PIED PIPER OF ATASCADEROS:

American Trying to Rid Mexico Town of Rats (OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, December 2, 2004, AP)

This remote farming town in northwestern Mexico has tried just about everything to rid itself of rats: cats, poison and even cash rewards for killing the thousands of rodents infesting businesses and destroying the corn harvest.

So when retired Massachusetts salesman Stephen Petren called and said he had a foolproof method, local officials took him up on it.

Now, Petren, who speaks no Spanish, is using hand signals to teach Mexicans how to exterminate vermin.

Petren, 71, from Holliston, Mass., decided he could help this town of 3,000 in the rugged Tarahumara mountains after reading an article about farmers battling a plague of rats. He flew to El Paso, Texas, where he met Mexican officials who drove him 16 hours to Atascaderos, which translates roughly as "Mud Hole," and put him up at the only hotel for miles. [...]

Petren came armed with molasses, empty oil drums, paper and string for a method he learned in 1951 from his biology professor, a World War II soldier who served in France.

On a recent Sunday, farmers wearing sweat-stained straw hats and sandals gathered at the town's dance hall around the affable, gray-haired American, who looked out of place in his khaki pants and hiking boots.

"We're not bringing a magic flute, but Mr. Petren has an idea to help control the problem, and we have to give him a chance," said Luis Martinez, the state pest control official who brought Petren to Atascaderos.

With some translation help from this reporter, Petren showed the men how the open end of the drum had to be covered tightly with paper and secured with string. A mix of molasses and corn would be placed on top of the drum as bait and a ladder would have to be built with wood or empty boxes so the rats could have easy access.

"The rats will have to be fed for six days, and on the seventh day the magic happens," Petren told the farmers.

The magic, Petren said, consists of cutting a cross through the paper, filling a third of the drum with water and removing the last step on the ladder.

"The rats will come to get their dessert, and they will be forced to jump and will fall in the drum and drown," Petren said as the men looked at him with blank expressions.

Heard him last night on the CBC and when one of the farmers jumped the gun he had about a dozen drowned rats in his barrel.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 7, 2004 2:32 PM