Connected pest management changes how businesses handle rodents, moving from scheduled check-ins to round-the-clock monitoring. If you are weighing it up for your facility, you probably have questions about how the technology works, what happens to your data, and how it fits your compliance obligations. Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about PestConnect. If yours is not covered below, just reach out.
Here is a look at what sits behind connected monitoring, from how the devices talk to each other to how they tell a real problem from a false alarm.
Each device has a built-in method to detect and confirm activity, so your team is not buried in notifications. During trials, we found insects like cockroaches were setting off triggers. That led us to build an algorithm that reads the difference in movement between a cockroach and a mouse.
The devices run on batteries, while the hub we provide is mains-powered and comes with a roaming SIM already installed. Inside your building, devices talk to the hub using LoRaWAN, then the hub uses mobile technology to reach our service. The whole system is ring-fenced, so it stays isolated from your Wi-Fi or internet network.
Yes. Through our portal, PestConnect Online, you can see your floor plans and information on device triggers, so you always know what is happening. That said, the point of connected monitoring is that our team manages your pest activity for you. We give you full transparency on the data, and our technicians handle the interpretation and response.
The LoRaWAN protocol is built to transmit through tough conditions, so it handles most buildings well. In rare cases, walls may be too thick or a space may be sealed in a way that blocks the signal. That is why we run a survey before anything goes in. If the structure or a lack of mobile coverage would stop the system working, we will tell you upfront.
This is where round-the-clock coverage earns its keep. The moment a threshold is hit, the system sends an alert to our service, day or night. We then plan the response around your service agreement so a technician arrives with the full picture: when activity started, where it is, and whether it has happened before. Nothing waits for the next scheduled visit.
There is no fixed number, because it depends on your building's size, layout, and risk areas. We work this out during the initial site survey, when we map entrances, exits, and the spots most likely to show the earliest signs of activity. To give you a sense of scale, our largest connected contract runs around 50,000 devices across several thousand sites.
If you are responsible for keeping a site running, these are the practical questions about contracts, rollout, and day-to-day service that come up most.
A traditional contract runs on scheduled visits. A weekly hour-long visit adds up to about 52 hours of monitoring a year, and a quarterly one far less. Connected monitoring runs 24/7, which works out to 8,760 hours a year. The difference is simple: instead of waiting to spot activity on the next visit, we catch it as it starts and act sooner.
Timing depends on the size and complexity of your estate. Every rollout starts with a survey and the build of a digital twin, where we mimic your floor plans, risk areas, and device locations in our system. For multi-site operators, we phase the work across locations. We will map out a realistic schedule with you once we understand your footprint.
Our devices are built for demanding commercial environments, and we are moving toward equipment like bespoke cameras designed to hold up in harsh, hard-to-reach spots. Whether a specific cold store or controlled room is a good fit depends on the site survey, which assesses signal transmission and placement. We would rather confirm suitability first than promise coverage we cannot deliver.
No. Our people remain the ones who resolve infestations, and the system is built to support them, not replace them. We run checkpoints and KPIs in the background that guide technicians on exactly what to review on each visit. The connected data simply arms them with better information, so their expertise goes further.
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Connecting your pest program means handling real data, so here is how we protect it and put it to work for you.
Yes. We hold ISO 27001 accreditation, an independently audited standard for top-level data security, because a connected system carries real responsibility for protecting your information and ours. The hub is also ring-fenced from your own network. Where our devices use cameras, the images are automatically blurred to protect anyone captured on them.
Yes, and this is one of the biggest gains. Because we capture time of day, day of week, and location, we can pick up patterns you would otherwise miss. If activity spikes every Thursday and that lines up with deliveries, your technician can tie the two together and recommend a fix. Larger portfolios can also benchmark activity across sites.
With rodenticide rules tightening and audits getting stricter, here is how connected monitoring helps you stay on the right side of both.
It builds a clear, time-stamped record of every trigger and the response that followed, all held in our reporting portal. That documented trail is exactly what auditors want to see, and it reflects the integrated pest management approach regulators increasingly expect. For manufacturing sites, we carry out our activities in line with GAMP (Good Automated Manufacturing Practice), a recognized set of guidelines for validating automated systems that those audits specifically look for.
PestConnect fits the direction these rules are heading. As states tighten restrictions on rodenticides, the pressure is on to treat less and prevent more. Connected monitoring targets action where activity is real, which reduces reliance on rodenticide by focusing on specific problem areas rather than blanket baiting. That supports the shift toward prevention that the newer regulations reward.
Our devices are built for demanding commercial environments, and we are moving toward equipment like bespoke cameras designed to hold up in harsh, hard-to-reach spots. Whether a specific cold store or controlled room is a good fit comes down to the site survey, which checks signal transmission and placement. We would rather confirm suitability first than promise coverage we cannot deliver.
PestConnect gives you the kind of documented, time-stamped monitoring record these inspections call for. Facilities operating under GMP must keep their buildings free of pests and hold records to prove it. Because we work to GAMP on manufacturing sites, the reporting supports the evidence trail auditors expect to review.
Right now, connected monitoring is centered on rodents, which is where it delivers the most value. We are actively developing smaller devices and bespoke cameras for other pests, including cockroaches, with more to come. Interestingly, learning to tell cockroaches apart from mice is what drove our false-alarm filtering in the first place.
Every facility is different, so the best way to see whether connected monitoring fits yours is to talk it through. Ehrlich's PestConnect has been protecting commercial sites since 2012 and is now in its third generation. Get in touch to request a free inspection, and our local team will walk your site and answer anything we have not covered here.
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