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HOUSEKEEPERS! CHAT Tuesday, April 26, 1938
(FOR BROADCAST USE ONLY)

Subject: "QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS." Information from the Bureau of Biological
Survey, United States Department of Agriculture. Publications offered: "Rat
Control," Farmers! Bulletin 1533, and "Rat Proofing Buildings and Premises,"
Farmers! Bulletin 1638.

--00000-—-

The questions up for answer have to do with a couple of familiar four-
Meleszeed pests —- rats and mice. The wife of a storekeeper in Minnesota asks if
| there isn't something better than a tabby cat to keep mice out of a grocery
) store. And a housewife in South Carolina inquires for the "latest method of
| poisoning rats." Several other listeners want information on both rats and mice.

i So I'm going to pass along to you some facts from the men in the Bureau
} of Biological Survey who have made careful studies of these pests.

| In general, the control methods that work with one are effective with
iene other. But getting rid of rats is likely to be more of a job than getting
ferid of mice.

; The Survey men say that traps are still the best method of dealing with
"Mice in @ house, or a store, or a small farm -- those little wooden~based snap
traps that cost so little you can afford to use a dozen or go. And by the way,
you can do the best job by using many traps at once. Clean and rebait and reset
the traps every night and place them so that the mice, as they follow their
natural runways along walls and behind objects, will pass over the trigger.

}
Fresh bait every night is very important. And though cheese is what

you hear most about, the Survey men have found that mice are more tempted by

a variety of foods. They suggest fresh bread and cake, fried bacon, sardines,
mut meats and bananas as well as cheese with rolled oats or other cereal sprink-
(led over the trap to make it extra tempting.

(

| But to control mice on a larger scale, you may need more drastic measures
msuch as poisoning. For details, I'll suggest a bulletin. Whether rats or mice
por both are bothering you, you'll find complete information in Farmers! Bulletin
myo. 1535 called "Rat Control." As long as the supply lasts, you are welcome to
a copy of this bulletin if you write the Department of Agriculture in Washing-
ton, D. C. Once more -- "Rat Control," Farmers! Bulletin 1533.

. In most cases, the Survey men advise using poison baits for destroying
fats, although traps bring good results if carefully used and a poisonous gas
pealled calcium cyanide is highly effective in gassing rats in their burrows and
Other enclosed places and oven in partially open places like corncribs. Any one
of 2 number of poisons will kill rats, but the biologists recommend bait mixed
With red squill powder because though fatal to rats, it is harmless to people
and other animals. Other rat-poisons are dangerous to domestic animals and
children.

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BEC -2- 4/26/38

But killing a few rats is only temporary help after all. The way to get
id of them permanently is to build them out of all buildings on your property
and do away with open garbage pails or dumping grounds or other hiding or nesting
lr feeding places for rats. Which reminds me of another bulletin. If you are
lanning to do any building -- put up a house or remodel a house, or build a barn,
Bultry house, pigsty, corncrib, or even an outside cellar, you'll want first to
ead the bulletin that tells how to make the structure proof against rats. So
There's another name and number to jot down on a postcard: "Rat Proofing Buildings
and Premises," Farmers! Bulletin No. 1638. Order it from the Department of Agri-
‘culture, Washaneatom. 1D.) C's

But let's go back to red squill, the approved rat poison which is relatively
harmless to people, and to domestic animals and fowls, even to wild animals and
t Mirds, but fatal to rats and mice. Red squill is a plant that grows along the
‘shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It has a bulb like an onion which, when dried
and eoreer at and mixed with tempting food, is good-bye to rats. Other animals
ether won't touch food mixed with red squill or will vomit it. ‘The Survey men
mied it out on cats, dogs, chickens, pigeons, pigs, prairie dogs, pocket gophers,
md even on themselves. No harm done anywhere along the line. But they put on
m50 cooperative county, city, and town campaigns using red squill against rats,

and the rat population practically disappeared in those sections.

You can buy red squill powder at a drug store. And here's how the Survey |
men suggest serving it to rats. They advise putting out generous bait and a
Meriety of it the first night to destroy every rat at one application if possible.
Bricrrise the rats that survive will be wary of touching future baits. Fresh fish
round in a meat chopper is one of the most attractive baits for rats -- fresh
fish or canned salmon, mackerel or sardines. Make a paste of one ounce of red
squill powder and a little water and then add it to @ pound of fish and mix.

Or mix the squill-and-water paste with fresh ground hamburg steak. Rats
ike cereals, too -- oatmeal, graham flour or corn meal when mixed to a mush with
Sweet Hewicloe weaver.) Add an ounce of dry, squill povder to a pound of cereal meal
and then moisten with milk or water. If you serve fruits or vegetables for bait,
Slice them and dust the squill powder over the slices. Before putting out the
Pit, De sure no other food is where the rats can reach it. Put out the bait in
the late atternoon so that it will be reasonably fresh when tho rats come out to
Bed at night. A large number of small baits work better than a fow large baits.
Beer as prebaiting with unpoisoned food is a good way to catch the rats unawares.
.

muer three days collect all the bait and destroy it.
: But as I said before, you'll find complete directions in that bulletin
lied "Rat Control."

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