strobe lights for attic to repel mice/squirrels

[anjela_pat]

Hello, For several years now, we have mice/squirrels making noises in the attic and nowadays in crawlspace.

I read about strobelights and wonder if anyone out there has tried this? Or other devices to repel them humanely?

Does the strobe light require to be on the whole time? And can it be controlled remotely, i.e. shut off prior to going to attic so as to not damage human eyes.

Also, is there any danger that rats/squirrel may have trouble exitting property with these lights?

Finally, is there anything else on the market that can repel that does not involve putting chemicals of any kind?

Thank you!

[KingFish]

what about non human eyes?

[Puddin' Man]

Works great but ya gotta hire Jefferson Airplane or other pyschedelic band to play at 120 decibel sound levels, 24 hours/day.

Well, ya wouldn't wanna consider something called "Proper Home Repair/ Maintenance", which involves replacement of bad soffit/fascia/roof so the furry critters can't get in the attic in the first place.

P :-)

"Take Yo' Hand Out My Pocket (I Ain't Got Nothing What Belongs To You)!" - Rice Miller, who probably never even _heard_ of GW Bush, Paulson, etc

[Don Klipstein]

Effectiveness of strobelights - I don't know, though I suspect they will repel nocturnal varmints.

Need to keep running - I would say yes.

Safety of strobelights to humand and property:

The eye hazard is very minimal - I looked into the darn things too bleeping much, since I used to build such things. Avoid staring into one for more than several seconds, and I think you will toast your eyeballs even less than I haven't. (Warranty: If you toast your eyeballs with my advice, I refund what you paid me for it and no more.)

I wrote the following web page:

Eye hazards are relevant pretty much to strobe beasts more serious than usual "party strobes".

Hazard to animals' eyes - I would say similar, fairly certainly zero actual damage if the strobe repels the varmints rather than causes them to get entranced and stare into the darn thing at close range. Other possible hazards - I would worry that all too many strobes of reasonable to low price are cheap units made by low bid manufacturers and that they may have passed UL testing by the skins of their teeth. I am very leery about letting much of anything electric other than refrigerators and climate control equipment do a lot of running in rooms that are usually unoccupied. For one thing, the energy storage capacitor is unlikely to outlive you, and it could kick the bucket in some spectacular way or another. For another thing, summer heat in attics may cause electronic products to fail with components going short-circuit or partially-short-circuit, or cause plastic parts to melt out of shape. I see too many strobes that I would only run in an attic if placed in a manner that makes it acceptable for them to catch fire or spit sparks of molten metal a couple feet - may be hard to do. Otherwise, if you can find one that is both well-fused and made with non-combustible structural materials and will contain any components inside blowing up and spewing sparks, it may be reasonably safe for prolonged unsupervised operation in an attic.

(For that matter, I have seen a couple window fan motors catch fire - with actual flames - once the motors get gunked up inside from dust and get bogged down. That was back in the early and mid 1970's, when most electrical and electronic goods in USA were made in USA!)

Alternatives:

The main electronic one I am aware of is the ultrasonic pest repeller. I have seen a fair amount of negative press about actual effectiveness.

Probably better to seal up / repair whatever the varmints are getting in through.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail], [e-mail])

[Bert Byfield]

Yes. Make a personal appearance in your squirrel room every few days and say hello. They are up there because you don't do that, and they think they have property rights up there. Also see if they are getting to your food, your garbage, or your pets' food, and stop them if so.

[Dan Dangerous]

That will work. Also tie knots every few inches in a large plastic trash bag and hang from the ceiling by a clothes hanger over a trash can lid full of water and light it and play hard rock music. The plastic burns and makes cool noises when the melted plastic falls into the water. Have a few drinks before and it's better. Your mice and squirrels will run screaming from the house.

Dan Dangerous

[Oren]

This works I've read. Just a little water added into the container.

[Bert Byfield]

So will the people, to stand and watch as their house burns to the ground.

[Van Chocstraw]

I heard it annoys the piss out of them and they leave.

[aemeijers]

Zoomies! I remember those! Visqueen works a lot better than garbage bags, and this is definitely an OUTSIDE game.

-- aem sends...

[HeyBub]

A cat.

Jeeze! Why do I have to think of everything?

[Steve Barker TB]

yes, plug the hole(s) they come in through.

steve

[Oren]

Best cat is from the local prison. Adopted it/them, I still have one, many years old.

"Jessie" a white collar prison cat, eventually caught wild rabbits. I miss her, but Darby (Darby, PA named) will walk to the mail box with us. It confounds the neighbors.

[Jim2009]

Then what do ya get to repel the cat? How about a strobe light?

Cheers, Jim

[RedDwarf]

I don't know if they work - but i would put them on a motion sensor...

30$ at home improvement store. anytime something/someone comes in the attic - they kick on, like a security light.

you could wire a switch to the attic entrance to shut it off before you go up.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

I just thought of this after reading about motion detectors and such.

CDHK (Canon Hack Developers Kit) is open source freeware that you put on a Canon point & shoot camera that will allow it to use motion detection to take a picture. I've been playing with it for a week or so & it boggles the mind how cool it is.

For your usage you'd need a Canon point & shoot that takes an ac adapter- and depending on the camera you might want a small light left on in the attic or the ability to manual focus. Set it to flash- and you'd probably scare off the intruder, but you'd also capture what it was and how 'scared' it was by the flashing light. [I'd put the camera in a cage in case a raccoon enters your attic. It wouldn't surprise me if a coon would be more curious than scared.]

The Wiki for CDHK is at

I'm old and not a complete geek so it took me a few days of reading before I put it on a card and tried it--- [keep life simple and use a 4gb card or smaller]-- my 22 yr old son skimmed the page, loaded it up and was shooting in 20 minutes.

Jim

[gpsman]

Perhaps you could provide a list of materials which do not contain "chemicals of any kind"...?

Beyond burning a structure to ashes, nothing works other than eliminating the population or excluding them.

Period. -----

- gpsman

[anjela_pat]

Thank you Jim. Yes, this is along the lines of what I am looking for, a device that is motion based and does something to repel these rodents.

only thing is I am wondering if there is a better device than a camera to repel these rodents.

I was googling and found that some folks are able to attach motion- sensors to things like lamps to make them go on and off.

Could I do the same and attach some kind of motion sensor that flashes a light on and off thus possibly repelling the animals?

I'm not particularly handy so appreciate any ideas anyone has on setting something up that is really easy or buying something on the market that does this.

I know there are motion sensor outdoor lights, but I need something portable and small that I can leave in the attic. Battery based is best.

Thank you all.

[DerbyDad03]

Tieing palstic bags to sticks and melting them over a camp fire is a staple of our camping trips.

I still have some of the old fashion garden hoses with (the black liner). Slip a length of that into a copper pipe and put it in the fire for some cool flame color effects.

[Strobeman]

I believe that the fire safety comments are mostly intended for strobes that are not designed for industrial use but instead are for theatre and disco lighting and not designed for long term use in harsh environments. Also, via the webpage he listed ....

... in the comment ... ?Most fire hazards are from homebrew designs, modified commercial designs, improperly built kits, modified kit designs, misuse/abuse, and improper repairs ...?

My Rodent Strobe pest control strobe lights are UL tested ... as he warns is often misleading due to just passing UL standards with low quality electronic components - I would like to point out in rebuttal that Rodent Strobe pest control strobes have a 10 year warranty on the strobe?s internal electronics. Also, that Rodent Strobes are being used by a Fire Chief in a Fire Station to protect from further roof rats damage - his testimony with name on top of my home page ..www.rodentstrobe.com .

That one of my customers had lightning hit her attic and the only thing that was not fried by the voltage surge were her Rodent Strobe strobe lights because of the built in surge protection (her testimony on my website

).

Rodent Strobe strobe lights for squirrels internal electronics are coated/potted in Polyurethane so all the electric components are sealed within the coating making them very heat resistant and thoroughly moisture proof.

Rodent Strobe pest control strobes are rated for 158 degrees Fahrenheit (average attic temperatures in the peak of summer rarely exceed 120-130 Degrees Fahrenheit - I was once working in an attic, over a period of several days, in Phoenix AZ in the middle of summer ... the outside temperature was 110-112F and the attic temperature did not exceed 128F. ) On another occasion I regularly measured the temperature of an attic in Memphis TN in July and August ... outside temperatures of 93-97 degrees Fahrenheit and the attic temperature never exceeded 105 Degrees Fahrenheit. Both attics had typical adequate ventilation via standard louvered vents which are common to most residences and are designed to allow attic heat to escape and not build up inside of the attic.

My strobe uses only 4.8 watts of electricity thus have very little heat discharge - not even warm to the touch. Rodent Strobe strobe lights for squirrels are custom made in the USA by a leading strobe manufacturer that produces strobes for emergency vehicles such as fire trucks and police cars and again are custom built for Rodent Strobe with internal electronics having a ten year warranty - how many electronic devices now-a-days have a ten year warranty?

Again, I believe that his comments are mostly intended for strobes that are not designed for industrial use but instead are for theatre and disco lighting and not designed for long term use in harsh environments. Also, via the webpage he listed ....

in the comment ... ?Most fire hazards are from homebrew designs, modified commercial designs, improperly built kits, modified kit designs, misuse/abuse, and improper repairs ...? One last note - fire hazards - according to university websites an estimated 20% of residential fires of ?unknown cause? are attributed to rodents (squirrels are rodents - ?rodents? comes from the Latin ?Rodere? - ?to gnaw?) chewing on attic wires. According to the Dept. of Homeland Security fire stats. and conversations with the department fire statics manager - that is approx. 15,000 to 30,000 fires a year cause by rodents like squirrels chewing on attic wiring in the USA alone.

How do strobe lights for squirrels work? - I write on

:

?The ciliary muscle in the eye controls the expansion and contraction of the pupil. The usual adjustments made by this muscle in the eyes of squirrels, roof rats, mice and more, are small. In response to the strobes in a dark (naturally dark or becomes dark at night) environment this muscle in the Squirrels', Roof Rats', Mice and other pests, has to make dramatic adjustments (140-180 times per minute). An ophthalmologist I spoke to, at a world-renowned clinic in Scottsdale AZ, likened it to this: Imagine you lift a ten pound dumbbell weight one time. Then imagine that you lifted the same weight 1,500 times in a ten minute period. Your arm would be hurting for days. The ophthalmologist said the strobes would have the same effect on rodent (and other animal pests?) eyes. RESULT: THE PESTS LEAVE?

I hope these comments are helpful to your readers.

Kind Regards Kevin Peterson, President Rodent Strobe Inc. [e-mail]