SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : The Better Rattrap Might Include Deadly Jolt

Former world karate champion Refugio Flores remembers facing his foe at night.

The opponent sniffed the air and then rushed forward, stepping lightly on a metal plate. One prolonged hiss later, Flores knew he had electrocuted another of the fruit-loving tree rats that had been plaguing his Oxnard neighborhood.

“One night I got six. I felt like a hunter,” Flores said.

Flores’ weapon of choice is a new device made by Agrizap, a tiny Ventura company that has brought the world of high technology to the world of the rat catcher.

The electronic “Rat Zapper” and its cousin, the “Gopher Zapper,” have been on the market for less than a year. Sales are yet only in the hundreds of units. But Agrizap President Robert G. Noe thinks the device has more than a, well, rat’s chance of succeeding.

“They say the world will beat a path to your door if you build a better mousetrap. We’ve built a better mouse and rat trap,” Noe said.

The trap in question uses electronic circuitry housed inside a lunch-box-size case that is attached to a metal container or tunnel. When a rodent enters the container, it encounters an electrified plate that dispatches the animal to that great cheese ball in the sky.

The unit, powered by standard flashlight batteries, then turns the electricity off and signals that it has been tripped.

“Once they get in there, that’s it,” Noe said.

The Rat Zapper is the result of a lucky chance a few years ago at Noe’s horse ranch in Ojai--lucky for Noe but not so lucky for a gopher that surfaced as the entrepreneur was tinkering with an electrified horse fence. Noe poked a live wire down the hole, and suddenly the ranch was lighter by one gopher.

“A light went on,” Noe said. “I could see there was a need. I knew there must be a better way to handle this problem.”

But bringing a product to market was new to the attorney and real estate investor.

“This whole thing was a comedy. People kept asking, ‘Are you serious?’ ” Noe said.

With the help of family investors and after more than five years of research and development, Agrizap introduced the Gopher Zapper, followed by the Rat Zapper. (The Gopher Zapper works similarly to the Rat Zapper, but the metal plate is threaded down a gopher hole and the unit is staked to the ground.)

Southern California is a well-stocked hunting ground. When the drought ended, rejuvenated vegetation provided lots of food and hiding places for rodents.

“A rodent can do a horrible amount of devastation in a short amount of time,” Noe said, recounting clients’ stories of ruined rugs, gnawed wires, fouled merchandise, and, in the case of restaurants and movie theaters, jittery customers. Then there is the stench from poisoned rats that die in walls and under floors.

Noe contends that the Rat Zapper is safer, cleaner, more humane and more effective than the alternatives, which included poison, spring-operated traps, sticky glue traps and ultrasound.

“From the homeowners’ standpoint, one of the greatest fears is . . . a lot of carnage,” Noe said. “This is better for the operator and the rodent.”

The Rat Zapper’s shock is lethal to rodents but not to any small child who might stick a hand into a unit’s container, Noe said. Nor is the unit’s narrow tunnel, generally baited with dry dog food or biscuits (although movie theater rodents prefer popcorn), the sort of place most household pets would consider entering, he said.

Jerry Mix, editor of Pest Control magazine, called the Rat Zapper “very innovative.”

“I’ve been here for 13 years, and I’ve never known anything like it,” said Mix, who is also publisher of the Cleveland-based trade publication.

The Rat Zapper costs about $80 apiece, significantly more than a disposable wood-and-metal trap. But even at those prices, judging from customer testimonials, the Rat Zapper could nibble out a niche in the market, especially among the environmentally conscious who object to poisons, Mix said.

With his Zappers at last on the market, Noe said his biggest challenge is managing growth. Agrizap employs only eight people and contracts out most of the subassembly of the product.

“This isn’t GM,” Noe said. “We’re small. We’re the mouse that roared.”