The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-11-18
SAFETY FIRST,
SWAT IOWA RATS
State Board Of Health Is Offering Ad-
vice in Efforts to Avoid intro.
ductlon Of Dread
Plague.
HOW 1T CAN BE DONE
Stop up Holes by Which They Get
Into Buildings or Trap Rodents,
Is the Advice
Given.
HOW IT CAN BE DONE

Iagain Offering some excellent advice
! to the people on the rat question.
Perhaps IL every structure were made
iratproof 1t would be an easy matter to
kill off what remained on the inside
and to starve to death the others. To
the present, all preaching and arguing
has been Of no avail. Even the fact
that the rat is disease carrier does
mot seem to have aroused many people.
DR.. Guilford Sumner. secretary Of the
Istate board Of health, has the follow
ing:
Rats are not desirable inhabitants
OF the home or of the barn. They de-
Istroy an immense quantity Of grain
and other valuable produce, besides
eggs and young chickens. Rats which
live at the slaughterhouse feed on the
refuse and become infected with par
asitic diseases, especially trichinosis.
These are in turn transmitted to hogs
which deovur the dead rats about the
slaughter house: then people eat the
pork and thereby contract a parasitic
disease.
! Rats suffer extensively from plague,
and the infected fleas which are
found in their bodies are the means
I of transmitting or transferring the
disease to man. Plague is practically
unknown in the United States, but it
has had footing in San Francisco
and New Orleans, and in the former
! city for over nine years, and has
gradually extended its territory, re-
sisting the efforts Of the sanitary au-
thorities Of that city and the state OF
California. 1t Is epidemic in many
of the ports OF South America. Once
lit Is established in a country, it IS
leradicated with difficulty, and its raw
ages are something appalling, espec-
tally where there is an extensive popu
lation that is ignorant and careless OK
sanitary precautions. In India tho
mortality from plague during the year
1905 was 87S, COZ. 1t is not at all i'm
probable that it may gain a footing In
Il some Of our eastern or southern cities.
Should such a thing happen, the
plague-the dread disease in the orr
entail countries of Europe and the far
|east-may reach Iowa through the
transportation Of rats, and the man
would be indeed well of whose prem
Uses are free from these pests. Rats ;
are an abomination at any rate, ana
the people Of Iowa should begin cam
paign against them until all are CON-
pletely exterminated, thereby making |
diseases which they convey fmpos-
sible. 1t should be called to mind |
that there is in existence the leper rat
as we'll as the plague rat.
Close up Holes.
rats may be excluded from the
house by closing up all holes. especial |
ly those around the sewer and water
pipes, and by blocking up the space
between the plastering and the walls. |
The cellar floor should be laid in ce-
ment and every means possible used
to exclude rats from all dwellings. |
Corncribs and similar buildings NAV
be made ratproof by covering the !;
walls and floors with a stout wire net |
ting, which is strong enough to resist |
the teeth of the animal The usual
method Of placing an inverted tin pal, |
upon the top of each post upon which !
the building rests frequently fails,
because the rat can jump from the |
pole to some hole in the floor OF the
building.
Rats may be destroyed by trap
ping, fumigating. poisoning and by
use of certain germs which are deadly !
to Notwithstanding animals-but are
harmless to man. Ferrets are also
useful. In India it has been learned |
that where there are many rats, cats
are employed, and with the extermin-
alton of rats plague is very rare, be.
cause these cats keep away the rats
and apparently do not suffer from the
disease. .. ,.,.,.
ut should be remembered that
plague Is also transmitted to ground
squirrels, and should plague be intro
duced into Iowa through the agency
of rats, then the disease is sure to be
conveyed to our people,"
As final warning, the Iowa state
board Of health sounds the warning
for all the people to begin an EXTERN.
nation Of the rat and thereby prevent
the dreaded plague from securing a
foothoId in our fair state.
Mnr,cE RI AnVERTiSERS