The Pest Technician Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

At this time there wasn't a germ theory of disease carried by rats. People were concerned because of rats damaging their food supply and the damage a rat could do to items in their home. Matthews said the rats were particularly bothersome during breeding season, which was eight months of the year, because of the goods (silk, cotton, leather, lace, paper) they would take for their nests while breeding.

In addition, being bitten by a rat could cause grave illness, and there really weren't known medicines around for adequate treatment. Jack Black, a famous rat catcher, said that he preferred to have a stout to taking the doctor's medicine, and that it always seemed to work for him. Jimmy Shaw, who ran a number of rat-baiting operations, said that his boys' fingers would turn black when they were bitten.

However, when left alone they always seemed to heal. This appeared to be a better option than what the doctor offered - amputation!

Answer: Poison

After a rat ate poison, it would die in a hiding place. After a couple of days, the family objected to the rotting smell in their home, and the rat catcher would then have to come back and look for the body, remove it, and disinfect. According to Matthews, "there is nothing more injurious than the smell of a decomposed Rat".

In addition, it is said that some disreputable rat catchers would keep live rats so as to make it look like they caught more each day than they really did. As the sport of rat baiting became more popular, a rat catcher could make some extra money by selling rats to people like Jimmy Shaw, who ran the rat baiting operations. Rats would be put in an open pit, and people would bet on how long it would take a dog to kill them. There were laws against cruelty to animals, such as bulls, but that wasn't the case with rats. Some sources say there were as many as seventy rat pits in London. This sport created a need for literally thousands of live rats.

Answer: Sawdust

Rats apparently like to play in sawdust, so he suggested to mix some oatmeal with the sawdust and spread it out in several small heaps. When returning the next day, it would be easy to see where the rats have been in the sawdust. After doing this for a few days, the next step is to bury a trap where they have played under every small heap. Matthews claimed to have caught as many as 114 in a night in this way.

He did say that over time they would quit playing in the sawdust, and the catcher would have to use soot instead.

When they got tired of the soot, tissue paper could be used, and after that hay seeds would work. Matthews also advised to only try and trap rats at night; usually the first three hours of darkness were the most lucrative.

Answer: January and February

Matthews stressed that it is best to catch as many rats as possible in January or February because they breed in March. After that each mother rat might have up to eight more that would have to be caught. Young rats presented a problem because they could fit into out-of-the-way places where they could not be captured.

In that case, he recommended a getting a cat - not a pet, but a feral cat. A good cat could get a lot of mousing done in a night's work!

Answer: Black rats

This is surprising because another article stated that the brown rats introduced in England in the 18th century really ran the black rats out of town. According to Matthews, however, the black rats, also called drain rats because they would come up through the water pipes in the water closet, were the most vicious. He also commented that the red rats, which were similar to brown ones were the "gamiest". When left alone in a cage, they would kill all the other rats.

Answer: True

Matthews claimed that it was impossible to guarantee to get rid of all of the rats in cities where there were so many buildings close together. Some shopkeepers had merchandise that wasn't bothered by rats, so they didn't hire a rat catcher. If there were four shops on the block, and only two paid for the rat catcher's services, that meant there were two still potentially filled with rats that would keep coming back to the other businesses.

He did say that if it was a private home he might give a guarantee after thoroughly investigating the situation.

Answer: Ferret

Ferreting, according to Matthews, worked well in cottages, stables, and hotels. It required a helper, as one person would let the ferret loose, and the other would take care of the net as the rats were ferreted out of their hiding places. It was important to work this way, because ferrets would kill the rats if left to their own devices, and that meant there wouldn't be live ones to sell, and there was that terrible odor of dead rats to deal with as well.

It doesn't sound like ferreting was so good for the ferrets. Matthews noted that ferrets could get killed by rats and fall down drains.

Answer: Queen Victoria

Jack was Her Majesty's Royal Rat Catcher and Mole Destroyer. Looking closely at the picture, one can notice "VR" on his badge of honor. Not only did Jack catch rats, he would also breed them if he came across ones with unusual colors. He sold his domesticated rats as pets called "fancy rats". Ladies would keep them in gilded cages.

It is said that even Queen Victoria kept a pet rat, or two! Of course, part of Black's income also came from selling rats to the rat baiters.

Answer: Black and Tan Terrier

Jack Black had many side-line jobs, and one of them was as an accomplished dog breeder. In an interview with Henry Mayhew in "London Labour and the London Poor", he claimed his black and tan terrier, Billy, was the greatest stock dog of the day, and the father of most of the terriers in London at the time.

He claimed to have sold one of the dogs from Billy's line for fourteen pounds to the Austrian ambassador.

Answer: June 26

The Pied Piper of Hamelin was hired to rid the town of rats, which he did with his magic pipe. When the townspeople refused to pay him, however, he lured the children away as well. There is a bit of confusion with the date as the Brothers Grimm wrote that the incident occurred on June 26, 1284, while Robert Browning claimed it happened on July 22, 1376. (There are wide variations in the dates given in various sources).