HOUSE RATS AND MICE
DAVID E. LANTZ
Assistant Biologist
FARMERS’ BULLETIN 896
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Contribution from the Bureau of Biological Survey
E. W. NELSON, Chief
Washington, D. C. October, 1917
Show this bulletin to a neighbor. Additional copies may beobtained free from the Division of Publications, United StatesDepartment of Agriculture
WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1917
The rat is the worst animal pest in the world.
From its home among filth it visits dwellings andstorerooms to pollute and destroy human food.
It carries bubonic plague and many other diseasesfatal to man and has been responsible for more untimelydeaths among human beings than all the warsof history.
In the United States rats and mice each year destroycrops and other property valued at over $200,000,000.
This destruction is equivalent to the gross earningsof an army of over 200,000 men.
On many a farm, if the grain eaten and wasted byrats and mice could be sold, the proceeds would morethan pay all the farmer's taxes.
The common brown rat breeds 6 to 10 times ayear and produces an average of 10 young at a litter.Young females breed when only three or four monthsold.
At this rate a pair of rats, breeding uninterruptedlyand without deaths, would at the end of three years(18 generations) be increased to 359,709,482 individuals.
For centuries the world has been fighting ratswithout organization and at the same time has beenfeeding them and building for them fortresses forconcealment. If we are to fight them on equal termswe must deny them food and hiding places. We mustorganize and unite to rid communities of these pests.The time to begin is now.