Rat Killing Automation

[outbackrob]

So I completely stole Iveatch's idea! Next day delivery from Amazon got me 6 pretty stout traps for $10. I had some old z-wave door sensors that were too big and ugly (and not Z-wave+) to attach to my doors so I glued them to a couple of the traps. It almost took longer to get the glue hot enough then it did to glue them, but less than 10 minutes. Going to deploy them tonight. Got an event that will blink the #7 indicator light at the switches at all the doors to blink red and send us an email if we are not home. Fingers crossed that the traps and glue are strong enough.

[outbackrob]

Neither of my homemade jobbies caught anything last night, but the Dome "Smart" Electronic Mouse Trap did catch and fry the back legs off a cockroach.....

[Wade]

One trip. One kill. Notification email received. Like it.

Reloaded and ready to go again.



ps. Battery shows 83% after one trip. 4 AAs.

[Wade]

And 90 minutes later, another kill. Looks like I'm getting the new litter. We'll see if mom is too smart.

In case anyone's interested I'm baiting with a bit of Just One Bite bait/poison bar. Battery at 77% after 2 trips.

[outbackrob]

Battery at 77% after 2 trips.

That's pretty good. After three days and three roaches, my dome is down to 62%. They were TEXAS roaches.....

The next day I fogged the attic and have had NO roach activity in the attic since. HOWEVER, moments ago, one of my homemade jobbies caught a mouse in the garage. Got a text and a blinking red light on at all the doors and either end of the stairs. Can't miss it.

[Wade]

That's pretty good. After three days and three roaches, my dome is down to 62%. They were TEXAS roaches.....

The next day I fogged the attic and have had NO roach activity in the attic since. HOWEVER, moments ago, one of my homemade jobbies caught a mouse in the garage. Got a text and a blinking red light on at all the doors and either end of the stairs. Can't miss it.

74% after a 3rd kill yesterday. Extremely happy with general performance and battery life in particular.

[outbackrob]

That's awesome! Mine has been quite for the last three days. Still showing 62%. I'd like to get more data, but I am happy with no roach/rat activity. :-)

[Wade]

That's awesome! Mine has been quite for the last three days. Still showing 62%. I'd like to get more data, but I am happy with no roach/rat activity. :-)

Yeah not thrilled by the fact that there are so many in my attic but at least their numbers are going down...and it's showing tripped again since yesterday afternoon but won't able to check it until tomorrow.

[Wade]

Another data point on battery life...or perhaps more to the point, uncertainty about battery life...After a 4th kill and remaining in that state for 2 days until I could get to it, the battery now reports 87% after resetting. Hmmm.

[outbackrob]

Ok. Dome 3, Homemade 3.1. The dome has caught and fried 3 cockroaches and my homage jobbies have caught 3.1 mice.

Homeseer related: I woke up at 6 to a text notification from 5:30am that Rat Trap 04 might have caught something plus every 200 series dimmer switch in the house had number 7 blinking red.

Again, theses are the type of things I have been hoping for since the 80’s!!

[outbackrob]

Another data point on battery life...or perhaps more to the point, uncertainty about battery life...After a 4th kill and remaining in that state for 2 days until I could get to it, the battery now reports 87% after resetting. Hmmm.

If it is still reporting and doing its job, I guess it really doesn't matter what the battery level shows to be.....

[Wade]

If it is still reporting and doing its job, I guess it really doesn't matter what the battery level shows to be.....

I agree in general but also hope it's providing accurate enough readings that I don't leave it in the attic while not functioning.

[outbackrob]

Agreed. I wonder if it alerts once the battery power gets too low to do its job?

[outbackrob]

Agreed. I wonder if it alerts once the battery power gets too low to do its job?

I think I have answered my own question. After two nights of false trips (and the same batteries from when I posted the above) I replaced the batteries with fresh ones. Tonight, at around the same time as the last two nights of false trips, it tripped again. THIS time with fresh batteries. Found a full trap this time..... I think the previous two nights, the little mouse only got a bzzzt! Tonight it got the full treatment. Not happy though. This is the first mouse caught in the house attic. Everything else (from 2018...) had been in the garage.

For the future, I think I'll change the batteries if they go below about 60%. These were at 50% after over 19 months. If it costs me an extra few bucks to replace them earlier, it seems to be worth it for the kill.