Getting Rid of Rats.

King Country Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 909, 23 September 1916, Page 7

Getting Rid of Rats.

Rats are a plague in some parts oi the country, and all sorts of things are being tried to get rid of them. A correspondent sends the following ingenious plan to the "Pall Mall Gazette" : Let me give you an infallible method for gathering in all the rats for aiiles around. Get a large tub, fill it about threeparts full with water. Stand a brick on its end in the middle, of the tub. Get some brown paper as a bridge stretching from the rim of the tub to the brick, all round the tub, so as noL to let the water be seen. Then put a slab or board up against the tub for the rats to run up. Put a piece of meat as a bait on the top of the brick, and saturate it with oil of rhodium. The rats will come from all quarters at the very smell of it. The first rat that runs up "the bridge tries to get at the bait, and falls through the brown paper into the water. He then climbs on to the top of the brick and starts to squeal. All the other rata for miles around come rushing to the aid of their distressed comrade, and each one topples into the water and is drowned. Only one rat can occupy the top of the brick at a time. By this means whole neighbourhoods could be cleared very rapidly.