Is Untrasonic Electronic Pest Control, Effective?

tedgyz asks: "I have declared war on the pests in my house. I am tired of hearing the scurrying of mice and squirrels in my walls. Worse - I am tired of the nests littered with droppings buried in boxes in the attic. I have used standard traps, and although successful, it seems that new rodents or more than happy to replace the ones I've killed. Are ultrasonic deterrents effective?"

"I've searched the web, but I can only find marketing material from manufacturers and distributors. I'm looking for cold, hard facts.

1. Do ultrasonic deterrents really keep rodents out of your house?
2. What is the range?
3. Do they last, or do the rodents eventually return?
4. Are they truly innocuous to dogs and cats?
5. How do you measure success?"

Comments

I don't know what they do to insects.

[Pathwalker]

I do know that those pest repellers can drive me out of a room pretty quickly.
Whenever I get near one I get a horrible headache after a few seconds that just keeps getting worse and worse until I flee, or can disable the damned device.

My advice would be to avoid them. Never let one into your house or workplace, destroy any you find, and try to drive the companies that make them out of business, sterilize the ground on which the factories that built them once stood (after your burn the buildings, and before you salt the ashes), and force the people who invented/built them into a lonely exile in Antarctica.

Of course, I might be slightly biased.

Re:I don't know what they do to insects.

[MasterofVoid]

It would been nice if the parent had mentioned in his post that he is a rat himself, thus the problems with the pest control gadgets..

Speaking as a homeowner...

[clintp]

You can't just kill the pests, you have to kill them and send a message to the others. I suggest making little crosses and crucifying the mice and leaving those aroung the attic. (Hint, use staples.) Also leaving squirrel heads on small metal pikes seems effective. Keeps other people from snooping around in your attic as well.

Re:Low tech solution.

[GigsVT]

Holy hell.

You mean I could have been harvesting that stuff and selling it on ebay all this time, instead of spending money on cat litter?

Now all I need to figure out how to do is get the cat to piss in a cup. He might freak out and think it was a drug test though.