Patent Publication Number: US-2005132637-A1

Title: Pest control device

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field  
      The present device concerns a unique structure designed to contain poisons for the eradication of rats and other rodents, particularly outside of homes or other buildings. The device was developed to provide a safe, easy to use, weather resistant unit for containing various, readily available commercial poisons such as DCON and the like.  
      2. Prior Art  
      Heretofore the use of rat poisons and the like, typically in bait form and contained in a box or the like having doors or other openings, has necessitated extensive precautionary measures for preventing accidental poisoning of domestic animals, infants, pets, and birds particularly where the bait is placed within the home. These measures are seldom effective however in that the poison bait must be accessible to the target rodents which, of course makes the bait accessible to many other creatures. Also, death of rodents within a home usually results in unacceptable stench which is very difficult to eradicate.  
      Various poison bait station devices are available for outside the home use for controlling the rodent numbers to a level which can be managed by plugging up all of the holes in flooring, walls, roof structures and the like where rodents typically find entrance to the building. These devices however, again are indiscriminate in what animal or bird they kill.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention provides a solution to all of the aforesaid problems by providing a poison bait device having a poison bait container which, in operation, is accessible to rodents such as rats and mice but which is inaccessible to other creatures including humans, birds, dogs, cats and the like, wherein the only access to the bait well is thru a relatively small diameter tube having a tortuous path thru which rats and mice must slither, and wherein the entrance to said tube is generally planar and adapted for positioning close to the ground and substantially parallel to the ground plane. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The invention and its objects will be understood further from the following drawings and description, wherein:  
       FIG. 1  is a cross-sectional side view of a dual access embodiment of the present device;  
       FIG. 2  is an end view of the device with portions broken away for clarity and taken along line  2 - 2  in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional view taken along line  3 - 3  in  FIG. 1  and showing a variation of the housing having a rodent scent container section;  
       FIG. 4  is a top down view of the device taken along line  4 - 4  in  FIG. 1 ; and  
       FIG. 5  is a side view of a variation in configuration of the present device.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      The present device  10  in its more preferred embodiments is described below, with particular reference to the claims and drawings herein, wherein the structures are not drawn to scale or in actual proportions to each other and wherein certain dimensions are enlarged for clarity. The device can be constructed of any strong, durable, weatherable material including fabricated metal or wood, or molded plastic or ceramic, but preferably is comprised of adhesively connected PVC plumbing sections which, of course are readily available and provide the desired tubular contours.  
      The device comprises a bait containment housing  12  formed by wall means  14  to provide (1) a well portion  16  for containing poisoned bait  18 , (2) a rodent access opening  20  laterally displaced from said well portion, and (3) at least one tube portion  22  interconnecting the well portion and opening for allowing rodents to enter the housing and reach the bait and then exit the housing. Each tube portion has at least one run section generally designated  24 , the inner bottom surface  25  of which is preferably located from about 1.5 to about 5.0 inches above the bottom  26  of the well portion. Each opening  20  lies in a generally horizontal plane  28  and the housing is configured and dimensioned such that the bottom  26  of the well portion is from about 1.0 to about 3.0 inches below the plane  28  of the opening  20 .  
      Attachment means  32  is provided on the housing for positioning and securing the housing to a support  34  at a position relative to the ground whereby the plane  28  of the opening  20  is from about 1.0 to about 3.0 inches above the ground. Means  32  can be nails, lag screws, or the like and bushings  33  are preferably provided to space body portion  38  from a tree  34  or other support such as a fence post or building skirting such that cap  40  can be readily removed to refill the bait well or a scent chamber such as  30 .  
      In this regard the scent may be liquid  31  or solid and is used, if desired, as an additional attraction to the bait. The main body portion  38  of the housing is provided at its top with a screw on cap  40  which may be provided with a safety or tamper proof locking mechanism (not shown). The scent chamber  31  containing, e.g., pheromones, is conveniently provided by a screw-in plate  42  having a scent emitting aperture  44  and a hex nut or the like portion  46  to which a wrench may be applied to tighten the plate up into the cap  40 .  
      The configuration and dimensions of the device can be greatly varied, however, it is most preferred that openings  20  and tube portions  22  be no more than about 2.0 inches in inside diameter. The well portion  16  preferably should be sufficiently deep as to make it somewhat difficult for the rodent to pull the bait out of the device. Also the opening(s)  20  best serve the purpose by being less than about 2.0 inches from the ground where, e.g., a childs or pets arm could not get up in thru the opening and around the bend in tube portion  22 .  
      The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications will be effected with the spirit and scope of the invention.