costing £4 a pound. This affects the rats in such a manner that their lungs fill with water and they literally drown themselves." "Really?" I said. So he took me into his department to inspect the canisters of poison-it looked like peach-bloom face powder. "That's the stuff to give ’em," he said. "I also use a very pliable cane which I swish over ledges and catch them a crack. They die easily. You use the cane as quickly as a flashlike a swordsman sometimes. Mr. Procter regrets that he did not hear the recording he made recently broadcast in the 2ZB Sunday Night Gazette, "I was anxious to hear my own voice over the air-an anxiety based partly on curiosity and partly on conceit," he explained. "I could talk to you for hours about Rats and How to Catch Them. Maybe I’ll be able to tell you more some other time." ERB.