‘Humane’ rat trap goes global
traps. A ROTORUA businessman and his Waiheke Island brother-in-law are ‘‘living the cliche’’ after inventing a better rat trap and securing large global export orders.
Nooski Trap Systems cofounder David Wells says the company shipped 17,000 of the New Zealand-made traps, which retail overseas for about US$24 (NZ$29), to Indonesia alone in the past year.
They are sold in more than a dozen countries in all, with sales highest in the United States and Australia. Nooski also makes a smaller mouse trap that retails for about $10.
The all-plastic traps release a latex rubber ring that crushes and suffocates rodents so they die nearby in 10 to 20 seconds.
Wells says the five-year-old firm was the first to develop a consumer product using the technique. It was granted a full utility patent in the US in April and was expecting its European Union patent ‘‘any day’’.
‘‘For a foreigner to achieve a utility patent in the US is a very difficult thing,’’ he said.
The parts for the traps are injection-moulded in Auckland and assembled and packaged in Rotorua by a team of up to 12 contractors. Nooski is equally owned by Wells and brother-in-law Luc Desbonnets.
Wells says the traps are more humane and environmentally friendly than most alternatives. These include poison, which takes up to five days to kill, spring traps, which often maim rather than kill outright, and ‘‘catch-and-contain’’ traps that generate large amount of toxic waste.
‘‘If killing could be classified as humane, it is the most humane system available.’’