RAT EXTERMINATION IN MADISON, WISCONSIN
Rat Extermination In Madison, Wisconsin By DR. LOUIS FAUERBACH [Health Officer, City of Madison] IT HAS for some time been the wish of the Health Department of the city of Madison to urge the...
...In order to insure complete extermination it is absolutely necessary to have the cooperation of everyone...
...it would be impossible for domestic animals to reach it...
...Hydrocyanic acid, though effective, is extremely dangerous, and in but very few cases can it be controlled so as to make it .safe for human beings in the vicinity...
...I do not believe it possible safely and successfully to put on a rat campaign in any community without the help of experts...
...The ingestion of this results in an immediate thirst which drives the animals to the outs'de for water, where they die afterwards...
...near as 1915 to see the danger to the life of individuals due to bubonic plague...
...As to its effect on health, one need only to look back r...
...A survey of the city of Madison showed that dumping grounds, granaries, factories, restaurants, and bakeries required the most attention...
...Inasmuch as it was felt that extermination by means of poison Was the most effective method, our educational program idea fell flat...
...all of which offer several objections...
...The chief ob-jecction to the use of strychnine is that the animals die on the premises before they are able to reach outside...
...On the outside the poison waa mi with cornmaal or oatmeal, oecause these fo,j j are ordinari'y not t-aten by other animal...
...We anticipated trouble if people were advised to lay poison throughout the city because of the danger to pets, domestic animals, ancTeven children...
...The same difficulties that stand in the way of a successful campaign against flies, etc., are encountered in a rat campaign...
...Our only regret was that we were not able to give the desired publicity during the short period which preceded the beginning of the campaign...
...Just a few reminders to justify our attitude toward the rat...
...W. F. Amann that buildings, etc., were baited in such a way, and the bait being so placed tha...
...Included in these were bacterial inoculations, poisoning by chemicals, and the use of gases...
...In the past many suggestions have come to this department concerning different ways of extermination...
...Hamburger, fish, and other meats are used in the buih'ings...
...Without a great stretch of the imagination it is easy to believe that, at the maximum rate of increase, and with no check the rats would become so numerous as to consume all the animal and vegetable matter on the earth...
...The results of the use of any poison by anyone but an expert would lead to the poisoning of eats, dogs, and sometimes children...
...An inquiry of placet, in w'ven th,s procedure was carried on, revealed the fact that vbe method was very successful...
...Even in this day this pest is causing millions of dollars of damage in the country every year...
...Reliable . information tells us that an unmolested healthy pair of rats with abundant food will reproduce from eight to ten times a year with an average of ten to the litter...
...Early in November, 1927, we were requested by a group of well recommended rat exterminators to sanction their methods in order that they might more effectively carry out their work here...
...This results in odors later...
...The method used was that of incorporating in the menstrum of certain foods a poison consisting essentially of barium carbonate...
...LOUIS FAUERBACH [Health Officer, City of Madison] IT HAS for some time been the wish of the Health Department of the city of Madison to urge the extermination of rats, and to that end it was felt necessary to formulate an education program in order to get the cooperation of the public...
...We are also rightly informed that in three y^ars this pair will be responsible for, roughly, three and one-half million descendants...
...We were advised by Mr...
...In Madison the industrial sections and those localities in which places of business and dwellings were mixed were found to be most infested...
Vol. 20 • January 1928 • No. 1
