Rats are not only annoying but dangerous pests. They can cause significant structural damage to buildings and spread disease to humans, whether directly through their excrement or indirectly through flea bites. Even so, the rats do not mean any harm. They are only taking advantage of the food and shelter available in a human dwelling as prompted by their instincts.

If you’re interested in humane rodent control in Milwaukee, you may have looked into electronic sound devices as a way to get the rats to leave of their own volition. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of these devices is temporary at best and has yet to be verified through scientific research. If you have a rat problem, professional wildlife control from Skedaddle is a more effective and more permanent solution, while still humane.

Manufacturers’ Claims

Electronic sound devices are supposed to emit sounds that are too high in frequency for human beings to hear but are annoying to rats, which have the ability to hear much higher-frequency sounds than humans. The devices are not intended to prevent rodents from entering the building in the first place but to compel them to leave once they have taken up residence.

Homeowners’ Realities

In the first place, when you purchase an electronic sound device, it is difficult to confirm that it is making ultrasonic noises that are, by definition, not perceivable to the human ear. For all you know, what you have is a box with an on-off switch and a plug that makes no noises at all.

Some of these devices do make a noise perceivable to humans. This at least tells you that the claims that it makes sounds are true but does nothing to prove that the sounds are sufficiently irritating to rats to serve as adequate pest control. In fact, because there is so little overlap between the hearing range of humans and rodents, a device that makes sounds you can hear is unlikely to have any effect on the rats.

When rats infest a home, they do not take up residence in only a single room. Rather, they spread out all over the house. Electronic sound devices are not powerful enough for the noises to pass through the walls of the home. Even if such a device were effective, which there is little data to support, its effectiveness would probably be limited only to the room of the house where the device was set up. Even then, the presence of furniture in the room could limit the effectiveness by absorbing or deflecting the sound waves.

Though there is little evidence to support it, it is possible that an ultrasonic electronic device could deliver an initial shock to a rat’s system that might be irritating enough to convince it to leave. However, rats are opportunistic and adaptable, and they are unlikely to leave behind the reliable sources of food and shelter that human habitations provide. With exposure to the device’s sounds over time, the rats would eventually become used to them, and they would no longer be a deterrent.

Even if sound devices were effective at rat control, you would have to run the device constantly for as long as you occupy the dwelling because the sounds would do nothing to block the entry points by which the rodents initially entered the home. If you were to turn off the device, there would be nothing to prevent the rats from coming back.

More Effective Rodent Control in Milwaukee

At Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control, we offer comprehensive services that are both more effective and more efficient at removing rats from the home than electronic sound devices. Not only that, but we clean up the mess that they leave behind and close entry points so they can’t come back, all without harming the rodents themselves. Contact us for more information about how we can help you deal with an infestation.