The Bet'r Bait Story
It's an idea that started in Norman Englot's farm shop in Montmartre, Saskatchewan, Canada, and now it's available on retail shelves.
The discovery of a clean and non-poisonous way to attract mice came as Norman got into a bit of trouble with his wife, Loretta, when he tried to bait his farm mouse traps from the family's household peanut butter jar.
"I had mice like crazy in my shop, so I went to grab the peanut butter from the kitchen and Loretta looked at me and said, 'What are you doing?'" says the Saskatchewan farmer, explaining that taking the jar to the shop would likely have led to it being left there, or being exposed to dirt and disease. "I decided that there must be a better way and that's when the idea of Bet'r Bait came to me."
Norman came up with an easy-to-use syringe filled with bait, while partners Kevin and Lydia Shiplack created a special non-toxic formula to go into the syringes which mice prefer over peanut butter and cheese.
The project has become a family affair, with Norman inventing an air-compressor-based filling system in his shop that the two couples and their five children have used to fill thousands of BET'R BAIT syringes.
Mechanized efficiencies are being explored for the future production of BET'R BAIT.
"Our at-home method has been pretty labour-intensive, which is fine for the first batch," says Kevin. "But now we're planning on a mechanized alternative and our kids will be very happy about that."
