AutoGate - Intelligent Internal & External Rat Control

Rats are an every present concern for businesses, when foraging on the periphery, looking for ways to enter in search of food. Rats can be very persistent even gnawing through metal to get into a building, and if any do gain access into your premises they can spread diseases, cause damage and contaminate food and other products. For food processing, food retail and hospitality businesses in particular a rodent infestation can have major health and safety implications as well as a negative impact on your business reputation.

Rentokil's AutoGate uses technology to 'intelligently'  limit access to rodenticide to only rodents. This unique and innovative solution allows strategic external and internal rat baiting that ensures legal compliance (under the Biocidal Products Regulation) whilst delivering immediate, highly targeted protection to help against rodent infestations, before they find entry to your premises, and if they do manage to sneak in.

CRRU (The Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use) guidelines are in place in the UK to help protect and reduce the risk of 'non target species' poisoning (for example voles or field mice). This can lead to secondary poisoning of protected birds (such as barn owls, kestrels and falcons) if they consume these mammals as carrion. However, this tight restriction on external baiting may allow rodent populations an opportunity to rise significantly before rodenticide can be made available to provide effective control.

External AutoGate has a ‘smart’ gate mechanism that secures the rodenticide from being accessed by non target species, only allowing rats access inside to the bait. AutoGate will only be activated (to open and expose the rodenticide) when a rat has been detected. There are two infrared sensors on the unit which continuously pulsate light. Once the sensors are triggered 3 times by rat activity, the gate opens to allow the rodent access to the rodenticide within the bait station. The gate will then close after a set period of time to prohibit access to non target species. If the sensors detect further rat activity the gate will re-open to allow the rat access to feed again for a limited period, providing effective, targeted control.

• Compared with standard external baiting, AutoGate reduces the exposure of rodenticide to non target species by up to 86%*
• AutoGate has been proven to stay closed to non target species interactions 100% of the time, only opening to expose rodenticide in direct response to rat activity**

The Internal AutoGate system allows customers an early warning, monitoring system and targeted internal control against rodents, as well as mouse activity. Internal AutoGate is able to detect and respond to the presence of both mice and rats, having differing sensors which can be set to monitor 'only rats' or 'both rats and mice'. This offers greater flexibility in protecting your business premise from rodents. It only activates when specifically triggered by a rodent. The robust casing protects the Internal AutoGate from damage and allows the units to be used safely and securely inside business premises from offices to factories and warehouses.

• Effective external and internal control of rats - allows strategic, targeted external baiting using second generation anticoagulant rodenticide
• Rodent infestations controlled swiftly - as AutoGate enables immediate, effective treatment of an external rat infestation and monitoting and swift treatment of any internal rodent activity
• Targeted baiting programme - which complies with CRRU guidelines, reducing the environmental impact of rodenticide whilst maintaining an effective rodent control programme
• Provides information on rodent activity - driving informed decision making and aiding future internak and external rat control management
• Safer use of pesticides - AutoGate allows highly targeted use of rodenticide in high risk areas, where children, pets and non-target species may be present

External AutoGate offers a complete rodent control solution, allowing strategic baiting around the perimeter of your premises to control external rat infestations swiftly, whilst Internal AutoGate provides an early warning, monitoring system with targeted internal control. External and Internal AutoGate units complement each other, providing your premises with an intelligent, targeted solution to help control rodents.

Also by providing information on the frequency of rat activity (from the recorded activations) AutoGate units aids informed decision making on future pest control prevention and management.

*based on being active for an average of 5 days compared to 35 days for permanent baiting **based over a 3 year Rentokil field research study.