Or place a little bag full of Cay enne pepper in the hole.
Or mix red pepper freely with the paste used to patch wall paper, and with it paste paper over mouse boles in the walls.
Or line cupboards with newspa pers or wall paper, using a paste that contains red pepper.
Or plug mouse holes with newspa pers soaked in a solution of red pep per.
Or hang a bag containing pepper mint in infested cupboards, ward robes, 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.
Camphor placed in trunks or 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 de vices are recommended. A common cask partly filled with water may be converted into a rat trap by taking out one end, cleating it, and replac ing 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 cou ple 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 re volve on itself and drop him into the water beneath, when, if properly ad justed, 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 cross wise in the middle of the wrapping paper and reenforced by means of pieces of whalebone glued to the pa per and running along the cut edge 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 whale bones spring the paper back to place, in readiness for the next.
To Bait Traps. — Bait rat traps with pieces of bologna sausage, oat meal, toasted cheese, buttered toast, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds, or all of these used in succession. The bait must be changed frequently, as rats are very suspicious, and the location of the traps must be fre quently' changed. If wood or steel traps are used, insert a stick through the trap after baiting, light a bun dle of paper, and smoke it thorough ly. This covers the scent of the hands.
Or place a few drops of oil of rhodium or aniseed on or about the trap. This covers the scent of the hands, and also seems to attract rats and mice.
Or, if wire rat traps are used, af ter catching one or two rats, do not release, but feed them. They thus act as decoys for others. When a number have been caught, place the trap in a tub of water to drown them.
A correspondent suggests releas ing live rats after coating them with a mixture containing phosphor us. Mix with water to the consist ency of milk 4 ounces of glue, 4 ounces of asafoetida, and 2 ounces of potash, and add ounce of phos phorus dissolved in a little alcohol. Shake the whole to form a complete emulsion.