Adhesive Wrapper for Rodent Trap Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional rodent traps face challenges in effectively retaining rodents within the strike zone, leading to escape and inhumane deaths, especially with repeated encounters, and existing glue pad traps result in inhumane mutilation.
Innovation Solution
An augmented rodent trap design featuring a removable adhesive wrapper that adheres to the trap platform, preventing rodents from escaping once they approach the bait station, thereby increasing the kill ratio and allowing for humane disposal without contaminating the trap.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional snap traps are used, then the trap structure is simple and cost-effective, but rodents can easily escape the strike zone and survive repeated encounters
Solution Approach 1:
The trap is divided into separate functional components: the original snap trap mechanism and the additive adhesive wrapper. This segmentation allows the adhesive wrapper to be applied as a separate enhancement without redesigning the entire trap structure, thereby improving rodent retention capability while maintaining relative structural simplicity and cost-effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The adhesive wrapper acts as an intermediary element between the rodent and the snap trap mechanism. It provides an additional retention function that prevents rodents from escaping the strike zone, effectively mediating the interaction to ensure once a rodent enters the bait station area, it cannot escape even if the snap mechanism fails to activate.
2Reliability
If glue pad traps are used, then rodents are retained effectively, but the rodent suffers inhumane mutilation and appendage loss
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful function of the glue pad trap (causing inhumane mutilation) is extracted and replaced. Instead of using a glue pad that causes severe injury, the invention uses a snap mechanism that, when properly activated, delivers a quick and humane death. The adhesive wrapper is used solely for retention to ensure the rodent enters the strike zone, not for causing injury.
Solution Approach 2:
The potential harm of the adhesive wrapper (which could cause injury if used alone) is converted into a benefit by combining it with the snap mechanism. The adhesive wrapper ensures the rodent is retained in the strike zone, but the snap mechanism provides the humane killing function, transforming what could be an inhumane trap into a humane one.
3Ease of operation
If the rodent is free to approach the bait station, then the trap is accessible, but the rodent can hop away from the strike bar area
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive wrapper provides localized retention only in the critical strike zone area where the rodent must be positioned for the snap mechanism to work. The rest of the trap remains accessible to the rodent, allowing it to approach the bait station freely. This local application of adhesive ensures the rodent cannot hop away from the strike bar area while maintaining ease of access to the bait.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The adhesive wrapper significantly enhances the trap's effectiveness by ensuring rodents remain within the strike zone, increasing the kill-to-visit ratio and facilitating clean and humane rodent removal, allowing for trap reuse.
Implementation Method 1
a removable adhesive wrapper that adheres to the trap platform
Data Source
AI summary
A removeable, adhesive wrapper used to augment any existing rodent trap by affixation to the top, side and bottom faces of the rodent trap's operating platform. It is folded about the operating platform and connected to itself, leaving an adhesive layer facing up in the region of the bait station. When the rodent steps on it and stops to take the bait, they are no longer capable of quickly moving when they activate the trap's trigger and the kill bar of the rodent trap is released. Even if the rodent does not reach the bait station, their jiggling efforts to extricate their feet and/or lower body from the adhesive wrapper will activate the trigger. Once dead, the adhesive wrapper may be unfolded and wrapped around the dead rodent for disposal.