PLAGUE RATS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2988, 21 June 1911, Page 10

PLAGUE RATS.

METHODS OF . DESTRUCTION, (From Ocr Own Ogurespoxde.vt.j • WELLINGTON, June 13. On all sides one hears doubts as to whether the Government is taking sufficient precautions to prevent the introduction of plague-infected rats ,from Auckland into other parte of New Zealand. Apropos of the destruction of rats generally, an interesting letter from Mr Munro, of Palmerston N orth, is published m to-day's New Zealand Times. Mr Munro writes :—" About 10 years ago my house at Fitzherbert W. was badly iniested with rats. A friend had told me that when it was intended to use poison for their extermination the great secret was to first gain their confidence by inducing them to look upon you as a friend. Acting upon the suggestion, I laid food for them every night in the same spot, consisting of bread and butter cut up into dainty little squares. They soon learnt to go for their supper, and to know when it would be ready, and we could hear them every night scampering along and congregating for the feast. When I had thus befriended them for little more than a week I rough on rats to the butter, as directed upon the box. The result of my treachery was wonderful, for not a rat or a mouse was to be seen or heard about the place for many months after, in spite of the fact that my house is within a chain of native bush and close to the Tiritea Stream, both of which tend to encourage their presence. I believe arsenic is the poison in rough on rats, and I have r.o doubt there are many others equally effective. I ascribe my success not so much to the special kind of poison employed as to the fact that before asing it I gained the confidence of the enemy. I feel confident that if this plan were carried out on a larger scale in a town like Wellington many thousands cf rats could be destroyed in a single night. It would, of course, be necessary to take concerted action, for no beast is more cunning than a rat, and his suspicion is easily aroused."