As part of Mayor Katjana Ballantyne’s 100-Day Agenda and the City’s ongoing commitment to mitigating rodent activity, the City of Somerville is launching a five-month pilot program to bring the latest rodent-control technology to Somerville this week.
The City and its partner, Modern Pest Services, will install and maintain 50 SMART Boxes in four neighborhoods through at least July 2022. SMART Boxes are non-toxic, industrial-grade traps that catch rodents above ground and provide real-time data for proactive pest control. Somerville is the second municipality in the country to pilot this technology, after Portland, Maine.
“Rodent activity is a critical quality-of-life issue here in Somerville, so I’m very pleased to bring this new technology to our neighborhoods and to get this pilot underway,” said Mayor Ballantyne. “We need to be committed and forward-thinking in our approach, which makes the SMART system so compelling. It will not only catch rodents – it will expand our ability to collect data, to quantify the issue, and to identify additional steps we can take to make the greatest impact citywide.”
