Summer Camp Nuisance

Summer Camp Nuisance

Moyer Indoor | Outdoor is a family-owned company founded in 1869. Today Moyer has nine service divisions, including Moyer Pest Control for residential and commercial customers. Moyer Pest Control delivers pest and wildlife control services in Southeastern Pennsylvania and portions of New Jersey and Delaware.

The Problem

A summer camp in Pennsylvania contacted Moyer Pest Control to remove several beavers that had become a nuisance. In Pennsylvania, beavers are considered wildlife, so the camp needed a licensed nuisance wildlife control operator like Moyer Pest Control to help

The Challenge

Pennsylvania requires that beaver traps be checked on a daily basis to ensure the animals are treated humanely. But with the summer camp being located 45 minutes from Moyer’s office, driving to and from the site each day was taking considerable time, and racking up significant fuel charges. And most days, the traps were empty.

The Moyer team decided to deploy an electronic remote monitoring (ERM) solution — a legal alternative to in-person trap checking in the state of Pennsylvania — to address what could otherwise be an unprofitable job.

The Plan of Action

After researching various electronic monitoring solutions, Moyer chose to use the Skyhawk Trapmate Kiwi to as their ERM solution.  By using the Trapmate Kiwi, they were able to complete the job more efficiently, saving both time and money since they sent out a licensed technician only when a capture had was detected by the Kiwi.

For this control method, Moyer chose the Comstock live cage. These cages do not rely on a trip pan but rather have wires in the middle of the cage that, when engaged, trigger the door to close. One cage was set on a clear trail and one in a shallow feeder stream that the beavers traveled.

Due to the nature of the beavers, Moyer did not use bait since the travel paths were easily identified. Skyhawk Kiwi remote sensors were installed on each cage so Moyer’s office would be alerted that a capture had occurred, avoiding unnecessary travel and cage checks.

Moyer attached the Kiwis using the provided accessories to the Comstock traps. When the Kiwi detected the movement of the trap door, it broadcast an alert to the Skyhawk CE app, the control center for all your deployed Trapmate devices. The Kiwi sends its alerts through the cellular network in the United States with the most coverage, ensuring high reliability.

The Results

Using the Kiwis immediately made the trapping process more efficient for Moyer, in a way that was less intrusive to the customer.

The Kiwi provides both a magnetic sensor (a reed switch) as well as a vibration sensor, allowing an extra level of certainty in determining that a catch had happened.  If a trap was tripped but no further movement was detected, a single alert is sent, so the technician could avoid an unnecessary trap check or determine follow-up action.

The day after the cages were installed, the Kiwi activated an alert from both sensors. A technician went out to check the confirmed catch, and then transported the captured beaver to release it at a pre-approved site. The cages were checked, and one beaver was caught and safely released at a pre-approved site.

After a few days with no captures, a second beaver was caught and released. The cages were left in place for three consecutive days after that, with no further captures, so the beaver removal was deemed complete.

The Trapmate Advantage

Let’s compare the profitability of this job, with and without Trapmate.

Each trap check took 1.5 hours for driving and checking.

Without Trapmate: Moyer would have had to check the trap each day for the week, requiring a total of 10.5 hours.

With Trapmate: Moyer only had to make three trips — two for the captures, and one to retrieve the traps, for a total of 4.5 hours. 

A total of 6 person-hours were saved by having Trapmate devices on two traps at this site, in just a week. The Kiwis were then deployed at other sites, for continued savings.

Improving Customer Service Using Skyhawk Trapmate

Improving Customer Service Using Skyhawk Trapmate

Animal and Wildlife Control

Lee’s Nuisance Wildlife Services, LLC provides professional animal and wildlife control services and solves nuisance animal problems for residential and commercial properties in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Their methods include capture, removal, and deterrence, specializing in beaver, groundhog, raccoon, mole, skunk control, and most other wildlife.

Overview

Lee’s was running into significant issues that made meeting customer expectations and adherence to trap-checking regulations challenging. Topping the list of problems was bad reception on existing cameras for trap monitoring, the expense of camera replacement, drive time for technicians, and the cost of gas. Without the ability to remotely monitor the traps effectively using only cameras, technicians drove for one to two hours to check traps for raccoons, groundhogs, and skunks to traps without knowing if they contained animals. Since the company charges per animal (not per trap), useless checks on sites serve no purpose in growing the business.

Challenge

Lee, the owner of Lee’s Nuisance Wildlife Services, wanted to ensure that he maintained the high level of customer satisfaction he and his team had worked hard to attain. Critical to managing their reputation, they needed to ensure remote trap locations could be easily monitored

Skyhawk Kiwi

Moyer used the versatile Kiwi single-trap solution for this application. The device is designed to be placed almost anywhere on any trap. An accessory pack with various attachment options is included, and even a standard zip tie can be used to hold the unit in place.

Plan of Action

After discovering the Kiwi by Skyhawk, Lee required that each trap deployed by Lee’s would use Skyhawk’s remote monitoring device. The deployed Kiwis have better reception, are easier to use, and are priced better than cameras and other monitoring solutions. Additionally, some monitoring devices must be replaced when the life of the unit’s battery ends vs the ability to replace the batteries and keep your original Kiwi.

Mobile App

The Skyhawk CE App is the control center for all your deployed Trapmate devices.Lee’s monitored battery status, managed notifications, and added and removed sensors through the streamlined user interface.

Benefits

Without Kiwis, his team had to perform daily on-location trap checks. Now they only go to a site when an animal has been caught. Scheduling benefits from knowing what traps need to be cleared at what locations, drastically reducing drive time, and ensuring compliance with trap-checking laws. Techs in the field are now able to focus on additional jobs.

“It’s like having an additional two techs on my team performing checks”

Lee

Owner, Lee's Nuisance Wildlife Services. LLC

Conclusion

Lee’s started using Kiwis about six months ago. The ability to increase revenue has made it possible to add better traps and more devices and expand the business to different horizons. “It’s like having an additional two techs on my team performing checks,” Lee states. “I think more businesses in our line of work should know about the use and potential of Skyhawk devices. Now all my traps require a Skyhawk device before being deployed on a job site.”

By the Numbers

Roof Top Rodents

Roof Top Rodents

Moyer Indoor | Outdoor is a family-owned company founded in 1869. Today Moyer has nine service divisions, including Moyer Pest Control for residential and commercial customers. Moyer Pest Control delivers pest and wildlife control services in Southeastern Pennsylvania and portions of New Jersey and Delaware.

The Problem

A homeowner experiencing scratching noises in their attic contacted Moyer Pest Control. A challenge to this particular pest service was no access to the attic. As one would expect, when the technician asked the customer about possibly cutting a hole to gain access, the answer was “NO!” Moyer conducted a full inspection of the residence’s exterior, which did not reveal any signs of nuisance wildlife activity such as grey squirrels.

The Plan of Action

The company proposed a plan to place rodent trap boxes on the roof near the dormers and around the home’s exterior perimeter, which the homeowner agreed upon since no rodenticides were to be used due to the customer’s concern for pets and wildlife. The technician set all traps with Skyhawk Sensor alerts to avoid unnecessary climbing of ladders to check empty traps. All traps were baited with Pro Pest rodent lure and secured to the roof with Hercules putty. Only one type of snap trap and trap box was used for this control method.

The Results

Four deer mice were captured on the roof, and three house mice were captured in the traps located around the home’s foundation. The traps were left in place for seven days. However, all captures took place within the first four days. Before the technician removed the traps, the customer revealed that they had not heard any scratching noises since three days after the traps were set. Moyer Pest Control will explore the use of the Skyhawk Sensor alert system in these types of cases and as the basis of a program to reduce the use of rodenticide while achieving control measures dramatically

The Trapmate Advantage

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Front Yard Voles

Front Yard Voles

Moyer Indoor | Outdoor is a family-owned company founded in 1869. Today Moyer has nine service divisions, including Moyer Pest Control for residential and commercial customers. Moyer Pest Control delivers pest and wildlife control services in Southeastern Pennsylvania and portions of New Jersey and Delaware.

The Problem

Moyer Pest Control was contacted by a homeowner to address a meadow vole problem in their front yard. Out of concern for their neighbors and pets, the homeowner decided rodenticides would not be a suitable method. With the homeowner’s wishes in mind and Moyer’s previous success with snap traps for voles, the technicians at Moyer recommended deploying this strategy. The homeowners appreciated having this option presented to them and that Moyer had a solution to meet their specific needs.

The Plan of Action

Two types of snap traps were used for this control method, both inside rodent stations. For meadow voles, the stations are set directly on the trails and require no bait as the voles will travel the same paths repeatedly. On several traps, Pro Pest rodent lure was applied. A total of eight trap boxes were set, and all included the Skyhawk Sensor alert system. On a typical vole trapping, the technician would be sent back every day or two to check the traps; the technician might need to check the traps for several weeks. The Skyhawk app gave the technician details regarding which traps received alerts, and upon inspection, each trap box that had received an alert contained a meadow vole. The Skyhawk Sensor alerts were 100% accurate, and by the end of the service, the technician was 100% confident that the trap to be checked would contain a captured vole.

The Results

Over the next four days, seven meadow voles were captured. There were two additional days without captures after that, and all the traps were removed. At that time, all the vole holes were filled in with topsoil. No activity was observed after two return visits over a week and a half to inspect the holes. This service was completed in a reasonable amount of time to ensure the customer’s satisfaction, and since no rodenticides were used on this property, no additional services were scheduled. Moyer Pest Control has performed thousands of meadow vole trappings, and the Skyhawk Sensor remote sensing unit was a tremendous benefit for the service technician on this job. The next time meadow voles become a nuisance, this customer will be sure to call Moyer Pest Control.

The Trapmate Advantage

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