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Show By Robert S. Murdock County Agricultural Agent RAT.S In some of my" visits around the county I have seen a rat or two around the barn, chicken coop or granery. I can't help but wonder if you realize how costly it is for you to maintain that rat. You may be interested to know that in the U. S., rats annually destroy as much food as 200,000 average farms produce' pro-duce' enough to feed 10 million people. Rats breed six to 10 times a year. They have an average of eight young per litter, and the young rats become capable of producing more young when they are 90 to 120 days old. It is estimated that the rat population in many parts of the United States approximately equals the human population. Rats carry and spread at least 10 human diseases, including includ-ing typhus, bubonic plague, rat bite fever and tularemia. They are carriers of livestock diseases, diseas-es, including trichinesis and pseude rabies, and they carry various kinds of fleas, lice, and mites, and many internal para-I para-I sites. They even attack humans, particularly sleeping babies. With their sharp incisors, rats can gnaw through lead pipes, work their way through poor cement ce-ment walls three inches thick, and cut through oak planks, sun dried bricks and slate shingles. Rats start costly fires by gnawing through insulation on electric wires. Rats destroy about 10 times more property and food than they actually eat. It is estimated that each rat costs the farmer $20 per year. We all know the question is how to control or get rid of these rats. First of all, proper sanitation makes the job easier for any rodent control method. Clean up brush and junk piles, . place firewood or lumber on platforms 18 inches above the grourjd level, clean up the yard and eliminate all rat harbon-ages. harbon-ages. Rat-proofing is the second important preliminary control measure. Its chief disadvantage is its cost. In involves blocking off all points of entry according to a well-defined plan. Windows, doors, spaces around pipes and wires entering buildings, foundation foun-dation walls, and footings may be rat-proofed. Extension bulletins bulle-tins on proper rat-proofing methods are available to anyone any-one desiring to undertake this project. But these are only the defensive defen-sive measures that may be taken. tak-en. Now, what about the attack? Traps, gases, poison baits, drowning, cats, dogs, and ferrets, fer-rets, all having varying degrees of effectiveness have been weapons against rats, and now also we have the new anti-blood clotting substance on the market mar-ket under many trade names, the most common probably is "Warfarin." According to government gov-ernment reports, this material is our best bet in the fight against rats and mice. Follow directions and use caution in whatever program you may use, and I would like to encourage each of you to do something. I can't see how its going to pay to winter a rat. Regular culling of flocks and herds is closely related to production pro-duction profit. Of equal importance import-ance is the development of replacement re-placement stock. Be sure to develop de-velop heifers, gilts and pullets which will be able to contribute contri-bute greater production efficiency effic-iency than the birds or anirhals 1 which they will replace. |