Patent Publication Number: US-2021185997-A1

Title: Disposable Snail Trap Apparatus

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     Not Applicable 
     THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
     Not Applicable 
     INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM 
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     STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR 
     Not Applicable 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (1) Field of the Invention 
     (2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98 
     The disclosure and prior art relates to snail traps and more particularly pertains to a new snail trap for removing snails from gardens. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a trap body. The trap body comprises a cylindrical sidewall having an open bottom edge and a hemispherical roof defining a trap inside. The sidewall has a plurality of door slots extending through to the trap inside. Each door slot extends from the bottom edge towards the roof. An interior surface of the trap body is textured. A plurality of overhangs is coupled to the trap body. The plurality of overhangs is coupled to the sidewall above the plurality of door slots. 
     There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. 
     The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) 
       The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is an isometric view of a disposable snail trap apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is a front elevation view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  is a bottom plan view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  is a rear elevation view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 5  is an in-use view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to  FIGS. 1 through 5  thereof, a new snail trap embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral  10  will be described. 
     As best illustrated in  FIGS. 1 through 5 , the disposable snail trap apparatus  10  generally comprises a trap body  12 . The trap body  12  comprises a cylindrical sidewall  14  having an open bottom edge  16  and a hemispherical roof  18  defining a trap inside  20 . A body height  22  of the trap body  12  is 25% greater than a body diameter  24  of the trap body  12 . A wall height  26  of the side wall  14  is 50% greater than a roof height  28  of the roof  18 . Ideally the bod height  22  is ten inches, the body diameter is eight inches, the wall height is six inches and the roof height is four inches. The sidewall  14  has a plurality of door slots  30  extending through to the trap inside  20 . Each door slot  30  has a pair of vertical edges  32  extending from the bottom edge  16  towards the roof  18  and a semicircular top edge  34 . Each of the door slots  30  has a door height  36  50% greater than a door width  38 . The door width  38  is 25% of the body diameter  24  and is thus ideally two inches with the door height  36  is three inches. The plurality of door slots  30  may be three door slots  30  each spaced 120° apart around the sidewall  14 . The trap body  12  may be molded cellulose fiber and sufficiently thin to be crumpled or folded. The trap body  12  creates a shaded refuge to draw snails through the door slots  30 . An interior surface  40  of the trap body is textured so the snails will climb the sidewall  14  and the roof  18 . A plurality of overhangs  42  is coupled to the trap body  12 . The plurality of overhangs  42  is coupled to the sidewall  14  along the top edge  34  of the plurality of door slots to create a shadow outside of the trap body  12  and further entice the snails. An overhang width  44  of each overhang  42  may be greatest at an apex  46  of each door slot  30  and progressively diminishes as the overhang  42  approaches the pair of vertical edges  32 . 
     In use, the apparatus  10  is placed on a lawn or in a garden. Once the interior surface  40  is sufficiently covered with snails, the apparatus  10  is removed, folded, and placed in the trash. 
     With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.