The Green caldron - University Library

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The Green Caldron
carriers of various kinds of fleas, lice, mites, and many internal parasites. Ac-
cording to a recent report by the Federal Food and Drug Administration,
rat contamination causes bigger discounts on the market prices of food grains
than does insect infestation. This hits our neighbor, the wheat farmer, to the
tune of a sixty-five-to-ninety-five-cent loss per bushel on his sealed wheat.
The rat problem is a serious one ! How
then, are we to combat them ? Can
we call upon a Pied Piper to drown all of our rats as he did in the fairy tale ?
Don't we wish it were that simple! In the past, traps, gases, poisons, cats,
dogs, and ferrets have all been used with limited effectiveness—but none have
completely eliminated the rat problem.
The shortcomings of traps are readily recognized because rats quickly learn
to avoid them. Gases have proven dangerous and difficult to use. Poisons
provide an effective first baiting, but 'bait shyness' allows the rat population
to rebuild. Both gases and poisons are harmful to children, pets, and farm ani-
mals. Although cats, dogs, and ferrets have been utilized to a certain extent,
they have not been used on a large scale.
There are, however, two preliminary measures that can be used to help
check rats. They are
:
1. Eliminate the rat's breeding ground by cleaning up all rubbish, junk,
and trash piles around the farmstead, and by placing all firewood
and lumber on platforms eighteen inches above the ground level.
2. Shut off the rat's food supply by ratproofing the farm and home build-
ings with tin or wire mesh around windows, doors, pipe and wire en-
trances, and foundation walls and studdings.
But still, rats continue to flourish. Since the beginning of recorded history,
man has been unable to cope efficiently with these crafty enemies and has been
forced to live with them, trading food and shelter for unlimited waste and dis-
ease.
Modern science has come to our rescue. Biochemists at the University of
Wisconsin, under the leadership of Professor Karl Link, have spent many
years studying drugs called anti-coagulants, derived from the hemorrhagic
sweet-clover disease of cattle. One result of this tremendous research, "War-
farin," causes a breakdown in the clotting power of blood. Death comes to
rats from internal hemorrhages after they have eaten warfarin repeatedly
from five to fourteen days.
Warfarin does not cause bait shyness as do poisons, and it doesn't harm
children, pets, or farm animals. Warfarin may be purchased in the concentrated
or ready-mixed form at most feed, drug, and hardware stores. Ground
shelled corn and rolled oats must be mixed with the warfarin concentrate.
It may seem that I am trying to sell warfarin. I am not ! Warfarin is not
a product, but rather the active ingredient in many of the well-known rat baits
on the market today.
Warfarin offers a scientific approach to rat control. Its effectiveness de-