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Household and Garden Pests: Stop

To Stop Rat Holes. - Where the rat holes are visible, pour a little water into them at night, and after the ground about them becomes damp, sprinkle a thin layer of caustic potash or chloride of lime in and about the holes. The damp potash sticks to the rats' feet and produces sores. In attempting to lick these they communicate the sores to their mouths.

Rats caught in traps after the use of caustic potash are often found to have a mass of sores about the feet, tail, and mouth. They will usually leave the buildings before death.

Hence where the holes can be found, this method is preferable to poison.

Or the holes may be coated with soft tar, or stuffed with burdock or cockle burs.

To Stop Mouse Holes. - Protect the bottoms of sideboards, cupboards, and the like with a layer of sheet tin; or cover mouse holes in plaster side walls with a piece of window glass set into the plaster and held in place by plaster of Paris. Filling the hole with plaster does no good, as the mice will gnaw through again.

Or place a little bag full of Cayenne pepper in the hole. Or mix red pepper freely with the paste used to patch wall paper, and with it paste paper over mouse holes in the walls.

Or line cupboards with newspapers or wall paper, using a paste that contains red pepper.

Or plug mouse holes with newspapers soaked in a solution of red pepper. Or hang a bag containing peppermint in infested cupboards, wardrobes, and the like. Or scatter mint leaves about shelves and drawers infested by them.

Or mingle tartar emetic or nux vomica with suitable bait. This sickens mice without killing them, and discourages their visits. or Camphor placed in trunks drawers will repel mice as well as moths. This is especially useful to preserve flower and garden seeds from mice. Mix gum camphor with the seeds freely. It will not harm them.

To Trap Rats. - Use preferably the thin flat rat trap of iron or steel having a coiled spring and wire fall released by a baited trigger. When rats are numerous, procure several of these and scatter them about the premises. The trap should be large enough and the bait adjusted the right distance from the mouth, so that the fall will strike the rat at about the back of the neck and kill it.

The French wire-cage traps are also useful, and many homemade devices are recommended. A common cask partly filled with water may be converted into a rat trap by taking out one end, cleating it, and replacing it, after rasping off enough of the wood around the edge of the head so that it will slip easily in and out of the barrel. Drive a couple of large wire nails at opposite sides of the head, and balance the head on them across the top of the barrel. Cut a notch on either side as sockets for the nails to prevent the head from slipping. Before using this trap, tack one or two shingle nails into the rim of the barrel so as to temporarily prevent the head from tipping, and place any suitable bait on the head of the barrel for a few days or a week, so that the rats will become accustomed to feeding there. Fasten pieces of raw meat to the head of the barrel by means of glue or tacks, taking care that it balances evenly, and remove the shingle nails.

When the rats renew their visits, the first one to step on the edge will cause the head of the barrel to revolve on itself and drop him into the water beneath, when, if properly adjusted, the head will resume its place and be ready for the next comer.

Or the head of the cask may be covered with stout wrapping paper and baited for a few nights. Then a couple of slits may be made crosswise in the middle of the wrapping paper and reënforced by means of pieces of whalebone glued to the paper and running along the cut edge BAIT WHALEBONE PAPER WATER A Cask Covered with Paper." and on to the uncut margin. The rat walking to the middle of the sheet causes the paper to give way and drop him inside. The whalebones spring the paper back to place, in readiness for the next.