July 18th, 2015

Ineffective “solutions” – Part 1: Ultrasonic Bird Repellers

ultrasonic deviceUltrasonic bird repeller systems have been around for many years and we often get requests to install them. Of course we respectfully decline not only to install, but we simply refuse to submit any bids on such RFQs.

Why are ultrasonic bird repellents so enticing? Because they offer a quick, cheap and invisible solution. At least in our imagination! Imagine: After a few bucks and a couple of minutes you just plug this thing in – or I’m sure they have solar powered ones these days – and off you go, no birds! Wait a minute. We’ve been in business for 14-years and have never installed one, in fact I have never seen one. If this product would work there would be no need for any other bird control product, we could just all buy one of these and consider it done, but many still fall for it.

According to ornithologist Dr. Rob Fergus (Ph.D. in urban bird conservation) in his article, birds do not hear in the ultrasonic frequency range and therefore such products are completely ineffective. Many other scientific studies have been done on how birds hear and to test the effectiveness of these units and the results are all the same: they don’t work.

To me this has never been a mystery, there is never an easy way out, there are no simple solutions to problems, especially not to bird problems 🙂