Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher | Page 4

deal of rubbish such
as packing cases, wrappers, waste paper, etc., throw a lot of food, say
oatmeal or soaked bread, carelessly amongst the cases or rubbish and
let the Rats have a full week's feeding at their leisure, and then if you
know the holes round the floor wherefrom they come, go in some night
as quick as possible, turn up the lights, run to the three or four holes,
and block them up with pieces of rag, etc. Now as all the Rats will not

run out of the packing cases or waste paper, but will hide amongst the
same, this is the time to take a good terrier dog or two with you, and to
have a bit of sport. Let one dog hunt among the cases, etc., and hold the
other, for the Rats will soon make for the holes, but the rags preventing
their escape you will catch and kill a great many by this means.
It should be stated here that as Rats are very cunning, it takes a lot of
study, dodging, and experience to be able to rid them entirely. When
you are feeding Rats anywhere, never feed them with other than soft
stuff, which you can squeeze through your fingers, for if you feed them
with anything lumpy, they will carry pieces into their holes and eat at
their leisure.

FERRETING.
Ferreting is a very good plan for destroying Rats in cottage houses,
stables, hotels, etc., as it can be done in the day, but in buildings, say
five or six storeys high you cannot ferret very well as you cannot tell
where to set your nets. The only way to ferret a large building is to
ferret one floor at once, and always start at the top storey first. The
majority of floors are laths and plaster. This is what the Rat likes,
especially the Brown Rat, and there are more nests found in these
places than anywhere else. To ferret thoroughly in such places you will
require to have a board up at each end of the floor: the two end boards
that run crossways with the joist; then you must have a man to put the
ferret in at one end, and ferret one joist at a time; have a net set at the
other end. The best way at the catching end is to have a long sheet net
about a yard wide, and the full length of the boards that are up, for
sometimes under the boards the Rats can get out of one joist into
another, and if you use the long net you can catch them whichever joist
they bolt at.
Now we will suppose you are ferreting a seven-storey building, which
might occupy three or four days. If you have ferreted two stories the
first day, during the night the Rats that have not been ferreted on the
lower stories may get back again to the top storey.

How to prevent this happening I will give you a plan of my own, which
I don't think any Rat-catcher but myself has ever employed. The course
of action--a rather expensive one I admit--is the following: While you
have the boards up you must go to the druggist and get two shillings'
worth of cayenne pepper, and put it into a pepper duster. Scatter the
cayenne along the boards and joist where you have had the long sheet
net, and also along the other end of the joist where you put the ferrets in,
and you will find that under no consideration will Rats face the cayenne
pepper. Cayenne is alright for any dry place and will last a long time,
but it will not do in any water closets or any damp places, as dampness
takes all the nature out of the cayenne.
After ferreting in any kind of building, always go carefully round the
outside, and see that there are no broken air grids, or broken cellar
windows, as these are likely ways that the Rats get into the building at
first. When ferreting always be careful how you set your nets, and be
extremely quick on the Rats when they bolt, for sometimes if they get
back they will face the ferret before they will bolt again; then the ferrets
kill them under the floors, and this as in the case of poisoning them is
liable to cause an abominable smell, more especially where heat is near.
In the whole of my experience of Rat-catching, which is a lengthy one,
I never gave a guarantee to clear a place completely, in Manchester or
any other town where so many large buildings are so close together.
And let me show the reason for this. Take Cannon Street, Manchester,
as an illustration. Here are six