Trio's brainchild joins war on pests

Creators (from left) Stephen Quayle, Nathan Holland and Jourdan Templeton hope to sell Ohiti abroad.

Trap sensor system dreamed up by students for a Waikato University project is being trialled by DoC.

The Department of Conservation and other pest management bodies will have an extra tool to battle rats, stoats and possums with Ohiti - a new trap sensor system built by a trio of Waikato University students.

Jourdan Templeton, Nathan Holland and Stephen Quayle dreamed up the idea as a combined university project and entry for the Microsoft Imagine Cup.

Templeton said the group wanted to develop a system that would increase the effectiveness and efficiency of pest eradication in New Zealand, an area where he said technology could make a huge difference.

"Our aim was to improve conservation because traditionally conservation has been left behind, left in the dust," Templeton said.

"We're still using big mousetraps and poison. Poison kills the things we're trying to save and leaves devastation. It's an uphill battle."

Ohiti has radio and Wi-Fi enabled sensors which can monitor when traps are fired and when each trap needs to be checked. The sensors can also monitor temperature and humidity levels which, with information on trap activation, can be used to decide where to place traps and when more might need to be set up.

For example, the information could be used to target problem areas for rats during summer and then move to other areas when the trap activation rates drop again.

At present rangers and DoC staff have to manually check each trap and carry around gear to reset traps, without knowing whether they need checking or not.

With Ohiti, notifications will be sent to an electronic device or database about specific traps needing to be maintained or checked and will tell the ranger what gear is needed.

Templeton said it was a more proactive and targeted approach to pest control. "There hasn't really been any serious monitoring of these traps before. So our system is designed to make these traps more effective."

The Ohiti company has partnered with trap maker Good Nature, which has developed the Good Nature A24 traps, which use a gas-powered pneumatic bolt and are a humane option for pest control. The trap automatically resets itself, and has to be reset only after it has been triggered 24 times.

According to Templeton, the partnership has so far had zero cases of killing non-target animals.

Department of Conservation trials, which began last October, have so far been a success, and Ohiti's founders hope the trap and tracking systems will be rolled out across New Zealand through DoC and regional councils, before they look to overseas markets.

The company is developing further functionalities, which will include taking automatic photos of which animals are trapped for research purposes as well as recording bird calls nearby.

Ohiti was entered in this year's Imagine Cup with its trap-tracking solution, an entry which saw its three creators awarded runners-up in the New Zealand Innovation category behind Team Estimeet, who went on to win the world finals Innovation Category in Seattle last month.

Caught in a trap

• The Ohiti transmitter is attached to a trap and records when it's triggered.
• Sensors can also record information such as temperature and humidity.
• The database will show which traps need to be reset.
• Problem areas can be targeted by placing traps in areas with high trap activation rates.