AUTUM '
TIME FOR
RAT DRIVE
Lorin T. Oldroyd, director of
extension. University of Alaska,
points out that the autumn is a
good time of the year to eradicate
that universal pest, the rat, from
the farm and buildings.
It has been estimated that it
costs the farmer $2.00 per year
to feed a rate in Iowa, and cer
tainly the cost is no less in Alas
ka. T*hose in experience tell us
that you may have rats on your
premises and not know it as rats
almost never show themselves in
the daytime, and seldom at night,
unless they are so crowded by
numbers that they are driven into
the open. Taking the Iowa as
sumption: if you do not see a rat
but see signs of rat damage, you
may have from 1 to 100 rats;
if you occasionally see a rat at
night, the estimate is 100 to 500
rats; if you see lots of rata at
night and several every day, you
may have from 1,000 to 5,000 of
them. " j
It is estimated that 3 rats will
eat as much as 2 laying hens.
Rats undermine and destroy
foundations and feeding floors.
They can also give hogs a serious
disease—trichinosis.
Now as to control: first take
a census, as suggested above. At
this time of year the rats will
have moved into your buildings
or grounds and it is a fine time
to plan your campaign.
Prebaiting (and prebaiting has
proven a most effecture lure) is
your next step. Prebait on the
basis of the highest figure in the
census range into which your
place falls. If this figure is 100,
distribute 1 lb, of ground meat,
fish, or moistened cereal, being
sure to pick up all remaining
pieces the next morning. Thus,
your rats will in the course of
several days become accustomed
to the food offered, so that they
will more readily and with less
suspicion take the poisoned bait
when offered. This prebait will
also indicate to you where the
rats are congregated and give
you a more accurate check as to
the actual number you have
The bait should be made into
small rolls or balls some % inch
in diameter, and should be dis
tributed around your buildings,
both inside and out.
Domestic animals which might
be apt to pick up the baits should
be secured or kept away from
the baits. All poultry should be
rounded up and kept away from
baits. To reduce the hazard it
is recommended that all poultry
be moved away from the one be
ing treated, and that all rat bur
rows in the yard and under the
house be gassed with dalaium
cyanide or car exhaust gas. This
will, at least, drive the rats to
other shelter. The rat holes
which have been gassed should
then be filled with dirt and the
ground around the building
sprinkled liberally with creosote
oil. Rats do not like creosote and
will usually leave the immediate
area. i
Now- pile al| lumber, fence
posts, boxes and other like mate
rial on sawhorses or trestles 18
inches to 2 feet above the ground
so that the rats cannot find hid
ing places .under them. Make
sure that all chicken or other
feed is not available to the ro
dents. Thus, in a period of from
3 to 5 days you will have con- i
centrated your rats into fewer
colonies where they will be more
easily poisoned. Do not use too
much cyanide and do not shoot
too much as you may frighten
them away temporarily, and you j
are interested in ridding your .
place from as many as possible
on a permanent basis.
You are all set for poisoning
now. All livestock, poultry, and
pets are safely away from your
‘"battlefield”. You have learned
just about how many rats you
have, so mix together, thorough
ly. at the rate of 5 lbs. of the i
ground meat fish or cereal (as
used in prebaiting) to 1 lb of
barium carbonate. Roll the re
sultant mixture into pellets about
% inch in diameter. It is better
to have an oversupply of pellets
than am undersupply as each rat
should have at least one pellet
which he can eat without his
| neighbor fighting him off. An in- j
sufficient dose of the poison will
simply make him sick and he will
come back strong as ever in a
few days. Spread the pellets
around about dusk, as you have
in prebaiting. When the baits
are distributed leave the area and
do not return until morning, so
as not to disturb the rats or
frighten them away.
|
i Early the next morning the
dead rats should be picked up
and buried or burned so that
other animals will not have a
chance to eat them and in turn
be poisoned. Many will die, un
der buildinys or in holes so you
may have a somewhat disagree
able odor around for a few days.
Earium carbonate is a ra her slow
acting poison so do not be dis
couraged if you fail to find as
many dead rats as you expected
the first morning. Yoyl will
probably be picking them up for
a week.
Foundations can novfc be re
paired and rat holes closed. Cya
nide gas may be ujuP on outlying
burrows anrii some strays shot.
Done proaperly, the first baiting
can reasonably be expected to
kill fro*m 50% to 90% of your rat
population. However, it may be
necesspry to prebait and poison a
seconjd or even a third time, al
lowing 10 day periods between
the wrebaiting dates. A different
bait jshould be used each time
as rafs are very cunning creatures
and fcnay be suspicious if the
same Vtype of food is offered for
each i^aiting. Barium carbonate,
being tasteless and odorless, may
be use5^ for all baitings.
From n»ow on, by keeping junk
and debri^ picked up ,and other
wise eliminating all possible hid
ing places, y^jur rat problem can
be kept undfer control. A good
dog is an axsset in rat control.
Other effective rat poisons as
recommemjfed by the United
States Department of Agriculture
are: red riquill, phosphorus, ar
senic, strychnine and thallium.
Farmers Bulletin No. 1533 “Rat
! Control”, g|ives much valuable ad
vice on tht* subject and is avail
able to residents of the Territory
on request to Extension Service,
University of Alaska, College,
| Alaska.
-
--
The ^Literary
Outlook
(By ijohn Selby)
“Kaiser Wakes the Doctors” by
Paul de Kruif (Harcourt,
Brace; $2^.
Although i came out of Paul
de Kruifs /'(Kaiser Wakes the
Doctors” wit!* a sore back, I also
came out wifch a vision of the
medicine of thfe future, which is
what Mr. de KVuif wanted. The
book would beVbetter if he did
not clump his i-e^er between the
shoulder blades? in every other
paragraph, and Certainly it would
be btetier if hoi did not repeat
every idea from Lix to a hundred
times. It should} be obvious to
all concerned thfat children un
der twelve, an<i morons, won’t
read such a ’/rook, and that the
re6t of us are Icapable of remem
bering at leas^t the important
ideas after the i-oage is turned.
Mr. de Kruif is writing about
the group health K»lan now serv
ing many of Henrik J. Kaiser’s
workers. These workers pay 50
cents a week every week, and
when illness strikes they are en
titled to treatment without fur
ther expense. There are no ex
tras whatever in the plan—the
author insists that treatment
equal to the best any millionaire
can buy is given in Kaiser’s hos
pitals, and that sometimes Kais
er’s doctors are downright lavish
in their use of X-rays and ex
pensive drugs. iNor is the worker
subjected to a preliminary exam
ination before being admitted1 to
the plan. Kaiser is deliberately
hiring many men and women un
able to work in plants run under
standard employment rules, and
these are admitted without ques
tion to the 50 cents a week plan.
Sidney Garfield is the doctor
who worked it out. He had done
something similar in connection
with the Los Angeles waterworks
job, the Parker dam, the Imper
ial dam, and the Grand Coulee
dam. In all those situations de
Kruif reports his plan had not
only succeeded so far as its medi
I'i W .WJWH <111 Ml
cal features were concerned, but
it had raised the morale of the
workers remarkably. The Gar
field plan did all this, and. it also
paid for itself, even for the
buildings used and the extremely
expensive equipment. It is doing
so today for Kaiser, Mr. de Kruif
asserts.
This year’s Victory gardens are
expected to produce 1016 billion
pounds of food, compared with
7% billion pounds in 1942.
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