Vulcan Pest Shark Tank Update: The $16 Million Question Behind Ian Fleming's Rat Trap Deal

Vulcan Pest's deal math, worked out. Graphic: Geeks Around Globe

Three Sharks bid on a rat trap in Season 18, Episode 5 ("I Smell a Rat"), and the founder picked the lowest valuation on the table. Every recap calls that a surprise. Run the numbers and it is the cheapest deal in the room unless Vulcan Pest one day sells for more than $16 million. Here is how we got there, plus the regulatory shift that quietly explains why a $90 bucket lid is doing $1.6 million.

Quick Answer

Vulcan Pest sells an auto-resetting bucket-lid rat trap: a ramp, a bait box and a pivoting "trigger plank" that drops rats into a bucket you supply, resets, and keeps catching — 30-plus per fill, no poison, no snapping. Founder Ian Fleming asked $100,000 for 5% and took $100,000 for 12.5% from Daymond John, declining Kevin O'Leary's $100,000 for 10% plus a $10-per-unit royalty to $400,000 and Barbara Corcoran's $100,000 for a flat 10%. The trap sells for $89.99 (list $99.99), costs $15.25 to make, has $1.6 million in lifetime sales and a $5 million forecast for this year. The episode aired October 28, 2026.

Vulcan Pest at a glance

The Vulcan lid and ramp; the bucket is yours. Photo courtesy of Vulcan Pest

What is Vulcan Pest?

It is the old farm "bucket trap" re-engineered. Vulcan sells only the lid assembly — an over-the-edge housing, a ramp and a bait compartment. You clip it onto any standard 5- or 7-gallon bucket (not included), bait it, and rodents climb the ramp toward the smell. When they step on the trigger plank it pivots, drops them in, and swings back level. Nothing to reset, nothing to re-bait after every catch, and no rodenticide. Fill the bucket with water for a lethal trap or leave it dry for live catch. The company claims a 100% catch rate and 30-plus catches per setup, and says the housing snaps together in 15 seconds.

It is sized for rats, squirrels and chipmunks — mid-sized rodents, not mice, which is where most cheap bucket traps stop.

Who founded Vulcan Pest?

Ian Fleming is an engineer who grew up partly in Africa on wildlife shoots with his father, then moved to a house in the Santa Cruz Mountains with, by his family's account, hundreds of rats. He built the first trap in his shed in 2021, sold it as a side business while working as a strategic account manager, and went full-time as CEO in December 2025. The family now lives in Los Gatos, where he held the watch party at a local fitness club. He told the Sharks the patent was due to issue the day after taping; the website still carries "patent pending" on the over-the-edge design.

Step two: the rodent climbs toward the bait, crosses the trigger plank and drops. Photo courtesy of Vulcan Pest

What happened on Shark Tank?

Fleming's pitch leaned on the Africa backstory and a set dressed with stuffed rats — one of which "attacked" Daymond when he opened a prop. Then the numbers landed: $1.6M lifetime, $5M projected, $89.99 price, $15.25 cost.

1. Kevin O'Leary: $100,000 for 10%, plus a $10-per-unit royalty until he recoups $400,000.
2. Barbara Corcoran: $100,000 for a straight 10%, with a digital-first growth plan.
3. Daymond John: $100,000 for 15%, pitching big-box retail. Fleming asked for 7.5%; Daymond refused, then met him at 12.5%.
4. Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec: out — neither wanted to think about rats daily.

Fleming tried to get two Sharks to pair up; none would. He went with Daymond, telling his local paper afterwards that Daymond "knows about rats" and owns adjacent brands, while Barbara's higher valuation came with a strategy — digital — that did not match his retail ambitions. He also admitted he nearly regretted it.

Deal snapshot

Only on GAG: the deal math, the margin, and the poison ban

Connect the dots:

1. Kevin's royalty was a 40,000-trap tax. $10 a unit to $400,000 is 40,000 traps — about $3.6M of revenue at $89.99. On Vulcan's own $5M forecast (roughly 55,600 traps), Kevin would have been fully repaid inside the year, then kept 10% for free.
2. Daymond was cheaper unless Vulcan becomes a $16M company. Versus Kevin, Daymond's deal costs 2.5 extra points instead of $400,000 in royalties. Those 2.5 points are worth $400,000 only at a $16M valuation. Below that — which is where most $5M-revenue hardware brands live — Daymond's structure leaves more money with the founder. Versus Barbara, though, Fleming did pay up: 2.5 points more for the retail Rolodex.
3. The margin is the moat. $74.74 of gross profit per trap, on a product that ships as a flat lid because the customer supplies the bucket. That is why Kevin wanted a royalty and why Daymond could accept a sub-$1M valuation and still expect to be paid: there is ~$4M of gross profit in a $5M year.
4. California made the market. Vulcan was built in California, where the state banned most second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides for consumers in 2020 and extended the moratorium to diphacinone from January 2024. Take poison off the shelf in the most populous state and a reusable, pet-safe mechanical trap stops being a niche product.
5. The side-project math. $1.6M in lifetime sales with the founder only going full-time in December 2025 means most of those 17,800 traps were sold by a part-timer. The $5M forecast is the first year with a CEO.

Vulcan claims 30-plus catches per setup before the bucket needs emptying. Image courtesy of Vulcan Pest

How does Vulcan Pest make money?

Direct-to-consumer at vulcanpest.com: one trap $89.99 with the Shark Tank discount (list $99.99), two for $153, three for $216, free shipping to the lower 48. Volume bundles push the per-unit price down to $72 while the $15.25 cost stays flat, so even the three-pack carries a 79% gross margin. The product has a credibility asset most pest brands lack: Shawn Woods of the Mousetrap Monday YouTube channel calls it the best rat trap he has seen, and that quote sits on the homepage.

The Daymond thesis is retail. A lid-only SKU with no bucket is light, flat and cheap to shelve — a good fit for hardware and farm-supply chains, which is exactly the channel Fleming said he wanted.

Vulcan Pest after Shark Tank

The thing to watch is whether a hardware chain picks it up before the $5M year ends. If Daymond delivers shelf space, the 12.5% will look cheap; if the growth stays online, Barbara's 10% was the better deal.

Lessons for founders

• Royalties are a unit tax — count the units. Translate every royalty into traps, bottles or boxes before you compare valuations.
• The cheapest equity is not always the cheapest deal. Fleming paid 2.5 points over Barbara for the channel he actually needed.
• Regulation can be your marketing. Poison bans did more for mechanical traps than any ad campaign.

Final take

Vulcan Pest is a simple product with an unusually good margin and a founder who, on air, chose channel fit over price. Our math says that choice is defensible against Kevin at any exit below $16M, and a deliberate overpay against Barbara. Whether it was the right call depends on one thing Daymond controls: a retail order.

FAQ

Did Vulcan Pest get a deal on Shark Tank? Yes — $100,000 for 12.5% from Daymond John.

How much does the Vulcan rat trap cost? $89.99 for one with the Shark Tank discount ($99.99 list); $153 for two; $216 for three. The bucket is not included.

Does the Vulcan trap use poison? No. It is a mechanical trap; the bucket can be dry for live catch or filled for lethal use.

Does it catch mice? It is designed for rats, squirrels and chipmunks — mid-sized rodents — rather than mice.

Which episode was Vulcan Pest on? Season 18, Episode 5, "I Smell a Rat," aired October 28, 2026.

More Shark Tank Season 18 updates

• Shark Tank Season 18 episode guide and every product so far
• Donna's Pickle Beer Shark Tank update — same episode
• Polygons Shark Tank update
• Ellavate Shark Tank update

Sources

• ABC's Shark Tank, Season 18, Episode 5 (on-air figures and offers)
• Los Gatan, "Local secures $100K for rat trap biz on Shark Tank," November 2026 (founder interview)
• vulcanpest.com (mechanism, claims, pricing); Shark Tank Global clip on YouTube
• The Cinemaholic, Shark Tank Success, Shark Tank Index episode pages
• California Department of Pesticide Regulation: AB 1788 (2020) and AB 1322 (2023) rodenticide restrictions