Pica connects rat traps to building IoT networks

  • October 25, 2021
  • Steve Rogerson

Building managers no longer need to waste time crawling into attics and other hard-to-reach locations to find empty rat traps thanks to a development by New Hampshire-based Pica Product Development (PPD).

Powered by PPD’s Skyhawk IoT platform, Rodent Recon solves the problem of monitoring rodent control traps with remote and easy-to-deploy technology. Pest control alerts are delivered to the user via a phone app.

Designed with pest control industry experts, it consists of targeted pest control sensors, a hub and gateway, smartphone app, and an enterprise portal for overall rodent control management. The sensors detect rodent trap or pest bait station activity and communicate this to the hub via a local RF signal.

The electronic pest control hub has an integrated cellular connection and relays sensor activities to the smartphone app. The enterprise portal enables large companies to manage thousands of pest control hubs and sensors for their field service teams and can integrate with other business process software providing data on rodent control trap activity.

“We are excited to launch Rodent Recon, our newest product that leverages the power of our Skyhawk internet of things platform,” said Rich Shevelow, CEO at Skyhawk. “The Rodent Recon electronic pest control system will help companies increase technician productivity, cut costs and improve integrated pest management efforts.” 

Rodent Recon will be on display at Pest World in Las Vegas from November 2-5, 2021.

For 25 years, Pica has helped bring products to market including handheld barcode readers, smartphones and high-speed switching stations for optical networks. The Skyhawk platform uses LTE Cat M1 and LPWA communications technologies to support IoT devices. All Skyhawk devices are designed to be deployed in locations that do not offer easily accessible power or internet connections.