Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher - After 25 Years' Experience by Ike Matthews
page 10 of 45 (22%)
page 10 of 45 (22%)
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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 |
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