An Investigation into the Monitoring of Pest Control Devices using Wireless Communication

Abstract

The monitoring of animal control devices (animal traps) in remote areas currently requires field workers to visit each device on a regular basis, which is costly and time consuming. Better monitoring practices could allow DOC to increase their trapping practices through reduced costs. Essentially, the aim of this paper is to reduce the number of man-hours, and hence resources, required to check each trap. An attempt will be made to use wireless communications to check the status of each trap, and hence decide whether or not it will need to be checked, bringing benefits of efficiency and cost savings to the Department of Conservation. It is recognised that the environment is very difficult for traditional wireless communications to operate reliably and therefore new methods or technologies were investigated for this application. A system operating at 27MHz using a modified pulse position modulation scheme was found to be an appropriate solution; however the success of wireless communications in pest control management is dependent upon the trapping location, patterns and terrain.