Patent Application
20150150236
The present invention relates to animal traps, and more particularly to electric vermin traps.
Native to central Asia, mice arrived in North America with settlers from Europe and other points. Rats arrived in similar fashion. The rodents spread across North America and are now found in every province and territory in Canada, and every state in the United States. This includes all major population areas.
Mice are considered among the most troublesome and economically damaging rodents in North America. Rats are also a very serious problem, but because the general population does not usually come into regular contact with rats, rats are not perceived to be as significant a problem as mice. However, both mice and rats are very adaptable and able to live in close association with humans; as such, both are termed “commensal” rodents. Mice are much more common in residences and structures than other common rodents, including shrews, voles and squirrels. The focus is on rodents including mice and rats for purposes of the present application, but the present invention is equally relevant and appplicable to other pests, including, without limitation voles, squirrels and other pests. The term “vermin” is often used herein, and is used in a non-limiting sense, being merely representative of the great variety of rodents and other pests that someone of ordinary skill in the art would easily recognize as being proper targets of the trap and method taught herein.
Mice live in and around homes, farms, commercial establishments, in open fields and meadows. With the onset of cold weather each fall, mice move into structures in search of shelter and food. Mice can survive with little or no free water, although they will readily drink if water is available. They can obtain all the water they need from the food they eat. An absence of free water, or food with low moisture content in their environment, may reduce their breeding potential.
Mice have poor eyesight, relying on their hearing and highly developed senses of smell, taste, and touch. Mice breed year round, but when living outdoors, they usually breed in spring and fall. A female may have five to ten litters of four to eight young per year, and the gestation period is 18 to 21 days. A female is sexually mature at six to eight weeks of age. Mouse populations can, therefore, increase rapidly under good conditions, and the average mouse lives one to two years.
Rodents can transmit various diseases to humans, including salmonellosis (food poisoning), rickettsialpox, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis. Mice may carry leptospirosis, rat bite fever, tapeworms, and organisms that may cause ringworm (a fungal disease of the skin) in humans. As well, mice may carry hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (“Hantavirus”), which can be lethal to humans. In addition, rodents can chew through protective covering on wires causing major damage in commercial and industrial complexes. Accordingly, rodents should not be tolerated around schools, restaurants, food storage areas, warehouses, office buildings, dwellings or other areas where humans may come into contact with rodents or the organisms they carry. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations reported that between one-fifth and one-third of the world's total food supply never reaches the table due to losses from rodents.
Damage, to insulation inside walls and attics, quickly occurs when mice reach large populations in dwellings and commercial buildings. They may gnaw electrical wiring and create tire hazards or other malfunctions that are expensive to repair.
Various control methods are currently employed, with varying degrees of effectiveness. Poison baits are commonly employed, but they should never be used when there may be children or other animals present. Further, this method also suffers from the fact that mice usually return to their nest in an inaccessible location prior to death. Even if they do not return to their nest, mice perishing within walls or other inaccessible places within a dwelling or commercial building can cause secondary infestations of damaging insects that feed and breed upon the carcasses. Mice will also hoard or carry food to other locations; such hoarding of food is common, and it may result in amounts of poison bait being moved to places where it goes undetected and may be hazardous to non-target species. Non-toxic methods of rodent control are more effective and considerably more sanitary since rodents captured by these methods can be disposed of properly.
Trapping is one alternative method of controlling mice, but it requires labour, time and handling of any captured mice. One advantage is that it eliminates the problem of odours from decomposing carcasses and secondary infestations that may occur when poisoning is used. It also has the advantage of not relying on inherently hazardous rodenticides, it permits the user to view his or her success, and it allows for easier disposal of the mice. However, the success raw for traps varies widely and the method still requires the physical handling of mice, with all the inherent dangers of the diseases mentioned above being transmitted to humans—and particularly Hantavirus.
So-called “snap traps” are simple and inexpensive; however, the quality and effectiveness varies widely. Some poorly made snap traps will often break when they are triggered, are ineffective due to flaws, or are not sensitive enough to catch small or cautious mice.
An alternative to snap traps are glue boards, which catch mice by means of a pressure sensitive adhesive. When mice attempt to cross the glue board, they get stuck, much the same way that flypaper catches flies. A significant drawback to glue boards is that the mouse is not killed (but will die from starvation and dehydration if not attended) and must be killed and then disposed of. Because the mouse is not killed, many jurisdictions have banned glue boards.
Box traps work on the principle that mice readily enter small holes. The traps then hold the mice by means of one-way doors. More than one mouse may be caught by these traps, but because the mice are only caught and not killed, someone needs to check the traps frequently and release the captured mice. Of coarse, they will need to be released some distance, normally at least one kilometer, from the dwelling or commercial building or they will simply return and enter. And, again, all the hazards are present of the mice transmitting the various diseases to the persons handling the trap.
Several styles of electrocution traps have become available in recent years. Most are powered by batteries and produce death to rodents by delivering a high volt-low amperage jolt. These traps potentially offer a quick, easy and less messy means of removing rodents when compared to either snap traps or glue boards. However, their reliability varies greatly and there are reports that some rodents are capable of escaping lethal encounters with some models. All of them presently require someone to physically handle the dead rodents to dispose of them. Again, the possibility of disease being transmitted from the dead rodents is present.
Many electrocution traps are unnecessarily complicated and costly, with the result that they have not met with general positive reaction from consumers. Also, they are often not designed in such a way that cautious vermin can be successfully trapped; mice in particular need to be presented with a simple pathway, configured such that it can be positioned preferably close to a wall. Furthermore, most traps do not provide a timely indication of a trap being tripped, and it is therefore more likely that carcasses will accumulate and decompose in the trap, and possibly also deter subsequent mice from entering the trap.
What is needed, therefore, is a trap that is simple and effective, attracting naturally cautious vermin and providing for safe handling of the dead catch, and preferably incorporates means to indicate that the trap has been tripped.
The present invention accordingly seeks to provide a trap, trapping method and system that is applicable to a number of rodent and pest types, for example, but not limited to rats, mice and the like. Further, the present invention seeks to provide a trap and method which is simple, effective, aid safe to use.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a vermin electrocution trap apparatus comprising:
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of entrapping and electrocuting vermin, the method comprising the steps of:
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is a provided a system for trapping and electrocuting vermin, the system comprising:
In exemplary embodiments of the present invention the apparatus comprises a one-way door adjacent the passage, such that access to the passage requires the vermin to pass through the one-way door. In further embodiments, the path comprises two ramps extending from opposed ends of the passage, each such ramp adjacent a one-way door allowing vermin access to the passage. The bait retention means are preferably disposed above the passage to attract the vermin toward the passage, and preferably comprise vents to disperse bait scent into the passage. Where one-way doors are employed, such doors are preferably also provided with vents to allow the bait scent to disperse along the path and attract the vermin toward the passage. A removable liner is preferably provided within the carcass disposal region to receive vermin carcasses after electrocution and thereby enabling safe and efficient disposal of the vermin carcasses. It also ensures that there is no scent retention of dead vermin that might possibly deter other vermin from entering.
In further exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the present invention comprises external apparatus status indicators and/or wireless communication to enable remote monitoring. For example, the control means may be enabled to communicate with external status indicator lights on the outside of the housing, which lights can indicate the status of the apparatus power level, whether the trap has caught a vermin, whether the power is on or off, and/or whether wireless communication signals are enabled. In the case of wireless communication, the present invention can comprise wireless communication that can allow the control means to communicate with a remote monitoring location as to the status of the apparatus and whether the trap has been activated, thereby reducing the amount of on-site trap servicing that is required.
A detailed description of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is given in the following. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be construed as being limited to this embodiment.
In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate an exemplary embodiment of the present invention:
a-c are perspective views of the rotatable passage seen in
a-f are views of a passage according to the apparatus of
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to the accompanying drawings, an embodiment of a vermin trap according to the present invention is illustrated.
Referring now in detail to
The ramps 14 lead upwardly toward the passage 16, such that a carcass disposal region can be disposed underneath the passage 16. In the illustrated embodiment, the carcass disposal region comprises as carcass disposal drawer 26, which can be provided with a disposable plastic liner as would be obvious to one skilled in the art. As described below, the drawer 26 will receive the electrocuted carcass of the vermin and store same pending removal from the apparatus 10.
The rotatable passage 16 comprises two opposed one-way doors 34, including door vents 38 to enable enhanced dispersal of bait scent along the path. The passage 16 is illustrated in detail in
An electrocution surface 22, which in the illustrated embodiment is a pair of metal strips, is provided on the inner surface of the passage 16. As can best be seen in
Directly opposite the electrocution surface 22 is an opening 24 in the passage 16. The opening 24 runs the length of the passage 16 and is normally disposed upwardly, as illustrated in
The apparatus is further provided with sensor means 28 adapted to detect the presence of vermin within the confines of the passage 16 and send a signal to control means 30. The control means 30 include standard processing means and circuitry/electronics and related wiring, and would be simple to construct based on the disclosure within. The sensor means 28 are preferably a combination infrared beam and heat sensor that is tripped when the vermin breaks the beam upon reaching the mid-point of the passage 16. Once tripped, the sensor means 28 send a vermin detection signal to the control means 30, and the control means 30 then allows the electrification of the electrocution surface 22 (preferably at 8000 volts), thereby quickly electrocuting the vermin. The electrical current required tier the electrocution is preferably provided by a single lithium-ion battery with a 3.7 nominal cell voltage, with a transformer and high voltage circuit to provide the desired 8000 volts; alternatively, the trap could use six D cell rechargeable batteries (which can be inserted using battery access door 49), which can be recharged through the receptacle 48 shown in
The apparatus is further provided with indicator lights 36, which can be designed to provide a visual indication of various apparatus systems through communication with the control means 30. In the illustrated embodiment of
It is also preferred that exemplary embodiments of the present invention comprise means to wirelessly communicate certain status information to a remote monitoring location, as is described below. To enable this, the control means 30 would further comprise wireless communication means such as a modem and related electronics.
Turning now to
Once the vermin has been electrocuted, the control means signal the motor to rotate the passage to the vermin discarding position, allowing the carcass to fall through the opening into the drawer at step 68 (with the control means then signalling the motor, after a set time interval, to return the passage to its original position). At this point, the method 50 comprises two further steps (which may occur in series or simultaneously) by the control means, namely signaling the external indicator lights that the trap has been tripped at step 70 and sending a wireless signal to a remote monitoring location at step 72. The signal to the wireless monitoring location preferably includes both an indication that the trap has been tripped and also its location, enabling a focused and efficient servicing of whatever traps are on the system.
Turning finally to
In the system 80 of
As can be readily seen, then, the vermin trap of the present invention presents significant advantages over the prior art. Whereas many prior art electrocution traps are complicated in design and layout, the simplified path of the present invention, positionable near a wall, is far more attractive to naturally cautious vermin such as mice. The remote monitoring functionality reduces labour, time and handling, and timely notification allows for removal of carcasses before they decompose and become a deterrent to further captures. Vermin are confined within the passage, with a simple rotation of the passage allowing disposal of the carcass, and the use of a drawer with a disposable liner helps reduce the risk of disease transmission. Finally, the very simple construction compared with other electrocution traps has the advantage of being less costly to manufacture.
The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Thus, while certain aspects and embodiments of the invention have been described, these have been presented by way of example only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Indeed, the invention described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms without departing from the spirit of the invention, which invention is defined solely by the claims below.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CA2012/000518 | 5/29/2012 | WO | 00 | 11/21/2014 |
