House Rats and Mice

The rat is the worst animal pest in the world. From its home among filth it visits dwellings and storerooms to pollute and destroy human food. It carries bubonic plague and many other diseases fatal to man and has been responsible for more untimely deaths among human beings than all the wars of history. In the United States rats and mice each year destroy crops and other property valued at over dollar 200, 000, 000. This destruction is equivalent to the gross earnings of an army of over 200, 000 men. On many a farm, if the grain eaten and wasted by rats and mice could be sold, the proceeds would more than pay all the farmer's taxes. Rats and mice are practically omnivorous, feeding upon all kinds of animal and vegetable matter. The brown rat makes its home in the open field, the hedge row, and the river bank, as well as in stone walls, piers, and all kinds of buildings. It destroys grains when newly planted, while growing, and in the shock, stack, mow, crib, granary, mill, elevator, or ship's hold, and also in the bin and feed trough.