If Norman Englot’s rodent lure is as effective as he says, the entrepreneur may soon earn himself a reputation as the MacGyver of mouse bait.
The Montmarte, Sask., farmer came up with the idea two years ago after trying to slip a jar of peanut butter past his wife to keep in his mouse-infested garage.
“She gave me a cross-eyed look and asked me what I was doing, and I told her I was going to bait mousetraps. Well that didn’t go over too well.”
Read Also
Ag in Motion speaker highlights need for biosecurity on cattle operations
Ag in Motion highlights need for biosecurity on cattle farms. Government of Saskatchewan provides checklist on what you can do to make your cattle operation more biosecure.
Forced to find a more convenient container for his ration of peanut butter, Englot came across some recently sterilized cattle syringes.
It wasn’t until he got into the garage and baited his traps that he realized how effective his spur-of-the-moment creation was.
“I thought, ‘well this is pretty slick.’ It goes on easy and you don’t have to touch the mousetrap … and that’s where the concept started.”
Shortly afterward, Englot and his wife were having dinner with another couple, Kevin and Lydia Shiplach. He told them the story of his invention and jokingly asked them if they wanted to go into business with him.
When he was met with thoughtful looks instead of laughter he knew he had a marketable idea on his hands. The two couples began laying the groundwork for their enterprise soon after.
Although syringes had already been chosen as the method of delivery, they knew that they would have to come up with something more unique than peanut butter for the bait.
A few internet searches later revealed some traditional mouse-appealing ingredients, which Englot mixed with peanut butter to create a bait that he claims is 90 percent more effective than peanut butter or cheese alone.
The results of those internet searches, however, are a closely guarded
secret.
“With (KFC), everybody knows that you’re eating chicken, but nobody knows what the 11 herbs and spices are,” he said.
While the ingredients are a mystery, Englot swears that the bait, which he describes as a greenish paste, is nontoxic and tastes good by human standards.
“We laughed, because we always said you could probably put it on crackers and get away with it if you wanted to.”
The two families run the company by themselves. Although it’s a lot of work for only four people, the Englots and the Shiplachs have a lot of helping hands, 10 to be exact.
“There’s five children with us, three of mine and two of (Shiplach’s),” said Englot. Although the kids used to help fill and label the syringes by hand, they now use two machines that Englot developed.
Filling by hand yielded about five syringes a minute, but the machines have sped the process up almost fourfold, resulting in approximately 800 syringes an hour. One syringe of Bet’r Bait costs about $2 and will bait three traps.
The product hit store shelves
Feb. 22 and is available at hardware stores in Montmartre, Wolseley and Indian Head, Sask.
