Years ago, before the EPA got mixed up in all this, we used to make our own bait balls. On some nice
snowy day, (remember snow?) all the guys would sit down at a table, smoke cigars, laugh at the soap operas,
(Jerry Springer wasn't around back then) tell dirty jokes, cuss and roll bait balls. More or less, in
that order.
First of all, baits are cheaper, of course, when you buy it in bulk. (Cheap is good.)
The bait balls are easy to make, we could always make a few, even on the spot, when we needed them.
They were handy to toss into corners or roll down burrows, and easy for the rodents to carry away. The
bait would stay fresher longer, enclosed in the aluminum foil, and rodents are used to finding good things
in foil.
The problem is, that kids are used to finding good things in foil also. So the EPA (and
most state and local laws) say that exterminators can't do that anymore. (They won't even let us cuss.)
Everything now has to have a proper label or be in tamperproof boxes. Also, most rodent baits are now
required to have a "bittering" agent built in, which makes baits bitter to human taste buds.
But
you can do it and use it on your own. And this is how you do it. If I had to bait MY OWN house, this
is how I'd do it.
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