How to Rid Your Campus of Rodents

Smart technology gives us new ways to address old problems in our homes, places of business, and in public spaces. One great example is a sensor, invisible to the eye, that fits in a waste receptacle and collects valuable data it can then transmit to users—be they facility management, civil engineers, or sanitation departments.

It measures everything from weight and fill level to temperature and landfill diversion. With GPS, it can track whether the receptacle has been moved and the location where it should be returned. The data, both real-time and historical, are used as a planning tool to optimize routes and make significant boosts in efficiencies, including labor costs, time and environmental impact.

The smart technology now features a user-enabled rodent detection mode. It looks for specific patterns in the measurements it records that indicate rodent movement within the container. The data that are collected can be used to uncover specific problem areas with dense rat populations and identify key surrounding contributors, such as discarded foods and litter in overflowing dumpsters, alleyways, restaurant trash cans, and the street. Over time, the data allow users to measure the success of a rat-abatement initiative.

What makes the new feature a huge benefit is that it gets to the infestation’s root causes and does not simply treat the symptoms.

Rats are smart. But this technology is smarter.

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management April 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

About the Author

Emma Skalka is vice president of Sales and Marketing at Victor Stanley in Dunkirk, MD.

Featured

  • Rice University to Build New Student Life Complex

    Rice University in Houston, Texas, recently announced that a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming Moody Center Complex for Student Life (MCCSL) will take place on May 8, 2025, according to a university news release. The 75,000-square-foot facility was designed by architecture firm Olson Kundig with Page serving as executive architect, and it has an estimated completion date of fall 2027.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Introduces Claude for Education

    Anthropic has launched a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • Clemson to Launch North America’s Largest College Campus Smart Parking Program

    Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., recently announced a partnership with smart parking and curbside management solutions provider eleven-x to launch a smart parking initiative for its population of 29,000 students and faculty, according to a news release.

  • New Jersey PreK–12 School Breaks Ground on New STEM Building

    Saddle River Day School (SRDS) in Saddle River, N.J., recently announced that it has broken ground on the new Dr. Kristen Walsh Hall of Science & Entrepreneurship, according to a news release. The school partnered with DIGroup Architecture for the design of the new facility, which will provide the school with space to expand its STEM and business education classes.