A large pet food production facility experienced occasional problems with mice. An enclosed 50’ x 200’ attic was a known harborage area and was difficult to service. Constructed to enclose utilities, the attic was located above a processing area and near a loading dock. Because it lacked a true floor, service technicians walked across boards placed on support beams and had to step over pipes and around electrical lines to inspect nearly 100 snap traps in the attic. The foundation walls, constructed with hollow blocks, left a gap that mice used as a runway, so some snap traps were lowered on ledges in the voids.
ActiveSense® System Deployed
One dozen snap traps with ActiveSense® sensors attached were placed in the attic area. Four snap traps with sensors also were placed in a 3’ x 12’ closet located below the attic and near the loading dock. Two snap traps with sensors were placed in rodent stations outside of the loading dock and near a dumpster.
“ActiveSense data was accurate. Even when we had false positives, the information is important. When you get two alerts in the middle of the night from two different traps and within one hour of each other, it begs the question, what’s going on? Now you can work to deduce what’s going on. Could it have been wildlife? Could it be human activity?” -- Pat Hottel, BCE, technical director, McCloud Services
Monitoring and Results
- Sensors showed mice were getting to the processing area by coming down from the attic through the closet. When a seal was placed under the closet door, it forced mice to go to the food in the traps.
- Rodent captures in the attic dropped off rapidly to more than a week and then more than a month with no activity alerts.
- Sensor activity readings pinpointed where the mice were and allowed snap trap numbers in the attic to be reduced to fewer than two dozen.
- Multi-catch traps in the attic were replaced with snap traps.
- Service in the attic is only done if there has been a notification of activity.
- Service time required for the attic was reduced from 45 minutes to zero minutes when there was no activity or to about 10 minutes when a notification of activity was received.
“ActiveSense proved to be very valuable, especially in an area where service was difficult.” -- Pat Hottel, BCE, technical director, McCloud Services