The Problem with the Customer's Story
The call comes in: "We've got mice." You ask where. The customer says the kitchen. Maybe they saw one run behind the fridge. Maybe they heard scratching in the walls near the pantry. Maybe their kid saw something in the basement three weeks ago.
You listen. You take notes. And in the back of your mind, you know that this information — while well-intentioned — can point you in the wrong direction.
Customers report what they remember. They report what scared them. They report the one sighting out of dozens of unseen movements. And they almost never report what's happening at 2:00 AM when the real activity is underway.
You've been doing this long enough to know that the kitchen sighting might mean activity in the basement. That the "scratching near the pantry" might be coming from a completely different wall cavity. That the customer's story is a starting point — but it's not the whole picture.
Day One: Your Expertise, Enhanced
Nothing about the first visit changes. You walk the property the way you always have. You check the areas your experience tells you are problematic — utility penetrations, foundation gaps, where pipes come through walls, behind appliances, along baseboards. You look for droppings, rub marks, gnaw evidence. You do the inspection.
The difference is that before you leave, you place sensors in the areas you want to monitor. Not where the customer said they saw something — where your professional judgment says the activity is likely happening. Along the routes you'd expect rodents to travel. Near the entry points you suspect. In the rooms the customer didn't even mention.
Sensors Complement Your Eye, They Don't Replace It
Your inspection skills identify the likely problem areas. The sensors confirm it — or reveal something you couldn't see during a daytime visit. It's your expertise with an overnight verification layer on top.
Day Two: Where RodentRadar Shines
This is where the value becomes obvious — and it became obvious to the very first exterminator we demonstrated the system to.
"Wait — I can view this from home?"
He interrupted the demo the moment it clicked. The overnight data — the playback, the heat maps, which sensors triggered and when — all of it accessible from a browser. From his house. From his office. From the truck between jobs. Before he ever drove back to the customer's property.
That reaction wasn't about the technology. It was about what the technology means for how you work. Before the second visit, you already know:
- Which sensors triggered overnight — and which didn't
- What time the first activity started and the last activity ended
- Which areas had the heaviest traffic
- The direction of travel — where they came from and where they went back to
- Whether the customer's "kitchen problem" is actually a basement problem that surfaces in the kitchen
When you return to the property, you return with actionable data. You're not checking traps and hoping. You're walking in with a map of exactly what happened while everyone was asleep.
No Wasted Trips
Think about the current workflow without monitoring data. You set traps. You lay bait. You leave. You drive back a few days later. What have you learned?
Without Monitoring
- Drive to the site to check traps
- Did something trigger? Maybe
- Did they eat the bait? Hard to tell
- If the traps are empty, what did you learn?
- You drove there, looked around, and drove back — with no new information
With RodentRadar
- Check the dashboard from your office
- See exactly which areas had activity
- See which areas had none — no trip needed there
- Know whether to return today or wait another night
- When you do return, you know exactly what to address
If there's no motion near an area where you placed traps, that's not wasted data — it's the system telling you not to waste a trip. The absence of activity is information. It means either the area is clean, or the rodents are using a different route. Either way, you know before you start the truck.
Verify Your Exclusions in Real Time
This is where monitoring pays for itself — especially for wildlife exclusion work.
You find an entry point. You seal it. The question is: did it work? Did they find another way in? Without monitoring, you won't know until the customer calls you back in two weeks saying they're hearing noises again.
With sensors in place, you see the answer the next morning.
Watch the Traffic Patterns Change
As you add exclusions, the overnight data shows you how the traffic patterns shift. Seal one entry point and activity near that sensor drops to zero — but maybe a sensor on the other side of the basement picks up new movement. Now you know there's a secondary entry point, and you know exactly where to look.
Each exclusion you add narrows their options. The sensors show you their response in real time — not weeks later when the customer notices.
This also gives you something powerful for the customer relationship: proof that your work is effective. You can show them the before-and-after data. Activity on this side of the house went from 40 triggers a night to zero after the exclusion. That's not your word against their worry — it's data.
The New Workflow
Day 1 — Inspect and Deploy
Walk the property, do your inspection, and place sensors in the areas your experience tells you matter. Let the customer know the system will monitor overnight and you'll review the data before coming back.
Day 2 Morning — Review from Anywhere
Check the dashboard from home, the office, or the truck. See the overnight playback, the heat map, and which sensors fired. Decide whether to return today or collect another night of data.
Return Visit — With Answers
When you go back, you know exactly where the activity is concentrated. Place traps in the right spots. Focus exclusion work where the data points. No guessing, no relying on the customer's memory.
After Treatment — Verify
Leave the sensors in place after exclusion or treatment. The data shows you — and the customer — whether the problem is solved. If activity shifts, you catch it immediately instead of waiting for a callback.
The Business Case
Fewer wasted trips. Faster diagnosis. Provable results. The kind of data-backed service that sets you apart from the company that shows up, sprays, and hopes. Customers remember the pro who showed them exactly what was happening in their home — and proved the problem was solved.
Getting Started
We're working with a small group of pest control and wildlife exclusion professionals who want to add monitoring to their service offering. Each system ships ready to go — sensors are pre-paired, the base station connects to the customer's WiFi, and you can access the dashboard from any browser.
If you're interested in seeing how this fits into your workflow, we'd rather talk than sell. Give us a call or send an email — we'll walk through the system and answer any questions.
Add Data to Your Toolkit
Base station + 8 sensors. Deploy at the job site, review from anywhere.
Get Started — $149