True Detective

When Galvin Murphy, president of Yankee Pest Control, received a call to provide an estimate on a rat job in a Boston apartment building he had no way of knowing what he and his technicians were in for.

The five story, 396-unit structure had a severe Norway rat problem and the owners and previous pest management contractor were at a loss to identify the source of the infestation which numbered well into the hundreds. “We inspected the exterior of the building and there was little evidence of rat activity,” says Murphy. “There were no visible burrow openings or obvious entry points into the building.”

With little information to go on, Murphy morphed into super sleuth mode and turned his attention to the interior of the structure where residents endured the smell of decaying rats in wall voids and maintenance personnel were shooting rats with BB guns as they traversed exposed pipes.

Murphy asked residents where they were seeing the most rat activity and these conversations led him to a compactor room adjacent to an apartment that was experiencing a serious rat problem. “It was rat central in the compactor room,” says Murphy. “The room was filled with droppings and smelled of rodent urine, and there was abundant food to feed on.”

Construction Issues

Compounding the problem was a series of construction shortcomings that provided the rats with ease-of-access to units, food and harborage within the building.

The first design error in the pre-fabricated structure were voids and openings around the multi-floor compact chute that allowed the rats to move freely up and down between floors.

“The competition for food in the compactor room made baits ineffective and that is when we realized that trapping would be a major part of achieving the knockdown we needed,” says Murphy.

The second construction error was discovered when a wall behind a bathtub on a first floor unit was opened up, revealing an open slab with direct access to the ground. Additional inspections exposed similar construction errors with many of the first floor’s 70-plus bathtub enclosures.

Plan of Attack

Armed with this new evidence Murphy set out to “prosecute” a rodent management program that would put away the rats for good.

Murphy’s first step was sitting down with the building owner and requesting the compactor room be shut down to remove the rats’ abundant food sources. The owner acquiesced to Murphy’s request and a permit was obtained from the city to place dumpsters on the exterior of the building where residents had to place their trash.

With the compactor room closed and purposely not cleaned so as not to make the rats suspicious, Murphy’s technicians installed dozens of Trapper® T-REX Rat Snap Traps and waited to see what happened. Overnight they captured 25 rats and over the next few weeks saw capture numbers exceed 200 rats.

“One of the benefits the T-REX Rat Snap Trap is its ease of use in the field,” says Murphy. “The traps are durable and unlike wooden traps they can be emptied easily and reused which is important when you are working in accounts with high rodent pressure.”

With the trapping program in the compactor room seeing positive results and with fewer resident complaints, contractors began fixing the bathrooms by filling in the openings under the tub with XcluderTM Rodent Control Fill Fabric and concrete to permanently block off the rats access.

“After we started opening up walls we finally figured out why we didn’t see any activity on the exterior of the building,” says Murphy. “The rats could eat to their hearts content in the compactor room and then access underground burrows that gave them access to the units under the bathtubs. They had no reason to go outdoors.”

Initially resistant to Murphy’s program, the building owner soon realized that empty units (the average rent was $2,400 per month) were costing him money and he approved the expenditure. “We have made great strides but we still have work to do,” says Murphy, who estimates the project may take more than a year to complete. “We have been able to introduce baiting back into the program to complement our trapping and exclusion efforts.”

Traps Solve the Problem

Prior to his experience with the apartment building Murphy was reluctant to use traps as part of Yankee’s rodent management programs. The experience has changed his thinking.

“We are using traps more frequently for rat infestations with our commercial clients,” says Murphy, who says this year’s rat explosion in Boston is due to the area’s harsh winter when pest control professionals could not deploy baiting programs due to the record snowfall that made servicing bait stations impossible.

Murphy says traps eliminate the threat of odors from dead rodents in wall voids and provide him with valuable data on where rodent “hot spots” are in accounts. Using T-REX Snap Traps also saves Yankee’s technicians time and the company money.

“Our technicians can service clients more efficiently with the T-REX Snap Traps and because we can reuse them we save money,” says Murphy.

Case Closed:

Trapping Seals the Verdict on Challenging Rodent Account

With its ferocious grip, the Trapper® T-REX Rat Snap Trap and Trapper® Mini-REX Mouse Snap Trap provides superior trapping power for both rats and mice in both commercial and residential accounts.

The traps’ durability and versatility — two holes on the bottom allow technicians (using zip ties or wire) to attach the trap to pipes, drop ceilings and other hard-to-reach areas where rodents frequently travel — are two of the advantages it offers pest management professionals.

“Another advantage the Trapper T-REX traps offer technicians is that they can set multiple traps in the time it takes to set one wooden trap,” says Shelia Haddad, Bell Labs regional business manager for the Northeast. “And when you are in an account with heavy rodent pressure and quick knockdown is needed, time is money.”

Pest management professionals will realize the following advantages when deploying either one of the T-REX traps in an account:

Trapper® T-REX Rat Snap Trap

• Combines trigger sensitivity with the exact trap velocity needed to capture and hold rats. Its patented interlocking teeth make rat escapes virtually impossible.
• It is safer to use than other rat snap traps and is easily set by foot or hand.
• The removable bait cup can be withdrawn, filled with an attractant and re-inserted without having the trap set.
• It has multiple uses and can be placed alone or in pairs back-to-back along rat pathways, wired above ground to pipes or rafters, or placed inside Bell’s rat-sized tamper-resistant bait stations.

Trapper® Mini-REX Mouse Snap Trap

• The smaller, mouse-size version of the powerful T-REX trap, the Mini-REX uses the most up-to-date snap trap design and technology. With better trigger sensitivity and more powerful trap velocity, the patented interlocking teeth capture mice with unmatched holding power.
• It can be used for both commercial and residential accounts, offering pest management professionals easy use on the job.
• It sets in one motion and provides “no-touch” disposal of the captured mouse.
• The trap’s built-in bait cup holds a dab of Bell’s PROVOKE® Mouse Attractant to entice mice to the trap. The cup can be removed safely and easily for servicing. Position traps along walls or wherever mice travel.
• For discreet placement, two traps will fit in most Bell Labs bait stations.

Bell Laboratories, Inc.

3699 Kinsman Blvd., Madison, WI 53704

Phone: 1-608-241-0202 Fax: 1-608-241-9631