Many municipalities are working towards becoming more digital in terms of the work processes, while also striving towards becoming more sustainable – in order to be labeled as an eco-friendly municipality. Digitalization is the way forward within pest control, and an increasing number of digital tools are finding their way onto the market these days. Read more about how digital solutions can provide you with more time and resources as an administrator, involve customers, and make the pest control strategy more sustainable.
The legislation concerning rats vary from country to country, and therefore it is not always the citizens’ responsibility to report on rats. In Great Britain, the landlord is responsible for contacting a PCO, if there are pests in the building. If you can prove that either the rats were there before you moved into a rental flat, or that is it is due to poor maintenance of the building, then the landlord is responsible. Therefore, the landlord will have to contact a PCO and pay for pest control. However, if you look at many industries such as agriculture, food productions, and hospitals, there are many other demands for hygiene, which you have to live up to and thereby the responsibility is placed on the business owner. In Denmark in contrast to Great Britain, every citizen is responsible to report if they see a rat, but it is the municipality that is responsible for taking action on the report and dispatch and pay for the PCO.
How smart are Smart Cities?
Along with urbanization, the population density steadily increases all over the world. As long as there are humans, there will be rats and mice, and crowded cities can cause great challenges to pest control operators (PCO). Many cities and municipalities also work towards digitalizing the urban environment. By using digital sensors, it is possible to measure when trash cans need to be emptied, the amount of precipitation, an increase of sewage water, the indoor environment in school, and much more. Digital products gather data for analysis and on the basis of this, you can increase the effectiveness of pest control operations. The conditions for combating pests become better and faster with digital products. The data collected can provide insight into which areas you need to focus on concerning pest control of rats for instance. Additionally, digital traps can also be used for rat monitoring and prevention and not just rat control.
The traffic in the urban environment can also make it more difficult to get around from one place to another and valuable time is wasted for the PCO driving around checking empty traps. Delecon Oy is a pest control company in Finland and its employees experience that it is time demanding just to drive a few kilometers in Helsinki due to the massive traffic. In addition, Delecon Oy set up traps in Helsinki, in which they solely have to focus on the traps, which sends an alarm when something is caught. Moreover, the company optimizes the time spent by the PCO’s on checking traps, and that saves both time and resources for employees in Delecon Oy.
Digital traps are a smart tool for rodent control in urban environments and in remote locations, which you rarely come by. The TrapMe traps are able to:
- Send a signal and gather data 24/7
- Make it easier for PCOs to monitor the development concerning rodent activity on a given location
- Provide an overview of the status of the traps and show when the traps are to be emptied
- Display data of how many rats or mice that have been caught in a specific area
If you work as an administrator in a municipality or company, you might have been a part of the decision-making process in terms of how to digitalize the urban environment. You have probably also experienced financial savings in many areas, and perhaps you think digital solutions sound like a more expensive pest control solution, than the traditional pest control solutions. With TrapMe’s digital traps solutions you get to save time, money and resources on pest control.
As administrator you also have a better overview of the PCO’s work out in the field, and you can follow up on when they have emptied the traps that have reported reporting that there is a catch. With TrapMe’s Online Portal you can see the status of all traps and the PCO can update the status of the traps on the Portal, when she/he has emptied a trap and activated it again. Moreover, there is also the benefit of digital traps, that customers will notice the increased customer service.
Digital traps provide customers insight into the pest control
Even if your municipality or city is not planning on being the next Smart City, it can still make sense in many cases to use digital traps for pest control. Digital traps can in many instances replace the use of rodenticides, and thereby make the pest control strategy more eco-friendly. Hedensted Municipality is one of the municipalities in Denmark, who uses TrapMe’s digital solution for rat control.
“We can save the PCO for many trips going back and forth between these traps because we have an idea of whether or not the trap has snapped”, says Maria Sørensen, biologist, and caseworker in Hedensted Municipality, and furthermore she is responsible of the municipal rat control.
Hedensted Municipality has previously had challenges concerning rats’ resistance to rodenticides, and therefore a new strategy had to be conducted instead of using poisons. With TrapMe’s digital solution, Maria experiences how the PCO gets to use his/her time far more efficiently, as the PCO only has to go and check traps sending out alarms concerning catches, which leaves more time to spend on investigating causes and planning actions on new locations. Digital traps also contribute to showing greater transparency concerning rodent control to customers, while also including customers more in the pest control process.
Read more about how Hedensted Municipality uses digital traps for rodent control
In Denmark, the municipality is responsible for rodent control and any citizen spotting a rat or signs of rats will have to report it to the authorities. Even though a PCO is assigned the job, it is the municipality’s responsibility to make sure the right strategy for pest control is conducted in relation to the context. The right choice of strategy will ensure that the problem is solved. When the TrapMe trap report that there is a catch, the PCO can let the customer know, that the applied strategy is effective. Moreover, digitalization makes pest control more tangible to the customer. An ever-increasing number of processes take place online nowadays, and you can for example track your online purchases and follow every step of every single one of your purchases. Many citizens in Denmark are likely to appreciate the insight they can gain into pest control, knowing that the pest problem is about to be solved, and this is probably also true in many other countries.
Sources:
- Borger.dk. Rotter.
- Safeguard. Mice in my Rental Home: Who Pays for Pest Control?
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