MARLBOROUGH – The city has deployed a new way of dealing with the rat problem.
Smart boxes have been installed on public property in neighborhoods throughout the city. These are pesticide-free devices that can hold five to ten rodents.
These boxes attract nearby rodents with specialized bait. Once the rodent is fully in the box, it is pushed up with an arm and electrocuted. The rodent is then pushed into the holding container.
The boxes are GPS monitored as well as alerted each time a rodent is captured. Modern Pest, the owner and servicing company, picks up boxes once they have at least five captures and they are checked every few days.
The inside of the box is too small for children or pets to enter.
This capture program is part of a six-month pilot between the city and Modern Pest.
The boxes were originally placed based on the results of the mayor’s rodent reporting tool. Boxes will be moved if they show inactivity after a certain period of time.
Since the reporting tool was initiated in January, the Board of Health has reported about 80 rodent sightings, with the top spots close to the city’s center.
The city obtained funding from some underutilized accounts within its budget, said Ryan Egan, chief of staff for Mayor J. Christian Dumais.
To learn more about the boxes and to report a rodent sighting, visit: https://www.marlborough-ma.gov/board-health/pages/rodent-information-reporting.
