Mice are in the house, and you’ve tried all the best hacks the internet has to offer. You turn on the lights at night. You’ve shredded Irish Spring soap with your cheese grater, shoving shavings in deep, dark places. You’ve dabbed peppermint and clove oil to mess with their masterful sense of smell. You’ve sprinkled cayenne pepper in corners to irritate their beady little eyes. You’ve used peanut butter or mixed toothpaste with sugar as bait in humane traps, soaked cotton balls in white vinegar, and sprayed bleach around nooks and crannies… Well, you get it. Nothing has worked to get rid of the mice, and it’s time to outsmart them once and for all.
“We use proprietary, passive, infrared technology that allows us to monitor mouse movement all the time, as in 24-7,” said Thomas Tripp, General Manager of the Modern Pest location in Portland. “Everything is ‘smart’ these days. Your phone, your doorbell, so why not this?”
The “this” Tripp is referring to is a sensory SMART system by Modern Pest’s parent company Anticimex. A commercial version is used to monitor large areas in industrial or municipal settings, like sewers or catering kitchens.
“The SMART brain collects data and compares it to prompts it has been programmed to look for,” shared Tripp. The ‘brain’ is a slim 8.5-inch by 5-inch white box that plugs into the wall and is usually paired with two or more “eyes”—3-inch by 3-inch sensors that identify changes in temperature and movement, not through video or photo.
“If it finds something interesting, we will be alerted, and a technician will be dispatched to assess the situation in person and make accurate recommendations for mitigation,” Tripp continued. These next steps may include using the system’s “Smart Snap” trap, which alerts technicians when it triggers, prompting a visit to clear out the mouse. This way a technician can get to the traps before a mouse becomes an odorous distraction. “The smell of a dying mouse only begins to dissipate when their organs dry up, which can take two weeks,” Tripp said, offering up quite the image. “Getting them out ASAP is best.”
Mice can cause significant damage if left unchecked. The SMART system allows Modern Pest to quickly identify and address mouse activity by sending alerts about nighttime activity. This ensures they can promptly schedule a service visit and resolve the issue before it escalates into a major problem.
Ultimately, even if they fear and disdain mice, most people want to trap them as painlessly as possible. Even without top-of-the-line systems, remember this expert advice: “Always use a snap trap over a glue trap,” Tripp advised. “Until this SMART system, the original 1897 mouse trap was the best because it is the fastest.” Mice die in thirty seconds. With a glue trap, it can take up to twelve hours.
So, we can always be humane, but we can also be smarter.
Next week: AND STAY OUT! Learn about proven tactics and technology to keep mice from ever getting inside your home.

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