"Get Rid of Rats in City Next Monday" from the October 29, 1937 Door County Advocate
Get Rid of Rats in City Next Monday
Sturgeon Bay's first community rat riddance campaign is all set for next Monday afternoon, and is hoped that every business place especially will get behind the movement to at least drive this damaging pest from the down town section. It is not expected that residence owners will cooperate 100 %, but according to orders being received by County Agent G. I. Mullendore at the courthouse, a great many are going to take advantage of the offer to get free bait.
Boy scouts of the city distributed circular letters house to house last Friday asking people to place their orders for bait with the county agent by Tuesday this week, but Mr. Mullendore said yesterday that he could still take orders up to noon today.
The bait will be mixed at Appleton where government owned equipment for the purpose will be stationed today and remain until next Tuesday when it will be taken to Portage. A truck will be driven to Appleton for the local supply and will be back here in time to leave the bait at distributing centers by 2 p.m.
Where to Get Bait
Persons who ordered bait can get it from 2 to 8 p.m. Monday at the following places:
1st Ward — Moeller's garage.
2nd and 3rd. Wards—City Hall
4th Ward—Hembel's garage.
As the bait is mixed using fresh ground meet and fresh fish, it must be applied the same day it is given out or it will not be effective. If necessary to keep it over, however, it will retain its freshness if placed in a refrigerator.
The poison is such that it will not affect any other animal life. Rats are susceptible to it because it induces, vomiting and rats cannot vomit. The animals when poisoned seek open places, so not die in spots where they can't be found and destroyed.
How to Apply Bait
1st Remove or cover, as far as possible, garbage and other foods that rats are accustomed to feeding upon.
2nd. Use a clean teaspoon. Distribute the bait alternately, first hamburger, then fish, the hamburger, etc. at frequent intervals along walls, runways and other places where rats are most apt to find the bait.
The idea is to use one half teaspoon baits and distribute a large number of small baits in as many places as you can. Do not place baits in holes, scatter it openly. In poultry pens, baits may be placed behind boards leaned lengthwise against the walls to form natural runways or behind boxes. In poultry pens the remaining baits an be removed the next morning.
Drive Almost State-Wide
The drive against rats is almost state-wide; conducted by G. C. Oderkirk of West Lafayette, Ind., district agent for the Bureau of Biological Survey of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Mr. Oderkirk specializes in rodent control. Cooperating with cities and counties through county agents, the campaigns can be put on at one-third of the price charged by private pest exterminating concerns, it is said. The government furnishes, besides the supervisory personnel, the equipment for mixing the bait. The ingredients are supplied at cost.
The local Lions Club took the initiative in obtaining the campaign here and its committee, consisting of Dr. H. H: Farrand and A. U. Stearns, is actively cooperating with County Agent Mulendore to make the riddance as thorough as possible for a single poison application. Funds for the purchase of the poison for free distribution have been provided by the city council which matched similar appropriation by the county board. The county, however, will not have its drive at this time, as the $100 provided is insufficient.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive.
The type of bait is not stated, but it must have been red squill. This has more about it: https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT86200128/PDF
The November 5th Door County Advocate states that "Four hundred packages and one and one-half butter tubes of rat bait, amounting to over 700 pounds in all, were brought here from the district mixing point at Appleton".
Today, only Alberta has managed to eradicate Norway rats: https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.aspx
In 2022, NYC inspectors documented about twice as much rodent activity as the year before. This year the city appointed its first-ever "rat czar": https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/nyregion/rat-czar-kathleen-corradi.html