Remote Monitoring Dos and Don’ts

By Chelle Hartzer, 360 Pest and Food Safety Consulting

Adding electronic remote monitoring (ERM) to your toolset for rodent control can fundamentally improve your business, saving you time checking empty traps and providing key insights on where and when rodents are active at your job sites.

If you’re new to ERM, here are ten dos and don’ts to keep in mind as you look at how to integrate monitoring into your current rodent control approach.

DO – Understand the differences between various ERM technologies

ERM systems can connect to the cloud by cellular or wifi, and some Bluetooth systems don’t connect to the cloud at all so don’t provide information unless you’re on site. How the systems connect to the cloud and how system gateways connect to sensors can affect how and where they can be deployed as well as how far sensors can be from each gateway, when alerts are received and overall connectivity quality.

Another difference is how the ERM systems are powered. Most sensors are battery powered, but some have replaceable batteries and others require sensors to be replaced. Some gateways require a wall power connection, and others run on batteries.

There are also financial differences to consider because some ERM systems work with existing traps, while others require new hardware. When looking at the cost of a system, consider the costs of trap replacement and device replacement as well as initial hardware cost and subscription pricing.

DO — Plan and Adjust your ERM Deployments

Sensors and gateways should be placed based on an initial inspection, site history, and current and past pest issues. Depending on the source of power for the gateways (battery or plug-in) some factors could limit their placement. Consider the risks of potential system disruption at the gateway level based on gateway location and proximity to human and machine traffic. Be prepared to adjust placements as needed based on conditions and what the data shows.

DON’T – Limit Your Trap Placements

Where traditional rodent control approaches may limit where you place traps due to accessibility and the difficulty of checking them regularly, with ERM that’s not the case. You can place traps with sensors in hard-to-reach areas like drop ceilings, enclosed spaces, and other areas that are difficult to get to, since you’ll only need to check them when there’s activity.

DO — Involve Your Whole Team

Once you adopt ERM, make sure everyone involved in operations is aware of how the system works and what their role will be. Conduct training (most vendors offer training) on the deployment of the system and how to attach sensors to traps, activate them, and run a systems test. Most important is to train on how to read the sensor signals and what to do when an alert happens.

DON’T — Ignore Alerts

Establish a response plan including the expected response times. Quick response time is key to not only dealing with the current problem but for preventing future issues. If false alerts occur, consider a different sensor or placement. Make sure the right people/teams are getting the alerts.

DO — Analyze the Data

Use the data you collect to find the underlying factors that are causing the pest issue. Investigate the location of captures, the rate of captures, and even the timing of when those captures happened. This allows you to optimize both your trap deployment and your strategies in all other IPM areas.

DON’T – Shorten Your Service Times

Spend the time you save on trap checking on inspections, documentation, and client communication. By finding and fixing any conducive conditions, you can prevent pest issues from happening. If you shorten your time per visit at the account, there will be pressure to reduce prices for the service.

DON’T – Assume ERM is the only thing you need

There is still a need for inspections, documentation of conducive conditions, and treatments when necessary. ERM doesn’t exist for all pest varieties and conventional methods are still necessary to monitor those.

DO — Choose Your Sensor Types Carefully

Different sensors work in different ways and what works best will depend on what traps you are using. There are magnetic switches, accelerometers, infrared, and more. You will need to see what works best with your different trap types.

DO – Get Experience with Remote Monitoring

The best way to learn is to do some hands-on training! It’s a great way to understand what this system can do. You can experiment with different trap types and different sensors. You can do a small deployment to “practice” before you bring on the whole system.

Roof Rat Removal: Outsmarting This Wily Rodent with Remote Monitoring

Articles, Case study, News

Roof rats (rattus rattus) have proven to be one of the most challenging and dangerous rodents in the U.S. today. Once confined largely to the South, roof rat populations have steadily spread to the Southwest and West, and are now starting to take root in the middle of the country.

Carriers of multiple diseases, roof rats are a public health hazard. They cause considerable damage in the food value chain, from agriculture to food processors to food service facilities, and are a nuisance to businesses and homeowners.

You can place Trapmate-equipped traps virtually anywhere roof rats might run

A Formidable Foe

The climbing and acrobatics skills of the roof rat make it much more formidable than other rodents. The roof rat’s ability to scale walls, walk on wires, and get pretty much anywhere makes it harder to trap. Traps on the ground will be unlikely to significantly reduce a roof rat population.

To effectively eradicate a roof rat infestation, you’ll need to place traps at some of the most hard-to-reach places in a structure: on pipes, rafters and columns, above drop ceilings, and in trees and attics. Monitoring all of the traps manually demands significant physical effort and creates a risk of injury to those that have to reach the traps.

Outsmart the Roof Rat

But you don’t need to check all traps if you’re using Trapmate. Our networked Hub and Sensors remote monitoring systems alert you with absolute certainty whether or not there’s a kill in your trap. You’ll only climb into the attic or into the drop ceiling when you need to clear the trap.

And you’ll know exactly where and when the rats are being trapped, providing critical intelligence for your exclusion efforts. The time Trapmate saves you, eliminating empty trap checks, will free you and your team up to focus on inspection, exclusion, cleanup and other critical tasks. As importantly, you’ll reduce the physical strain and risk of injury for your staff.

Trapmate makes managing traps in hard-to-reach places much easier and safer, so you can deploy more of them

Why Trapmate?

Trapmate’s unique attributes make it the ideal monitoring system for defeating roof rats.

Trapmate sensors are small in size and securely attach to the most common rat traps. You can deploy Trapmate-equipped traps anywhere roof rats might travel, something you can’t do with the bulky devices of other remote monitoring systems. You’llbe able to use your existing traps, saving you a lot of money.

Equipped with a reed switch –a magnet sensor — Trapmate sensors provide virtually 100% accuracy when recording a kill, eliminating the false positives that are time wasters for PCOs.

Trapmate’s battery-powered Hubs can be mounted anywhere. You can place them on trees, on roofs, onrafters — really, anywhere since you don’t need to plug them in — safely out of sight and out of reach.

There’s no pairing or passwords require to set up Trapmate sensors. And you can check trap status from anywhere, unlike Bluetooth-based systems which require you to be on site.

Trapmate Delivers Rapid Results

In addition to enabling long-term monitoring of locations with a typical degree of rat pressure, Trapmate can be used for rapid eradication of roof rats and other pests in heavily infested areas. Our low cost of deployment and operational costs enable PCOs to quickly knock down populations with extensive trap deployments, eliminating or reducing the use of rodenticides.

Underneath view of Trapmate-equipped traps mounted on a pipe

You’ll only need to open up the drop ceiling when something is in the trap

In a recent deployment with over 500 sensor and trap deployments the PCO was able to eliminate over 200 roof rats in a single 2 week period.

The PCO equipped their existing traps with Trapmate Vibration/Magnet Sensors and mounted them (as shown in the pictures) under drop ceilings, on pipes, and along other conduits.

Trapmate’s agnostic approach to trapping methods and equipment design permits PCOs to operate using their preferred methods and equipment. This flexibility also facilitates rotational strategies to deal with trap shyness, and allows PCOs to dynamically react to different circumstances at different locations for a wide range of customers.

Got Roof Rats? Get Trapmate!

Want more information on how you can use Trapmate to defeat roof rats for you and your clients? E-mail [email protected], call (800) 760-3966 or use this form. If you’ve been a user of ActiveSense monitoring systems, ask about our ActiveSense replacement program

Winning the Rat Race in the Remote Monitoring Era

Articles, News

Winning the Rat Race in the Era of Remote Monitoring

The pest control industry continues to grow – and with it, the level of competition. Electronic remote monitoring (ERM) will elevate your pest control and help you stay ahead of your competitors.

The business of pest control is as competitive as any large industry. While our industry is friendly as a whole, PCOs still have to compete for every piece of business. Those that win the new business will grow; those that don’t will tread water or, worse, lose ground.

In this period of industry consolidation, achieving growth is more important than ever. If you’re goal is to stay independent, profitable growth gives you the ability to sustain the ups and downs of our business cycles.

If you’re looking to acquire other firms, having a growing book of business and higher margins will help you finance acquisitions. If you’re looking to sell your business to another company, the larger your top and bottom lines are, the higher a multiple you’ll command.

How, then, to achieve a competitive edge as a PCO? Isn’t this a business where pretty much everyone uses the same types of equipment, the same general business models, and performs similar services? Aren’t the keys to competition having a better reputation, more engaging employees, and better salespeople?

Electronic Remote Monitoring – The Game Changer

There’s no doubt that word-of-mouth referrals, engaging employees, and salespeople that are closers are important assets for your business. So are a good website, good advertising, and local business partnerships.

But none of these things are truly transformative to your business.

That’s where electronic remote monitoring (ERM) comes in. The ability of today’s technology to know where and when animals are entering your traps is changing the face of pest control.

ERM has been around for some years now, but until recently, most PCOs just saw ERM as an additional cost. If you’re not willing to change how you run your business, that’s what it is.

But savvy PCOs are changing how they run their business. They’re building new service models based around ERM, achieving faster growth and bringing more to the bottom. And they’re winning this business from those of you that don’t have an ERM offering.

Stay Up with the Big Boys

Electronic remote monitoring is so key to the future of pest control that the biggest players in the industry have acquired, developed, or white-labeled their own ERM offerings.

Anticimex has made electronic remote monitoring a linchpin of its growth strategy. Every Anticimex office uses their Anticimex SMART technology, which is featured in almost every proposal they make for both residential and commercial jobs. Anticimex companies are winning market share and the group is enjoying some of the fastest growth rates in the industry.

Rentokil offers its customers remote monitoring through its PestConnect technology. Ecolab promotes its customers with Intelligent Rodent Monitoring System. These big companies wouldn’t offer ERM services if they didn’t better financial results.

I want to win the business. Let's connect.

If you’re not already using electronic remote monitoring, it’s time to start. Those PCOs that master how to use ERM in their business will be able to compete effectively, win the “rat race” and grow their businesses. For those that don’t use ERM, well, the trap door is closing.

How can you make the investment in electronic remote monitoring pay off for your business? And how do you need to rethink your service model to stay competitive using ERM technology?

Making ERM Pay

What’s the financial payoff for investing in ERM? How does having real-time data about what traps have animals in them help your bottom line? Based on reports from the early adopters of ERM, these are some of the benefits you could see from using remote monitoring:

You’ll win more business	The fact that you’re using advanced pest control technology is a key selling point for many prospects. Promote your use of ERM, and the benefits they’ll receive, and your chances of getting them to buy increases. And customers will pay a little more for better service.
You’ll reduce the time you need to spend on site	Checking empty traps is a time and money waster – a study by Bell suggested that using ERM can save 78% of your time by eliminating empty trap checks. You can use these time savings for other clients, or use the time for faster inspection and exclusion. This, in turn, saves you time down the road, and makes for happier clients.
You’ll be able to eliminate unnecessary visits	Some of your customers want regular visits, but others don’t like to be interrupted unnecessarily. With ERM, you’ll be able to skip trips – and the costs associated with them – when there’s nothing to be done.
You’ll be able to create new upsell packages	Some PCOs provide ERM as an integral part of their service package as a way to win more business. Others offer ERM as an upsell and are able to increase their monthly fees as a result. ERM creates other opportunities for upsells, like a rapid response option, for those that want dead rodents removed faster than the standard service window.
You’ll reduce employee churn	A “hidden benefit” of ERM is the improvement in working conditions for your technicians, which reduces employee churn. Given our industry’s work force shortages, keeping your employees is a huge money saver. ERM makes the job easier and more satisfying for your team. Checking hundreds of empty traps is tough on the body, as is crawling into a home’s crawl space to check just one or two. And focusing on pest control strategy, inspection and mitigation instead of trap checking makes the job more satisfying as well.
Your customers will be happier	By using ERM, you’ll be able to get more done more quickly, which makes for repeat and referral business. You’ll have an option for clients that want to stay away from rodenticide at their homes and businesses. And some customers appreciate the additional face time from technicians that can focus on customer service instead of empty trap service.

This is just a partial list. PCOs that use ERM and change their services to leverage the technology are finding new benefits all the time. The sooner you start to adopt remote monitoring, the faster you’ll gain the advantages it brings to you and your customers.

How to select the remote monitoring system that’s right for your business

But what ERM system should I choose? There are several vendors to choose from. Here are some questions to consider when evaluating the field.

Does the ERM system work with my existing traps, or require me to buy new traps?

Some ERM systems require that you buy new traps with monitoring built in. Other ERM systems allow you to use the same traps and stations you have in inventory. This can be a key factor in the overall cost of your ERM investment.

Does the ERM system offer true remote monitoring – checking trap status from anywhere – or does it require you to be present on the site?

Some ERM systems connect directly or through a gateway/hub to the cellular network, so you can get real-time information from your traps virtually anywhere and avoid unnecessary visits. Systems that use Bluetooth can require you to be on site to get trap information, meaning you’re not getting information in real time. With these systems, you’ll still be making trips when you don’t need to.

Does the ERM system require wall power, or does it run on batteries?

Most sensors run on batteries. But most ERM gateways require wall power, making them vulnerable to accidental unplugging and power outages. Gateways that need to plugged in usually have to be placed in locations not ideal for sensor signal reception. Fully battery-powered ERM systems – where both sensors and gateways run on batteries – provide more reliability than wall-powered systems, and you can place them virtually anywhere at the customer’s site.

Are the batteries in the sensors replaceable?

Some ERM solutions use off-the-shelf batteries which are easily replaceable, ensuring a long lifetimes for your ERM devices. Other systems require that you purchase a new sensor, or even a whole new trap or station, when the batteries run out, significantly increasing the lifetime cost of such systems.

Is the ERM software easy to use?

All ERM systems provide software for technicians and home offices to use. Make sure you get a look at each ERM vendor’s software, to make sure you’re comfortable with its ease of use and the features that are provided.

Does the ERM system offer different types of trap sensing for different types of traps?

Different types of sensors work best for different types of traps and stations. Accelerometers, which send alerts based on vibrations, work in most cases but not ideal for multi-catch traps. Reed switches, where magnets connect physically to snap traps and trap doors, are virtually foolproof indicators of a kill. Infrared sensors, which detect animal warmth, are good for multi-catch stations. Check with your ERM provider so understand what sensor types are provided. Some provide only one; others provide multiple sensor options.

How accurate are the alerts I get?

No ERM system can be 100% right all the time. False positives – where the system indicates a kill when none has happened – can be annoying, especially if you make a special trip to a site based on them. False negatives – where no alert is sent when a capture is made – mean you might be leaving animals to decay in traps. Make sure you test all the main ERM systems, if possible, as some are more reliable than others.

How good is the vendor’s customer support?

Everyone provides great service during the sales process – what matters is how good the support is after you’ve made the purchase. Check with customers that use the vendor’s systems…ideally on your own, vs. using the provided references.

Is the vendor committed to the ERM business?

When you look at the ERM vendor landscape, some of the vendors have been bought and sold multiple times. When private equity is involved, or when companies make most of their revenues off of chemicals or other hardware, their focus on ERM isn’t guaranteed. Look for vendors that are focused on ERM as their core business.

Who offers the lowest cost of ownership?

This is the big question! Many factors go into this calculation. Here’s what you should look at – in total.

What’s the purchase cost (or lease cost) of the hardware?
What’s the cost of the subscription?
Do I need to buy new stations and traps, or can I use my existing inventory?
When would I need to buy a new device (e.g., if the batteries aren’t replaceable)
Does the system save me from unnecessary visits?

It is important to consider all these factors, and not any one in isolation. For example, if an ERM system has no subscription costs, but requires you to replace all your existing hardware, it may not offer the lowest lifetime cost. Other vendors require you to lease their systems, making the hardware cost much higher.

The good news is – you have different ERM choices to look at, and no matter which you choose, you’ll be able to compete with a profound advantage over your slower competitors.

About Skyhawk Trapmate

Skyhawk Trapmate is a full line of electronic remote monitoring hardware and software solutions for both pest control and wildlife control. All Trapmate devices are powered for years on off-the-shelf batteries, which can be easily replaced, ensuring easy installation and the lowest cost of ownership of any ERM system. Combining long-range RF connectivity to sensors, and a cellular uplink, each battery powered Trapmate gateway can be placed anywhere at a job site, and can connect to hundreds of sensors as much as thousands of feet away.

Trapmate’s DualSense sensors combine a reed switch and an accelerometer into a single device, for the most accurate alerts in the industry, and the Trapmate passive infrared sensor is an ideal alternative for multi-catch traps.

Skyhawk is the leader in battery-powered remote monitoring, and is exclusively focused on designing, developing and manufacturing the best ERM solutions for pest control and other industries. The company, founded in 2017, is based in Derry, NH.