Ultrasound Mouse Deterrant

[mhancock]

Hi all,
 
We're thinking of getting an ultrasound emitter to deter the field mice coming into our house - but would they be a source of discomfort to my fish?  I really have no idea what the answer to this will be!
 
Thanks,
 
 
 
Mark
 
 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Thats a question and a half
 
Hmm, will that ultrasound emitter really work in keeping mice away? am intrigued by that idea but am thinking may also affect your pet cats and dogs iin your home if you have any...
 
As for effecting the fish, no idea to be honest, but at a guess, would have not thought so as tank glass and water would reflect the sounds from actually entering the water column.
 
I, for one, would like to know this too just out of curiosity

 

[DrRob]

They certainly annoy me. There's one in the secretaries office at work and it's generally inaudible to me, but I'm the only one who hears it kick in about once every 10 minutes for a couple of minutes (I suspect that they change sounds every so often).
 
I'd be quite surprised if they had any impact on the fish in the tanks, as high frequency sounds don't carry through water very well at all, nor do they do well on sheer surfaces, such as the glass of the tank itself.

 

[mhancock]

Thanks for the responses, I actually teach Physics and agree with Dr Rob that low frequencies travel better in water (which is why whales use infrasound), and that sound would be to a large extent reflected by the glass, but even if only say 5% of the ultrasound was in my tanks then the fish could still be really suffering and I'd not be able to tell.
 
My neighbours have had a lot of success with the emitters, however there's lots of varied opinion online....

 

[DrRob]

A little bit of work has been done on marine sonar usage, I suspect as part of the work up on creating an environment that doesn't result in marine mammal beachings. Some of it's looking at direct exposure to high intensity sonar waves, but there's some work on the background noise as well.
 
Example here.
 
There's also a bit of work done on ultrasound detection, which some of the predators use. I'm thinking of the rays and such like here, but there will be other examples.

 

[mhancock]

Thank you - that report states that almost all species of fish cannot detect sounds above 1.5kHz, so I'm pretty safe with ultrasound (>20kHz)!
 
Let's hope that it does effect the mice though!!!

 

[bigcheed]

emiters didnt work for us. glue box traps with a peice of biscuit in them are very effective.