This is an entertaining article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/wo...=5070&emc=eta1
"Mr. Harda and three deputies strode through these lanes like Ghostbusters, cages in hand, nodding at passers-by for whom their arrival is a daily reassurance. They stopped at food warehouses full of sacks of rice, sugar and lentils. Many had installed cages the day before and found a specimen or two. Mr. Harda gathered the catches into a single, swarming cage.
By 10:05 a.m., they had two full cages in custody. Now the rats had to die.
The cages were dipped one by one into a bucket, but the bucket was too short and many of the rats managed to keep their noses above the water level. When the cage was restored to dry ground, the rats patiently rearranged their fur as if nothing had happened.
But Mr. Harda had an alternative plan, which was not subtle or hygienic but was terrifyingly effective. One of his deputies plucked the rats from the cage one by one and, with the vigor of a Whack-a-Mole player, slammed each one onto the ground. The rat would convulse with shock, then suddenly go still. In some cases, its limbs would gyrate, Elvis-like, for a final few seconds. A few especially resilient souls briefly resurrected themselves to make a last, death-defying jump. And then they, too, died.
The men killed 26 rats in five minutes. Afterward, a small fraction would be sent to a laboratory to be tested for bubonic plague."