Ultrasonic and Electromagnetic rodents repellent

ratswentberserk · Oct 27, 2007

My neighbours who live on the two flats above ours think have mice and they have started to use ultrasonic and electromagnetic rodent repellents.
Tomorrow a representative from a local bat charity is going to come round with a bat detector to see whether those devices can be heard by our ratties.
In the meantime do you have any suggestions on the type of behaviour that we should look out for and that would indicate that our ratties are under some sort of distress due to sound emitted by those things?
Thank you

Vanessa · Oct 27, 2007

I have heard that those units work very well in keeping rodents away humanely. Due to rats having exceptionally acute hearing, I would expect to see very frantic type behaviour from them. Running around the cage trying to escape the noise, not sleeping, maybe not eating.
I am sure that those units have a distance cap like a cordless phone would have, and would not extend that far - especially through walls.
I would expect that you would know right off the bat if your rats were disturbed by it.
That is a fantastic idea to get the bat detector in to gauge the distance. I always wanted a bat detector but they are very expensive.

jorats · Oct 27, 2007

On one hand, it's quite humane for the people to go that route but if it does affect your rats, it could be hell.
Keep us updated, I sure hope it doesn't reach your rats.

ratswentberserk · Oct 28, 2007

We've been watching our ratties last night and I checked them again this morning and everything seems fine.
I'm looking forward to those people from the bat charity coming here this evening though, just to be absolutely sure that the girls/boy are safe. It's also going to be so exciting to hear them chatting

We are lucky because our neighbours are very understanding people and one in particular said that he will stop using the repellent if we notice problems with our pets

. At the same time that could mean him going out and buy poison instead

jorats · Oct 28, 2007

We've heard our rats through a bat detector, it really is fun and amazing. You can check frequencies from 25mhz to I believe over 100mhz. He had the most chattering at around 45mhz.

ratswentberserk · Oct 28, 2007

A lady from the bat charity was here earlier on and it's bad news. A very annoying sound is coming through to our flat. The girls/boy are not freaking out about it but I can imagine it must affect them. I listened to that sound only for few minutes and it was already annoying me. The poor things have to listen to it all day long!
One of our neighbours is willing to turn his device off. We now need to ask the other neighbour to turn his off too (apparently him and his lodgers have at least 4 in the flat!! :shock: )

Our ratties this evening were not in a chatty mood at all so we didn't hear them talking...