Patent ID: 7043873

Claim:
A bait station for offering bait to a target insect, comprising: a) a base including a bait cup for containing bait, said bait cup having a central floor surrounded by an insect-climbable bait cup wall extending upwardly from the central floor to an upper end and a peripheral flange coplanar with said central floor and extending outwardly from said bait cup wall, said peripheral flange including a peripheral floor adjacent to the bait cup wall; and b) a cover fastened to the base, said cover including: (i) a shell having an upstanding shell wall rising from said peripheral flange and spaced outwardly from and surrounding said bait cup wall so that said peripheral floor extends between said bait cup wall and said shell wall to define a walkway therebetween, and a roof spanning the space encompassed by the shell wall, (ii) at least one doorway formed in the shell wall, the doorway having a size sufficient to admit a target insect, (iii) said roof being sufficiently spaced above the bait cup wall so that a target insect may crawl through the doorway onto said walkway and over the upper end of the bait cup wall to access bait contained within the bait cup, (iv) a support rib extending downwardly from the roof said support rib having a lower end that directly engages the upper end of the bait cup wall to support the roof, and (v) a cover flange extending outwardly from said shell wall and attached to said peripheral flange of said base.