It seems that the clever people at Rentokil have invented a better mousetrap [^]. The new and improved mousetrap has been dubbed The Mouse RADAR – Rodent Activated Detection And Riddance.
Rentokil bill this as being a more efficient and humane way of ridding us of our small furry friends. The Mouse Radar is a box with pressure sensitive pads in the base that detect when a mouse enters the box. Once the “engaged” sign goes on, the box is sealed and a dose of carbon dioxide is released, sending the mouse into oblivion. No nasty pesticides and no visible dead mouse.
The Radar Mouse can even be set-up to send an email or SMS to notify trained “operatives” of the capture.
Zooillogix on ScienceBlogs [^] have an interesting discussion on whether or not the CO2 induced death is humane or not. They also suggest that the next improvement to the mousetrap will be “a satellite-mounted, laser that vaporises mouse from space, using Google Earth as a tracking system.” Now that’s what I call a mashup [^]!