The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-07-09
PUBLIC HEALTH WILL WAGE WAR
 AGAINST RATS
Issues Instructions on Ways and Means To Be Used
 Against Vermin.

are outlined in literature prepared by the United States Public Health Service for use by State and Mu- nfcipa1 Health Officers over the cou-- try in the campaign which they have been asked by Surgeon General Cum ming to inaugurate in order to pro- tect the nation against bubonic plague. The activity of the health service results from the appearance of the plague in Mexican and Ameri- can gulf ports and at points in the 2 Mediterranean.
 Rat destruction" says the Health Service Bulletin, "can be accomplish ed by Individual effort to a limited degree, but to be successful in a large city there must be rat-proof- ing of the buildings. e No spas modic or individual efforts will re- suit in the desired end.
 Rats can be destroyed by trap ping, by poisoning. and by using natural enemies, such as certain breeds of cats and dogs. To insure the success of these measures it is necessary to curtail the rat food sup ply by properly disposing of garbage and table refuse, and by preventing rats from gaining access to such foods as Is contained in pantries, groceries, markets, stables and tho like.
 Success in trapping is proportion al to the attention and industry the trapper devotes to his traps and pro- lection of other food supplies. Two kinds of traps are generally used the wire cage trap and the snap trap or dead-fal1. The trap should be placed wherever rats have been ac- customed to come for feeding pur- poses and should be more or less concealed, the snap trap by scatter ing dust, cornmeal or flour on or about them and the cage trap by pieces of sackmeal. straw or rubbish, . lea v4re 4orly y~the4 opening free.
 Highly savored articles, such as A, cheese, ana toasted bacon, will more quickly attract rats than will food ]. without odor; but the idea that a rat can be enticed into a trap by the employment of bait more appetizing to him than the surrounding food supply is fallacious. To the rat, food supplx&iSsa question of availability and preference is a secondary con sideration-
 .'The destruction of rats by poison has always been more or less in favor. A preparation of arsenious acid or phosphorus, ten per cent. and suitable base, as cheese, meat or glucose, are the most popular poi sons. Poisons undoubtedly have a certain efficiency in ridding a place of rats, but whether by causing their migration or their actual destruction is somewhat difficult of determina- tion.
 Rat proofing excludes rats from the food supply and deprives them of $ harborage. Without this procedure if is almost impossible to reduce the rodent population.
 "In rat-proofing any building, the following parts have to be consid- cred. ground area, walls, ceilings ventilators, abandoned sewers, doors windows, outside piping, water and sewerage pipes, down spouts, wiring and air or light shafts. By the omission of some small detail ar otherwise rat-proof structure may be- come badly rat-infested.
 "The rat-proofing of floors o1 buildings is secured either by eleva- ton of the structure with the under pinnins opening free or by margina walls of concrete, stone or bricF laid in cement mortar sunk two fee in the ground, fitting flush with the floor above. The wall must fit tight ly to the flooring.
 ''F'ood deppts are the greater i'm portance in rat -proofing because the! furnish both sustenance and shelter for rats. In LnlS CLASS Ol are stables meat markets, retail an( wholesale groceries, bakeries, ware houses, docks and wharves. Thes places are best rat-proofed as to tn ground areas by the construction o concrete floors and foundation walls Untenanted as they are at night tim rats might enter doorways or win dows carelessly left open or be in troduced concealed in the merchan ,c-1o ay7lx ing obtain well protected hiding am breeding places.
 "Double walls with dead space be tween should be avoided or if use should be rat-proofed al top and bot tom with heavy wooden timbers, fou by four joist or by a concrete ffl Attics should be well opened an kept-free of -dunnage or other refus 2s for rats.
 -~Double ceiling should be avoide z especially so in basements. Boxed i :. structures. such uprights an roughly finished dwellings, plunnbing Kitchen sinks and the like should b removed Miscellaneous openings a light shafts, .ventilators and window should be screened preferably b twelve- gauge wire screen with mes not exceeding one-half inch. Tn grounds aboat the buildings are to b devoid of rat harborage and premise
 gre to be kept clean and free C rubbish"
 In seaport cities, where the rar species of the brown rat and Alex ancrlan'' rata.prevati. health official s-s asked to make surveys to deter mine the presence or absence of re
 dent plague.
 How to eliminate the mere com
 mon species, including the Norway rat. barn rat, sewer rat, gray C
 wharve rat, Is described as follows:
 By starving him. through the us
 of rat-proof receptacles for food, an
 covered metal garbag ge cans. eN. By deprfving him of breed n 4. places, through the abolition of tn Aplanked yards and passageways. x By refusing him admission to tf