An Update on Today’s Rodent Technologies

As in so many aspects of pest management today, new technologies are bringing a greater range of options for dealing with rodents. One of those is remote digital monitoring technology, which, RMC Consulting President Bobby Corrigan, a renowned rodent expert, said, “Is finally making its appearance in real-world pest management for the food industry.”

 

Electronic rodent monitoring (ERM) is a digital system of rodent detection, data collection and notification with sensors installed in rodent traps throughout a facility or in specified locations. The traps are set to automatically monitor and report rodent entry and alert the service provider (and/or facility) of a capture. And, regardless of the specific developer, provider, or design, “electronic monitoring is becoming more and more common in food facilities and can be an attractive addition to traditional pest management services,” said National Pest Management Association (NPMA) Chief Entomologist and Vice President of Technical and Regulatory Affairs Jim Fredericks.

 

Among the benefits and challenges of the electronic rodent monitors, as identified by the experts, are:

 

• Rodent capture can be monitored on a 24/7/365 basis. This is particularly beneficial in hard-to-reach and out-of-sight areas (such as false ceilings) that breeding rodents love but are very time-consuming to access and inspect.

• The technology reduces response time: When a rodent enters a trap, trained technicians can be alerted immediately, setting into motion the appropriate steps to remove the pest and prevent reinfestation.

• The systems can provide electronic analysis of rodent activity around and inside a food facility illustrating the causative reasons for rodents (e.g., a door that is not properly rodent proofed; an improperly managed dumpster, a cluttered portion of the warehouse, etc.)

• The technology can help to increase technician effectiveness, allowing pest management professionals the opportunity to spend less time checking traps and more time identifying opportunities to prevent infestations in the future, shifting the focus from pest control to pest prevention.

• Digital monitors enable a facility to have a truly preventive rodent pest management program in line with Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) directives, as early or immediate detection of rodents allows for immediate intervention to prevent rodents from increasing in number before the next “scheduled” pest management service visit. This can dramatically reduce the false negative potential of a person surveying a food facility only once or twice a month for only minutes per location.

• The associated software allows for dashboard data organization, which is very valuable in pest prevention and record keeping.

• The use of electronic rodent monitors can help to improve the quality of pest management service being provided in the food facility, and they not only increase detection in the area of the facility that is being monitored for activity, they also provide the real-time collection of data documenting rodent behaviors. 

 

But because of the newness of digital monitoring technology and its continuing evolution, there also are some challenges with its implementation:

 

• While it does offer the benefits of identifying if a rodent has been trapped and trigger follow ups, from the pest management provider’s perspective, it may trigger unscheduled follow up every time there is an alert, depending on the expectation of the food facility, which also could impact the service cost.

• It is often marketed that the technology eliminates the need to check all the traps if there is no alert. But from a food safety perspective, as required by FSMA’s preventive controls and Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), each and every area of the food facility must be inspected.

• Any remote monitoring system that is implemented should be made a part of the operational software system being used by the pest management provider; otherwise two systems would be run with different reports required.

• The systems require various interfacing tools (such as a WiFi router, repeater, modem, etc.), which may increase the initial cost and maintenance fees. However, some systems are, instead, incorporated into the traps without use of exterior technologies, enabling the data and reports to be available through one operating system.

• A major question, in some cases, is who owns and stores the monitoring data? While most data are stored in the remote monitoring company’s server, the food facility managers may feel that because the data belong to them, they would want full control over it. 

 

Other significant new technologies include the use of wildlife cameras (“cams”) to detect elusive rats and mice in facilities. “What used to take hours and hours of human inspection time can now often be solved in one night of camming — pending good location spotting of the cams,” Corrigan said.

 

He noted that there also is additional research in the early stages, such as rodent-sniffing dogs (similar to bed bug sniffing dogs) to locate mice and rats hiding in product pallets, walls, etc., and the use of drones in large food distribution centers as ongoing sentries for spotting rodents on floors and pallet tops.

 

While experts agree that rodent pressure is increasing across the U.S., and even around the world, they also are seeing significant innovation in technologies to help fight the escalation and protect against the pathogenic contamination potential of rodent pests.