Oh, rats! If there is one thing I hate, it's the cause-of-the-month press releases I get at work. Sure, some are worthy causes. October, for example, is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is very bad, and I'm happy to spend an entire month thinking about how bad it is.
But October is also National Stamp Collecting Month, National Popcorn Poppin' Month (a favorite in LDS primary classes), and -- my personal favorite -- National Rodent Prevention Month.
Did you know:
The majority of the 50,000 people bitten each year by rats are children.
Rats and mice are proven carriers of serious diseases such as the plague, salmonella and trichinosis.
Twenty-six percent of all electric-cable breaks and 18 percent of all phone-cable disruptions are caused by rats.
Rats' teeth are as hard as steel and can exert biting pressures of 7,000 pounds per square inch.
The above information is from a National Rodent Prevention Month press release sent out by an insecticide company. The company has even offered to provide an "expert" to discuss rodent invasion and give tips to eliminate pests safely and effectively.
A noble gesture, to be sure, but I think anyone who devotes only one month a year to preventing rodents is in for more than just a few chewed television cables.
My advice: Stop leaving cheese on the kitchen counter, get rid of junky corners that could fester a rat's nest, and don't let that creepy Pied Piper guy get within 50 feet of your home.
-- Elyssa Andrus
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on Oct. 27, 2004, on page B1.
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/113267/149/
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