Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-06
KILLED OFF THE RATS
Ferrets Were Useless, but
Traps Were Effective.
PESTS IN A BIG LOCAL STORE
Operations Of Agricultural Depart
ment Experts.
EXPERIMENTS WITH VIRUS
Efforts to Exterminate the Rabbits In
Australia - Task Of
DR.. Daneysz.

culture were recently employed on an III
| teresting experiment on behalf Of one Of the
big department stores of Washington. 1t
| was nothing less than clearing out the rats
that were badly reducing the margin Of
profit in some parts Of the store. The pro-
prietors Of the store tried ferrets and at
| considerable expense got several hundred
Of the rats. Then they invested $75 in
ferrets themselves, hired boy to look after
| them and had them all die on their hands
except one in the course Of about two
weeks. Then they applied to the Depart
ment of Agriculture. The losses in the
store were serious. An average of 500
worth of gloves, lace curtains and other
stock was destroyed by the rats every night.
The department turned the case over to
Mr.. D. E. Lentz. who is the expert on
rodent pests, and he set about trapping.
The first night that the traps were tried
there were only ten placed in position Each
one caught a rat. Then twenty were tried
and there were twenty rats to the bad the
next night. Then the store sent to the
manufacturers of the traps and got gross
Some of these were placed on sale, but a
good many of them were used and the
rats went at the rate of from ten to fifty
each night for some weeks.
Rats are pretty prolific, but they could
not stand this sort of drain on their col
Ony, and the result was in a few weeks
the store was cleared. Since then they have
had the traps in diminished numbers placed
every night and a few rats are caught
right along, but the place is practically rat
free.
Mr.. Lentz was asked by a Star reporter
about rat trapping in stores and houses
and he replied that the best sort of trap
was one that would Kill the animal by either
breaking its neck or back or by strangling
1t. The department is not in the business
of advertising any particular brand of trap.
but Mr.. Lentz says that the best traps are
one without any wood about them. The
al1-metal traps do not get the animal smell
In, m in q
water each day, and the rats do not get
shy of them But take trap that catches
the rats alive either by caging them or PIN
ming them by the leg and the rest of the rats
and mice get wise'to the contrivance in a
few nights and there is nothing more doing
in the trapping line with that brand Of
trap.
AS to bait. it is interesting to know
that one of the very best bats is made in
Germany-that is to say, it will be so
| marked till the pure food law goes into
of it will draw rats through a brick wall
and they cannot get it out of the trap
without springng the deadfall.
Experimenting With Virus.
The department is still at work on the
problem Of finding an epidemic disease that
will kill rats, mice and rabbits automati-
cally, as 1t were. There have been expert
ments carried on with some Of the virus
developed by DR.. Daneysz of the Pasteur
enough to kill field mice and house mice,
but 1t is not strong enough to do away
with rats, and the unfortunate thing about
1t is that when the rats have eaten the
body OF a mouse that has died of the dis
ease, which they do when they can get
| 1t, they become vaccinated against the dis
ease. as 1t were. and are immune to any
other attack.
The department has been experimenting
down on the flats, where the Department Of
Agriculture Is running its experimental
! farm The rats have been driven up on
| the high ground by the dredging operations
| in the river, and they have been eating the
valuable seed corn that has been planted
| in the corn breeding work. 1t is bad
enough to get rats and mice into an ordin-
airy corn field. but when they get to lunch
| ing on pedigreed corn and. running valuable
| work with choice seed it is a serious mat
ter. For practical purposes it is found
the rats and mice than in inoculating them
with the rather expensive virus obtained
in Paris. But 1t has been found that the
disease can be fostered and it is suspected
that 1t kills of the mice, though most of the
evidence obtained so far has been of neg
alive sort There have been some scraps
Of fur and bones found where the mice have
| died Of the disease and the rats have eaten
them, but the results up to date have not
been satisfactory.
Task Of DR.. Daneysz.
That there is good deal Of faith in DR..
Oducy % . WoIhy HOWcNcFs is SuOWH Oy Tie
fact that the Australian government has
just employed him at large salary to go
to Australia and fight the rabbit pest There
is not SO much heard of that pest now,
but the fact remains that it is little worse
than ever, and the rabbits are spreading
immense rabbit-proof fence more than 200
miles long to cut of the rabbit afflicted
| southern country from Queensland, toward
which the rabbits were spreading. This
has done some good, but the rabbits have
simply been turned west by the fence when
they found their advance north was check
country to the west and eaten off the salt
weed and all the other scanty desert and
subdesert vegetation.
DR.. Daneysz has been employed at a sal
airy OF $4,000 year, on q two-year con-
tract, to go to Australia to fight the rab-
bit pest He has an assistant and all his
expenses will be paid. They have been
given small island overrun with rabbits,
near Melbourne and here in a well-equipped
| laboratory the doctor is carrying on his
experiments. If he succeeds in finding q
virus that will kill off the rabbits any time
within the two years he can go of and
leave the work in the hands of his assistant
| and his salary will continue
Meantime the work Of determination Is
! proceeding withstraps and poison and rab-
| bit-proof fencing. One big rancher named
Rode has developed scheme Of his own
| that is working well in a way. He traps
persistently on ranch that is about as
Dig as one or the New England states and
| surrounded by a rabbit fence. There are
still thousands Of rabbits inside, but he kills
all of the female rabbits and turns the
males loose. The result Is to develop poly
| andry among the rabbits that are left and
| render the females sterile.
Export Of Rabbit Meat.
There is so much trapping done that the
export trade In rabbit meat has assumed
immense proportions. There were imported
into England in 1904 $13S6,175 worth of
rabbit meat from Australia and New Zea-
| land combined. and from New Zealand
| there were exported $4,000 frozen rabbit
| carcases. It Is estimated that the consump-
| ton of rabbit skins in England annually is
20,0O0,0O0. The skins are imported and are
| collected from the hotels and restaurants as
well. the cooks being paid 2 cents each for
| the skins, this being one OF their perQui-
! sites. The skins are almost valueless, being
/ about the worst wearing skin OF any fur
| bearing animal. but they are clipped, trim
med and dyed to initiate various valuable
varieties and are sold in immense Quanti-
/ ties.
| This country is still suffering from rab-
bits, particularly in California and Utah.
| Natural conditions in California are doing
| a good deal to hold the pest in check, but in
| the forest reserves Ii is very difficult IN