Frequently Asked Questions

What is Trapmate

What is Trapmate?

Trapmate is a product line of integrated electronic remote monitoring (ERM) products for the pest control and wildlife industries. Combining single- and multi-trap hardware, monitoring software and accessories, Trapmate is a fully integrated ERM solution that helps operators achieve better results with less time, effort and hassle.

What is a Trapmate Hub?

The Trapmate Hub is a communications gateway that routes alert and status information from Trapmate Sensors to the Skyhawk Trapmate apps on your phone and desktop via a cellular cloud connection.

Battery-powered, lightweight, and durable, the Trapmate Hub can be placed safely away from foot or forklift traffic and out of sight of your customers. Learn more about the Trapmate Hub.

What is a Trapmate Vibration/Magnet Sensor?

The Trapmate Vibration/Magnet Sensor combines two separate sensor technologies to detect activity in traps and stations. 

The magnet (reed switch) sends an alert when a magnet is pulled away from the sensor. Use Trapmate Connectors to attach the magnet pull directly to your traps and stations to detect when an animal is in your trap with almost 100% accuracy.

The vibration sensor is an accelerometer which detects movements of the sensor or its surroundings, and is ideal for stations that don’t have  a snap trap or moving doors or ramps.

Adjust the sensitivity of each of the two sensor types using the Trapmate applications.

What is a Trapmate Kiwi?
The Trapmate Kiwi is an integrated trap monitoring device that offers the best price/performance when you only have one or two traps at a given location. It combines the sensor functions of the Trapmate Vibration/Magnet Sensors and the cellular connectivity of the Trapmate Hub,

The magnet (reed switch) sends an alert when a magnet is pulled away from the sensor. Skyhawk hubs and sensors are very easy to deploy. We provide easy-to-follow manuals with helpful tricks and online video tutorials. The vibration sensor is an accelerometer which detects movements of the sensor or its surroundings. For outdoor use, we recommend using the magnet sensor.

Skyhawk hubs and sensors are very easy to deploy. We provide easy-to-follow manuals with helpful tricks and online video tutorials.Alerts and other status operation from the Trapmate Kiwi are sent to the Skyhawk Trapmate apps, allowing you to respond quickly if required to handle the trapped animal appropriately.

Does Trapmate provide an infrared motion sensor?

In Q4 of 2023 Skyhawk will be releasing the Trapmate PIR Motion Sensor, which uses passive infrared detection to create an alert when there is movement in front of its viewport.

This sensor offers a tight angle of detection so that you’ll be able to position it directly at key areas in a station or in crawl spaces or other tight spaces where you want to be able to identify rodent movement.

What is the Skyhawk CE App?

The Skyhawk CE app is a mobile application (download for iOS or Android) which is your control panel for all of your Trapmate devices — Hubs, Sensors and Kiwis. 

Use the Skyhawk app to set up and deploy your Trapmate devices, monitor device alerts, adjust device settings and enable notifications to email. Geotag your deployment locations for easy device monitoring and retrieval.

What is the Skyhawk Trapmate Enterprise software?

The Skyhawk Trapmate Enterprise software is a desktop and mobile app solution which adds significant management functions to the Skyhawk CE app functionality.

Like with the Skyhawk CE app, you’ll use Trapmate Enterprise to set up your Trapmate devices, monitor their activity, adjust settings, and review any notes. Trapmate Enterprise gives you the further ability to assign devices to specific customers, allowing you to more flexibly bill your customers for the advanced monitoring services Trapmate enables.

Why should I use Trapmate electronic remote monitoring?

What are the benefits of electronic remote monitoring (ERM) in pest and wildlife control?

Adding electronic remote monitoring (ERM) capabilities to your pest or wildlife control programs will make a profound difference in the way you operate. These include:

Better Results for Less Effort: Using ERM, you’ll be able to reclaim time that would have otherwise been spent checking traps. You can use this time for more advanced mitigation efforts, for developing better client relationships, or for yourself.

New Service Offerings: ERM allows you to maintain an ongoing monitoring relationship with your clients or stakeholders, even after the primary rodent or wildlife problems have been solved. 

Easier Path to New Business: Trapmate ERM solutions will be a powerful sales tool for getting new clients, and growing the ones you have.

Less physical strain: By eliminating the need to bend down or climb into tight spaces and check traps when they are empty, Trapmate makes pest and wildlife control easier for those doing the hard work.

How is Trapmate different from other ERM systems?

There are many differences which add up to better performance at less cost. Trapmate is:

The only 100% battery-powered solution: You can place your Hub safely out of the action and out of sight — and where the signal is best, not just where there’s a power outlet.

The only ERM with dual-function sensors: Trapmate is the only ERM provider that offers both a vibration sensor and a magnet (reed switch) sensor in a single device, offering you multiple ways to detect a trapped animal.

The only ERM solution with replaceable batteries: Other ERM systems make you throw out your devices when they run out of power. With Trapmate, just change the batteries.

The only multi-trap ERM solution that runs for years on batteries: You can develop new monitoring service packages that let you earn business from your clients for years at a time.

How can Trapmate help me deliver better pest and wildlife control results?

Time spent in checking empty traps is time you don’t have to identify and mitigate the issues causing infestations in the first place. By using Trapmate, you’ll gain this time back so you can focus on exclusion, clean-up, client education and other strategies for control.

Trapmate will also give you the ability to monitor sites for new activity after you’ve taken care of the situation, so you can detect any new issues quickly and nip them in the bud. 

How can Trapmate help me increase my revenues?

Trapmate electronic remote monitoring opens the door to multiple ways to increase your revenues. 

Win more clients: Having advanced monitoring technology like Trapmate as part of your service offering will help you win business over firms that don’t offer the service.

Keep clients longer: Use Trapmate to set up an ongoing preventative monitoring service with your clients and build up your recurring revenues.

Increase your geographic range: When you don’t have to check traps unless there’s activity in them, you can handle clients in a wider radius around your home base.

Manage more clients: By freeing up time for yourself and your team, you’ll be able to service more busines than you could without Trapmate.

How can Trapmate help reduce my costs?

Trapmate lets you know when you need to check a trap and when you don’t. Depending on your service agreement, you can use this knowledge to save labor time and fuel costs. And even if your service includes scheduled visits, you’ll be able to save time and labor costs since you won’t need to perform unnecessary tasks.

Developing early detection monitoring services which don’t require ongoing visits (unless there’s a problem) offer a much higher profit margin, since the costs of monitoring are low and the value to the customer is high.

Why does it matter than Trapmate devices all run on batteries?

The fact that Trapmate Hubs (as well as Trapmate sensors) are battery-powered will save you significant time, improve your clients’ experiences and reduce the costs of your electronic remote monitoring.

Without any need for external power, you can set up a Trapmate Hub in mere minutes, positioning it high on a wall or in other locations that have good sensor signal reception. This freedom saves considerable setup time in optimizing your sensor network.

Since you can place your gateways well out of reach as well as out of sight of your customers, your efforts will be less visible to your residential clients, and less likely to be disrupted in commercial settings.

Less time in setup and maintenance saves considerable money per site. And you can replace Trapmate batteries — other ERM providers require you to you buy new sensors when their power dies — further saving you money on your ERM investment.

Why are Trapmate solutions better than those based on Bluetooth?

Bluetooth is great technology — but not necessarily for electronic remote trap monitoring. If sensors use Bluetooth to communicate directly to an app, you need to walk by each trap to check trap status, reducing greatly the time savings Trapmate could provide. 

And if an ERM hub/gateway uses Bluetooth to connect with sensors, the distance you can place your sensors from the hub is sharply limited — tens of feet vs. the hundred or thousands of feet that Trapmate’s RF connectivity can provide. For large sites, this means you’d have to purchase a lot of expensive hubs — with Trapmate, you probably only need one or two.

How does Trapmate compare with ERM systems using LoRa connectivity?

LoRa is a radio frequency protocol used by many different Internet of Things applications, including some ERMs used in pest control.

While LoRa, as the name would suggest, provides long range sensor connectivity like Trapmate does, LoRa gateways require a power connection, which limits where you can place them at a site, and, by extension, reduces your ability to set up good connectivity between your gateway and your ERM sensors.

Since Trapmate Hubs are battery-powered, you’ll be able to place them on walls, rafters, rooftops and other areas which will ensure you can monitor hundreds of traps at a distance in practice, not just in theory.

How do I use Trapmate products?

What are the benefits of electronic remote monitoring (ERM) in pest and wildlife control?

Adding electronic remote monitoring (ERM) capabilities to your pest or wildlife control programs will make a profound difference in the way you operate. These include:

Better Results for Less Effort: Using ERM, you’ll be able to reclaim time that would have otherwise been spent checking traps. You can use this time for more advanced mitigation efforts, for developing better client relationships, or for yourself.

New Service Offerings: ERM allows you to maintain an ongoing monitoring relationship with your clients or stakeholders, even after the primary rodent or wildlife problems have been solved. 

Easier Path to New Business: Trapmate ERM solutions will be a powerful sales tool for getting new clients, and growing the ones you have.

Less Physical Strain: By eliminating the need to bend down or climb into tight spaces and check traps when they are empty, Trapmate makes pest and wildlife control easier for those doing the hard work.

How is Trapmate different from other ERM systems?

There are many differences which add up to better performance at less cost. Trapmate is:

The only 100% battery-powered solution: You can place your Hub safely out of the action and out of sight — and where the signal is best, not just where there’s a power outlet.

The only ERM with dual-function sensors: Trapmate is the only ERM provider that offers both a vibration sensor and a magnet (reed switch) sensor in a single device, offering you multiple ways to detect a trapped animal.

The only ERM solution with replaceable batteries: Other ERM systems make you throw out your devices when they run out of power. With Trapmate, just change the batteries.

The only multi-trap ERM solution that runs for years on batteries: You can develop new monitoring service packages that let you earn business from your clients for years at a time.

How can Trapmate help me deliver better pest and wildlife control results?

Time spent in checking empty traps is time you don’t have to identify and mitigate the issues causing infestations in the first place. By using Trapmate, you’ll gain this time back so you can focus on exclusion, clean-up, client education and other strategies for control.

Trapmate will also give you the ability to monitor sites for new activity after you’ve taken care of the situation, so you can detect any new issues quickly and nip them in the bud. 

How can Trapmate help me increase my revenues?

Trapmate electronic remote monitoring opens the door to multiple ways to increase your revenues. 

Win more clients: Having advanced monitoring technology like Trapmate as part of your service offering will help you win business over firms that don’t offer the service.

Keep clients longer: Use Trapmate to set up an ongoing preventative monitoring service with your clients and build up your recurring revenues.

Increase your geographic range: When you don’t have to check traps unless there’s activity in them, you can handle clients in a wider radius around your home base.

Manage more clients: By freeing up time for yourself and your team, you’ll be able to service more busines than you could without Trapmate.

How can Trapmate help reduce my costs?

Trapmate lets you know when you need to check a trap and when you don’t. Depending on your service agreement, you can use this knowledge to save labor time and fuel costs. And even if your service includes scheduled visits, you’ll be able to save time and labor costs since you won’t need to perform unnecessary tasks.

Developing early detection monitoring services which don’t require ongoing visits (unless there’s a problem) offer a much higher profit margin, since the costs of monitoring are low and the value to the customer is high.

Why does it matter than Trapmate devices all run on batteries?

The fact that Trapmate Hubs (as well as Trapmate sensors) are battery-powered will save you significant time, improve your clients’ experiences and reduce the costs of your electronic remote monitoring.

Without any need for external power, you can set up a Trapmate Hub in mere minutes, positioning it high on a wall or in other locations that have good sensor signal reception. This freedom saves considerable setup time in optimizing your sensor network.

Since you can place your gateways well out of reach as well as out of sight of your customers, your efforts will be less visible to your residential clients, and less likely to be disrupted in commercial settings.

Less time in setup and maintenance saves considerable money per site. And you can replace Trapmate batteries — other ERM providers require you to you buy new sensors when their power dies — further saving you money on your ERM investment.

Why are Trapmate solutions better than those based on Bluetooth?

Bluetooth is great technology — but not necessarily for electronic remote trap monitoring. If sensors use Bluetooth to communicate directly to an app, you need to walk by each trap to check trap status, reducing greatly the time savings Trapmate could provide. 

And if an ERM hub/gateway uses Bluetooth to connect with sensors, the distance you can place your sensors from the hub is sharply limited — tens of feet vs. the hundred or thousands of feet that Trapmate’s RF connectivity can provide. For large sites, this means you’d have to purchase a lot of expensive hubs — with Trapmate, you probably only need one or two.

How does Trapmate compare with ERM systems using LoRa connectivity?

LoRa is a radio frequency protocol used by many different Internet of Things applications, including some ERMs used in pest control.

While LoRa, as the name would suggest, provides long range sensor connectivity like Trapmate does, LoRa gateways require a power connection, which limits where you can place them at a site, and, by extension, reduces your ability to set up good connectivity between your gateway and your ERM sensors.

Since Trapmate Hubs are battery-powered, you’ll be able to place them on walls, rafters, rooftops and other areas which will ensure you can monitor hundreds of traps at a distance in practice, not just in theory.

How do I buy Trapmate?

How much does it cost to use Trapmate electronic remote monitoring?

When you compare Trapmate pricing to other electronic remote monitoring systems, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

The Trapmate Hub retails for $189, and Trapmate Sensors are offered in 5-packs for $179 (without antenna) or $184 (with antenna). The Trapmate Kiwi retails for $99.

You can connect hundreds of sensors to a single Hub, dramatically lowering the cost/trap for electronic remote monitoring compared to our Kiwi solution. If you have one or two traps in a given location, though, using Kiwis will offer a better cost/trap.

Activating your devices requires a subscription for each device. The monthly subscription charge for a Trapmate Hub ranges from $10 to $18, depending on whether you purchase an annual subscription or a monthly one. Sensor subscriptions cost between $2.50 a month (annual subscription) and $9 a month (monthly subscription).

Depending on the number of Trapmate devices you are buying, you may be eligible for enterprise discounts on both hardware and software. Contact your Trapmate representative by e-mail or call (800) 760-3966 for more information.

What is your return policy?

We will accept a return of Products for a refund of your purchase price, less the original shipping and handling costs, provided such return is made within 30 days from the date of sale and provided such products are returned in their original packaging and in original condition.

To return products, you must contact Customer Support by calling 1-866-830-5870 x1 or email our Returns Department at support@skyhawk.ai to obtain a Return Merchandise Authorization (“RMA“) number before shipping your product. No returns of any type will be accepted without an RMA number.

You are responsible for all shipping and handling charges on returned items. You bear the risk of loss during shipment. We therefore strongly recommend that you fully insure your return shipment against loss or damage and that you use a carrier that can provide you with proof of delivery for your protection.

Refunds are processed within approximately five business days of our receipt of your merchandise. Your refund will be credited back to the same payment method used to make the original purchase on the Site. WE OFFER NO REFUNDS ON ANY PRODUCTS DESIGNATED ON THIS SITE AS NON-RETURNABLE.