We recently talked with Kevin Foley, an ATC costumer who was excited about his success with the A24 trap and wanted to share his feedback. Kevin Foley, has lived in Triunfo-Lobo Canyon in Southern California for 20 years with his wife and daughters on their 20-acre property. The entire area was decimated by wildfires 3 years ago, and they lost their home to the Woolsey Fire.
Wildfires and other natural disasters can cause an increase in rat activity after the fire when rodents are displaced. With their natural habitat destroyed, they will seek shelter in new places and will often invade construction areas and any structure they can find. Foley has found the A24 trap works wonders at keeping the rats at bay.
Foley is on the board of the home association for the Triunfo-Lobo Community Association. The community is located in Agoura, and is made up of around 100 houses with similar properties. Foley thinks the A24 traps are "perfect for large properties or areas that you do not visit every day, so you do not have a stale rat to cleanup out of the trap — because most likely another animal has done the cleanup for you." He loves that with A24's, you're "not killing the local wildlife with secondary poisoning and they're safe for kids and pets."
Read more of our conversation below:
ATC: Thinking back to your first purchase, why did you initially choose the A24?
Foley: It looked like exactly what I needed — a safe, humane way to rid my property of rats while not poisoning the natural wildlife like owls, eagles, hawks, bobcats, coyotes and mountain lions. I love the "counter" to be able to keep track of how much the trap is working for me yet, disposing of most of the cleanup with the natural wildlife.
ATC: Can you please describe the areas where you're having success with the A24?
Foley: I use 2 of them around my garage and one inside my garage. I had my entire property burn down in the Woosley Fire of 2018 and all that was left was the garage. I had tools and other construction materials inside to protect, but was not there on a regular basis, so the rats were having a field day with grass seed, plastic parts, and anything stored in a cardboard box.
I was pausing my guys to spend a whole day 3 times a year to completely cleanup and empty the garage, rid the rats, and put it all back. Until I got the A24’s — they took care of the problem 90% of the time on the outside of the building, and if one would occasionally get inside through an open door, it would find the indoor trap within a day or two.
I also use them at my gate opener for my driveway. It is about 1500’ away from the garage, and I was paying the gate installer to come out two times a month to fix the damage that the rats were doing to the wires inside the openers after they would setup a nest inside the box.
ATC: How many A24's do you now have deployed and what made you get more?
Foley: I now have 4. After I get my property rebuilt, I will probably need 8-10 to cover everything that I have to protect. I wanted to just get one in the beginning to make sure they worked as promised, but they worked perfectly, So I ordered 3 more!
ATC: What (if any) other rodent control methods had you tried at your trapping site/s previously to A24 deployment?
Foley: I would use snapping traps and bait poison. Worked pretty well, but we will get reports of secondary poisoning with the local wildlife, so I was looking for something better for the environment. The snapping traps would catch something and I would not realize it until after the body started to decompose and then I would have to deal with the smelly carcass…gross!
- Kevin Foley
ATC: How long did it take for you to see results with the A24?
Foley: Immediately. I never had another rat problem inside my garage or in my gate opener. I would check the counter every so often and be very happy with the rising number on the display. So satisfying!
ATC: What were any challenges you encountered with the A24?
Foley: At first, when they were screwed to the wall, the rats would have a little more trouble finding the traps until I bought the ground mounts and the rats will walk right into them after walking down the sides of a wall.
ATC: How often do you check the traps you've installed?
Foley: Not that often now, because I just know that they are working! I would say once a month.
ATC: Since we know there's a great story behind your A24 use that established our connection, can you please share that with us?
Foley: I was just searching like crazy for something "technologically" that would solve this rat problem better than the typical traps and poisons. I found some YouTube videos demonstrating their effectiveness and I bought one to try. Worked as advertised! I want to tell everyone who will listen about them. They are the best!
How does the A24 Trap Work?
The Goodnature A24 trap targets rats and mice. The weatherproof trap kills rodents repeatedly without toxins or electricity, and automatically resets itself after each CO2-powered strike. The trap can be mounted or attached to a portable trap stand. When used outdoors, scavengers often carry off the dead rodents. The A24 can be used with a Digital Strike Counter to keep track of the number of times the trap has been triggered.
The A24 trap is a quick-kill method that is safe for pets and other wildlife. The trap is also safe for the environment, unlike toxic rodenticides that can infiltrate natural water sources, soil, and other organisms.
