The goal of electronic rodent repellent devices that use sound frequencies that rodents don’t like in the hopes of driving them away from food sources and nesting grounds they try to access and create in human homes.
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Sonic and ultrasonic technology has been sold and advertised as the new solution to all pest problems, even claiming they can get rid of cockroaches and other insects. They are often specific to rodents, rats and mice specifically. These devices use ultra-high sonic or ultrasonic sounds to disturb rodents who can hear at that frequency. Dogs and cats can also hear at those frequencies and you will notice the device does not bother them either. There has been no research on this topic, at least not double-blind experimentation. The idea was conceived and then produced without testing, based only on the fact that rodents and other animals and insects can hear, or in some cases, feel vibrations that will disturb them and cause them to leave.
Rodents communicate on the ultrasonic spectrum. That is a spectrum of sound just above and somewhat merging with the human hearing spectrum. The human spectrum is 20 to 20,000 Hz while ultrasonic sits above that. Humans can hear some of the same sounds mice can but are generally unable to if hearing loss has been suffered at all. While the device should be working science has not learned a great deal about hearing outside of humans. It’s difficult to test because most animals do not respond to sounds like humans, some will make no response at all. Until we can see inside an animal’s brain we will not know how it hears.
This device is famously used to rid city areas of pigeons, after their installation, however, it was discovered that many of the birds would not only remain but that some would happily perch on top of the ultrasonic sound unit. If this is not proof enough that the device is ineffective simply ask anyone who has tried to use one to get rid of rodents.
The goal of the machine is to irritate rodents with a sound humans cannot hear but we know very little of what mice and other rodents can hear so the entire device is wholly theoretical and doomed to fail. Maybe someday in the future, we will learn how rodent hearing works and create a device that will send them packing. Until then: Call the exterminators.