The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-07-06
GETTING RID OF RODENTS.

GETTING RID OF RODENTS.
All over the country health author
tiles and communities seem impressed
with the importance of Kidding the
United States of the rodents which
prey on the farmers, are destructive
to property, and through which the
bubonic plague is brought into this
country and transmitted, until 1t mas
become an ever growing menace.
Rats are extremely numerous and
destructive of property and men
ace to health in all parts of the world
They destroy annually millions OF
dollars worth of foodstuffs and
through distribution of bubonic plague
and other diseases, cause the deaths
of untold numbers of human beings.
Yet it is within only recent years
that any concerted effort has been
made to destroy these rodents. and so
rid the world of one of the greatest
contributing factors to disease and
destruction.
The National Geographic Magazine
in it's issue of July, 1917, carried an
article by Edward w. Nelson. Chief
of the u. S. Biological Survey, which
is filled with valuable data concern
ing the rat and its habits. Accord
ing to this authority, the history of
the brown rat is an extraordinary
one, unequalled by that of any other
mammal. 1t was unknown in Europe
until 1927, when vast hordes of them
swan the Volga river. A year or two
later it arrived in England on ships
from the Orient. Since that time it
has steadily increased it's territory
and it's depredations.
After careful investigation, the
United States Public Health Service
has estimated that the number of rats
living under normal conditions in our
cities equals the human population,
but that in the country districts they
are relatively three or four times as
numerous.
During the campaign by the Public
Health Service against the bubonic
plague in San Francisco from 1904 to
1907, inclusive, more than 100000 rats
| were killed; and in New Orleans, dur
| ing 1914 and 1915, 551,370 were de-
l'stroyed.
The extent to which rats wander
| from centers of abundance was we'll
illustrated in New Orleans by the ex-
periments of the Public Heath Ser
vice. One hundred and seventy-nine
marked rats were released at a point
|
less than 60 hours one of the marked
rats was captured in a trap about
mile from the point where it was lib
Grated, and within two weeks others
were taken at various points in a di-
rect line up to a distance of four
miles.
| 1t is estimated that each year rats
in the United States destroy food to
the value of $500, o0O,0 900. Denmark,
one-half the size of South Carolina,
estimated her losses in 1907 at about
$3,000,000. The same year the losses
in the rural districts of Great Britain
and Ireland, not counting those in
towns and on ships, were estimated
at $73,000.000 and a capital of about
$10,000,000 was profitably employed
there in the industry of supplying a
means of destruction.
Taking the average yearly returns
| on a mans labor in agriculture, it
requires the continuous work of about
10000 men on farms, agricultural and
Iother equipment, to supply the food
stuffs annually destroyed by the rats
in the United States. In addition,
rats destroy other property, mainly of
agricultural origin, the production of
which requires the services of $4,000
men, making a total of 100000 men
whose economic output is devoted
solely to feeding and otherwise pro-
viding for rats.
All ships are known to be infested
by rats, and taking into consideration
the vast number Of vessels engaged
in commerce throughout the world, 1t
is evident that the sum lost ip this
way is enormous, not counting in the
III - Il
eases breeding rodents.
by a nationwide effort to increase
rat -proofing, of wharves and other
structures, 'and to cause stricter
guardianship of food-stuffs, combined
with the destruction of the rats them
selves, it is estimated that the mum
Der of pests in this country could be
reduced at least one half.
But this cannot be done without
the cooperation of the people with
the public health service.
Investigations by science have
proven beyond doubt that bubonie
plague and many other diseases arr
transmitted only through rats, and raj
fleas.
The campaigns which have been un-
dertaken by the Public Health Ser
vice not confined to the United
States, but are being waged all over
J the world, for where there is no dan
ger of diseases, the depredations OF
the rats have been found to be sc
costly that every expedient is usee
to get rid of them.
Nothing could go farther to show
the wonderful strides that have beer
made by science than in coping with
bubonic plague. In the Middle Age:
this plague, which was brought tt
England from India, was know as thu
BLACK Death" and at least two-third'
/, of the population of London died from
: the disease. In New Orleans, in si1
years, during which time the Public
Health Service has been in charge
out of forty-two cases there were
only six deaths
The difference is of course due tt