Do ultrasonic devices work?
At least 10 studies in the past 15 years have unanimously denounced ultrasonic devices as having no repellency value whatsoever. However, homeowners were urged to buy ultrasonic repellers and the like to rid their houses of pests without the need to inhale “even one breath of poisonous spray”. This appeal to the public’s chemophobia, while extremely effective in diverting attention away from proven preventive and control measures (and toward their repeller products), has undermined an unbiased review of the subject by consumers desperate for a clean, effective, non chemical means of mosquito control. Unfortunately, no such miracle cure exists. A pioneering study testing five different ultrasonic devices against four mosquito species convincingly demonstrated that ultrasound in the 20-70 kHz range used by these devices had no effect on reorienting flight by female mosquitoes either toward or away from human subjects. Additional tests have shown that sound generators capable of a wide ra
At least 10 studies in the past 15 years have unanimously denounced ultrasonic devices as having no repellency value whatsoever. Yet, consumers flock in droves to hardware stores to purchase these contraptions. Why? The discovery that mosquitoes locate mates in mating swarms via wing beat frequency generated a great deal of research into ultrasound as a potential source of environmentally-friendly control. Yet, all attempts to affect mosquito behavior by ultrasound have fizzled, despite enormous amounts of money spent upon research and development. To be sure, the clever, high-tech, and imperceptible (by humans) use of ultrasound proved to be an exceedingly effective marketing tool for the repeller manufacturers. Homeowners were urged to buy ultrasonic repellers and the like to rid their houses of pests without the need to inhale “even one breath of poisonous spray”. This appeal to the public’s chemophobia, while extremely effective in diverting attention away from proven preventive an
