Pago 2
Daily Nobr&skan
Tuesday, November 13, 1034
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Joel SsrtortD&Uy Ntbrsskan
Two waste water sendee workers Floyd Eceter,left, and Eon Scfcr&der, spend aboat 20 hours
each week plating poison bait cubes in manholes and along creekbanks. Here, they hold the
cube containers near "dead man's ran," a small section of creek near 48th and Holdrege
street.
By Lisa Nutting
D&Uy Nebrftskan Staff Eeporter
Mickey Mouse and the Three
Blind Mice should beware of Lin
coln, because, "we have, probably
the best rodent control program
throughout the country," said
Vera Agena, assistant superin
tendent in charge of the Lincoln
Wastewater Collection Service
Department
The program, "Rat Patrol,"
maintains more than 750 miles of
sewer line and 11,000 manholes
and keeps them "virtually rodent-free."
The Rat Patrol began opera
tion in 1978, when a Lincoln biol
ogist tested a new expeiimental
rodenticide, Talon. Talon was
used to control rat infestation of
a Lincoln restaurant and it
worked, Agena said. Within a
week, the body count of dead rats
in surrounding areas of the res
taurant was nearly 3,000.
Since that initial experiment,
Talon has been used effectively to
control the rat population of
Lincoln.
Rats will go wherever an ongo
ing food source is, Agena said.
"The main thing is, that we as
human beings are responsible for
rats," Agena said. "Without us,
there wouldn't be rats."
In the case of the restaurant,
where the handling of garbage
and grease was sloppy, rats mig
rated to garbage areas, Agena
said.
But, since 1973, with the intro
duction of Talon and Rat Patrol,
Lincoln's rat population is under
control, Agena said.
Two hours a day is spent solely
on checking and baiting numer
ous Talon traps throughout
Lincoln.
"This is a continuous deal it
will never stop," he said.
Each day, two of three trained
employees of the Waterwaste Col
lection Service check and refill
the bait trays. Talon is a rodenti
cide that is poisonous only to rats
and mice and would not kill other
animals unless they consumed a
great amount. Agena said it usu
ally takes a few days before the
rats die.
But, since sewers are not the
only place where rats dwell, Agena
receives 25 to 30 calls per month,
he says, with complaints of rats
near homes.
Age na ssid many homes that
have trash near or ground the
area are likely to have rats.
When a complaint h received,
the Rat Patrol will be out to check
the area within 24 hours, Agena
said.
In one case, a woman called
with a complaint of rats in her
garden. That afternoon, the Rat
Patrol arrived to her home and
got permission to bait her yard.
Because the woman was afraid to
go into her garden, the men picked
her tomatoes for her.
"We care about the residents of
Lincoln," Agena said.
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National and international news
from the Reuter News Report
CI
ntagon oeelio t
s O 0
minent mvasioii -leors
WASHINGTON The Pentagon said Monday it was continu
ing naval exercises in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans including
the Gulf of Fcnseca off Nicaragua but there were no prepara
tions for invading the Central American nation. Pentagon spo
kesmen responded to government radio braodcasts in Nicara
gua alleging that 25 VS. warships with 15,000 troops were
approaching the Caribbean coast and others were operating in
the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific side.
U.S. officials last week said the Soviet Union might be deliver
ing advanced MiG jets to Nicargua, which the United States
would find unacceptable. The officials later said it did not
appear any MiGs were delivered, but Managua warned of a U.S.
invasion allegedly intended to overthrow its leftist govern
ment. The Pentagon said Monday both naval exercises had been
announced and were not related to the Nicaraguan situation.
They said 25 ships were operating near Puerto Rico, hundreds
of miles from Nicargua, and were not headed toward Central
America The Gulf of Fonseca exercises, for which no figures
were given, includes Honduran and Salvadoran ships.
In M&lisgsia, Nicaragua's Defense Ministry Monday order
ed the armed forces on full alert and armored cars patrolled
the capital as the government warned the country of imminent
U.S. invasion. Soviet T-55 tanks rumbled through the streets of
the capital as soldiers set up artillery pieces and civilians dug
new trenches or repaired old ones. Civil defense workers
broadcast appeals to the population to make sure air-raid
shelters built last year alter the UJ3.-ied invasion cf Marxist
Grenada were ready for use. About 20,000 student volunteers
were diverted from picking the vital coffee crop and told to
help defend the capital instead.
Nicaragua's armedtorces, estimated at 60,000 troops and
300,000 militia members, are the strongest land force ti Cen
tral America
Would-be defectors return home
PRAGUE Up to 30 East Germans, a third of them children,
Monday joined a gradual exodus from the West German
Embassy, which has been occupied by scores of East Germans
seeking to flee to the West. Two white embassy mini-buses filled
with East Germans roared out of the huge embassy gate and
sped to Central Station, where they boarded the Vindobona
Express, a train that runs from Vienna via Prague to East
Berlin.
Reporters who saw the minibuses leave estimated the
number of East Germans at about 20. But travellers accom
panying the group over the border into East Germany said they
totalled around 30. Western diplomats said earlier that by
Sunday night about 50 of more than 1 50 people camped inside
the baroque palace had left for home after East Germany
pledged they would not face prosecution. But the authorities in
East Berlin have refused to guarantee they will eventually be
allowed to emigrate to the West, as happened in similar cases
earlier.
Government sources and media reports in West Germany
have said at least 36 East Germans are in the West German
embassies in Bucharest, Budapest and Warsaw.
Bnarte, rebels plan T debate
SAN SALVADOR President Jose Napoleon Duarte is
expected to take part in a U.S. television debate via satellite
with Salvadoran guerrilla leaders Wednesday, government
spokesman Julio Adolfo Rey Prendes said Monday. He told
reporters Duarte probably would put his case in the Public
Broadcasting System program through a satellite link from
San Salvador. Guillermo Ungo and Ruben Zamora, who have
led the leftist rebels in the five-year-old war, also would take
part by telephone or satellite, officials involved in the project
said.
Meideon police rout drag fectoxy
MEXICO CITY Eight men, including seven security police
oSicers, have been arrested on charges of running a huge
desert drug factory that employed some 5,000 peasants
against their will, judicial officials said Monday. They said more
than 8,000 tans of maryuana were seised as Mexican police
smashed the operation over the last five days. The drug factory
plantations, drying and packaging plants and a fleet cf 30
trucks was located on ranches in a desert area in northe . n
Chihuahua state.
o n mciak said that of 5,000 men found in the drug factory,
4UUU were allowed to leave after questioning. The peasants,
who were underfed, said they were tricked into joining the
operation and then prevented from leaving.
