Electronic rodent traps with remote monitoring capability

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11278020-B2
Application number	US-201916540455-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2019
Priority date	Feb 12, 2018
Publication date	Mar 22, 2022
Grant date	Mar 22, 2022

Abstract

An electronic rodent trap and monitoring method is provided. Each trap has at least one entrance, and preferably two entrances in opposed relationship to create a longitudinal tunnel, with a pair of lower plates extending longitudinally and oriented in spaced substantially parallel relationship, and a triggering element, such as a third plate, positioned above the lower plates, and preferably adjacent the ceiling of the trap on a center baffle that also shields a bait cup. The trap is activated when the rodent, with its left and right feet on the parallel lower plates, which are preferably raised above the floor, contacts the triggering element on the center baffle. The trap is preferably modular in design with an electronics module and a tunnel module removably secured within and protected by an outer housing. The trap also has improved features for more accurate remote monitoring of rodent dispatch and kill verification including long range monitoring capability.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic rodent trap with remote notification capability comprising:
an outer housing forming a trap body having at least one trap entrance and extending longitudinally from the trap entrance to an opposite end;
a removable tunnel module configured to be received within the outer housing and having opposed entrances in alignment with the two entrances of the trap body;
a removable electronics module also configured to be received within the outer housing, the electronics module containing a high voltage killing circuit operative within the trap body, said killing circuit including a plurality of plates that includes at least two oppositely charged lower killing plates in substantially parallel relationship with one another and having at least portions thereof extending longitudinally within the trap body, said oppositely charged lower killing plates being elevated above the floor of the trap body on raised tracks, the raised tracks being separated by a channel that forms a longitudinally extending gap separating the lower plates, and a triggering element separate from the at least two lower plates and spaced inwardly from the entrance so that a rodent must enter the trap before it can reach the triggering element, contact by the rodent with the triggering element simultaneously with the lower plates causing the high voltage killing circuit to activate at least the two lower killing plates and dispatch the rodent, the tunnel module and the electronics module each having opposed walls with opposed electric contacts which mate with each other when said modules are positioned within the outer housing to electrically couple the lower plates in the tunnel module with the high voltage circuit in the electronics module.

2. The remote notification electronic rodent trap as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the trap body has two entrances, one on either end in opposed relationship to create a tunnel which allows a rodent to see longitudinally through the trap from one entrance to the other.

3. The remote notification electronic rodent trap as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the trap includes an RF module for sending wireless transmissions to a base station or gateway device at a frequency of less than 1 GHz, each wireless transmission having a payload of not more than 256 bytes.

4. The remote notification electronic rodent trap as set forth in claim 3 , wherein the trap communicates over a low power wide area network (LPWAN).

5. The remote notification electronic rodent trap as set forth in claim 4 , wherein the LPWAN is selected from the group consisting of a LoRa network, a Sigfox network and an Ingenu network.

6. The remote notification electronic rodent trap as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the tunnel module and electronics module mechanically engage with one another for fixing the tunnel module to the electronics module within the outer housing.

7. The remote notification electronic rodent trap as set forth in claim 6 , wherein one of the tunnel module or electronics module comprises a flange that is slidably received within a channel formed in the other one of the tunnel module or electronics module when the modules are received within the outer housing.

8. A method of operating a modular electronic rodent trap having remote notification capability comprising:
providing a modular electronic rodent trap with modular components that include an outer housing forming a trap body having two opposed entrances, a removable tunnel module configured to be received within the outer housing and having opposed entrances in alignment with the two opposed entrances of the trap body, the tunnel module having at least first and second oppositely charged lower killing plates and a triggering element, the lower plates having portions that extend longitudinally and in substantially parallel relationship with one another like train tracks, and a removable electronics module also configured to be received within the outer housing, the electronics module containing a high voltage circuit operatively coupled to said first and second oppositely charged lower killing plates;
assembling the modular components to configure the trap for use and placing the trap in active standby mode, the step of assembling the module components including placing the electronics module and the tunnel module into the outer housing while bringing outer contacts on the electronics module into engagement with opposing tunnel module contacts located on an outer wall surface of the tunnel module to electrically couple the lower plates in the tunnel module with the high voltage circuit in the electronics module;
the trap remaining in active standby mode when a rodent enters the trap through one of the trap entrances and contacts the first lower plate with at least one of its left feet and the second lower plate with at least one of its right feet but does not contact the triggering element;
the trap automatically activating the high voltage killing circuit to deliver a high voltage pulse train to the first and second plates only when a rodent, while in contact with the first and second plates, touches the triggering element;
the trap terminating current flow after a specified time period defining a kill cycle;
the trap performing a kill verification by checking for continued resistance across the first and second plates; and
in response to detecting that resistance remains across the first and second plates, sending a notification to a remote device that trap servicing is required.

9. The method as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the step of sending a notification includes sending wireless transmissions to a base station or gateway device at a frequency of less than 1 GHz, each wireless transmission having a payload of not more than 256 bytes.

10. The method as set forth in claim 9 , further comprising placing the modular trap for operation within a low power wide area network (LPWAN).

11. A remote notification electronic rodent trapping system comprising:
a base station or gateway device; and
a plurality of electronic rodent trapping devices, each of said rodent trapping devices including an RF module for sending wireless transmissions to the base station or gateway device in a low power wide area network (LPWAN) at a frequency of less than 1 GHz, each wireless transmission having a payload of not more than 256 bytes, said frequency and payload size providing long range wireless remote notification capability while communicating directly with the base station or gateway device,
wherein the trapping devices are modular with each trapping device including:
an outer housing forming a trap body having an entrance;
a removable tunnel module received within the outer housing and having an entrance in alignment with the entrance of the trap body, the tunnel module having at least first and second oppositely charged lower killing plates and a triggering element, the lower plates having portions that extend longitudinally and in substantially parallel relationship with one another, the oppositely charged lower plates being spaced from one another by a longitudinally extending gap between said lower plates, the oppositely charged lower plates are elevated above the floor of the trap body on raised tracks, the raised tracks being separated by a central channel that forms the longitudinally extending gap separating the lower plates and including a planar part lying substantially flat on the raised tracks and an upwardly directed bent part that is substantially perpendicular to the planar part, the bent part being directly adjacent the central channel and running substantially parallel therewith, the planar part lying on a side of the bent part

Assignees

• Woodstream Corp

Inventors

• Kletzli Paul
• Ebner Mark
• Blair Cory
• Koziar Jr Peter
• Daly Jr Thomas J

Classifications

• A01M23/38 Primary

  Electric traps · CPC title

• A01M31/002

  Detecting animals in a given area · CPC title

• A01M23/08 Primary

  with approaches permitting entry only · CPC title

• A01M2200/00

  Kind of animal · CPC title