Ultrasonic bug repellents are used as a reliable substitute for a variety of toxic fluids, which not so long ago had no alternative. These devices relieve problems with pests with the help of ultrasound alone and therefore do not cause harm to humans. After reading this article, the reader will know whether ultrasound helps against bugs and other harmful insects.
Bedbugs: getting to know the pest
The main difference between bugs and other insects is their oral cavity. The mouth of almost all insects is tripled so that the animal can bite, while the bug is not able to bite anything. His mouthpart can only suck. Bed bugs feed on sucking liquids from plants, but in most cases bed bugs feed on blood.
The sucking part of the bugs mouth is called the proboscis and differs significantly in appearance from the mouth of other insects. This can easily be seen under the microscope. The mouth of bugs is more like a long beak and is used by an insect in much the same way as a person uses a straw when drinking milk or juice.
If you look closely at insects, which, like bugs, have a proboscis, then almost every one of them removes it. Insects such as a butterfly or a bee can remove the proboscis while moving from one food source to another. Bed bugs have a much stiffer mouthpart that cannot be folded. But there is a plus. Bedbugs due to this rigidity during the search for food are able to break through harder obstacles than the leaves of plants.
Magnitude of the problem
One of the main misconceptions of a person about bugs is that the vast majority of people believe that bugs live on the object of their parasitism. In fact, this is far from the case.
Bed bugs do not live on a dog or cat, they live where the object of parasitism most often appears. And, alas, this is usually the house of the owners of the animal. Bed bugs live and breed in the smallest cracks on the floor or in the carpets. With an average insect size of 1.5-2 millimeters, whole colonies of scanty bugs can live next to people for decades. At the same time, people will never see them anywhere, except in the coat of their pet.
Bed bugs do not live on animal hair, they jump on him from time to time in order to drink his blood. And another very important point - if you look at the hair of an animal, it may seem that there are not so many bugs, but you need to understand that these are not all insects! This is only a tiny part of them, and all the rest are jumping around the house somewhere in search of food.
What if the bedbugs declared war on you?
Bedbugs almost never attack a person. An exception may be cases when in the house for a certain time there was an animal, the presence of which created the opportunity for the life and reproduction of bugs. Then this pet disappeared from the house, and the bugs did not have any food left. In such a situation, they will have no choice but to find a new source of life support, and the bug will attack a person.
They will jump to their feet, bite and run away long before a person begins to feel itchy on the skin. In such situations, socks and trousers will not help. These microscopic parasites crawl through any tissue in search of food.
If this has already happened, then it is too late to bring a new cat to the house so that they start eating it. They will now only bite people. It makes no sense to hope to starve them after leaving the apartment for several days. Experiments on bedbugs showed that these parasites can live without food for two to eighteen months. And if this problem seems ridiculous to someone, then he simply does not understand how tenacious these creatures are, and how incredibly difficult it is to get rid of them. If you do everything right, you can get rid of bed bugs by ultrasound. Is this really what we will try to find out.
Are bugs afraid of ultrasound?
According to data obtained as a result of real experiments, almost all animals respond to ultrasound and avoid it by all available means. Each of them has its own threshold of sensitivity. The power of ultrasound is measured in kilohertz.
- Small mammals, such as dogs and cats, respond to the 22-25 kHz range.
- Rats and other rodents have a sensitivity threshold of 60-72 kHz.
- Bed bugs, fleas, spiders, cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies and other small flying insects respond to indicators at 38-44 kHz.
- Lizards are exposed to ultrasound at 52-60 kHz.
So if someone has a question, whether or not ultrasound from bugs helps, the answer to it, of course, yes. The only question that remains open is the power of exposure to an ultrasound source. If it is above 38 kHz, the bugs will not have a chance.
What is ultrasound?
The range of hearing in humans is limited. The human ear can perceive sound in the frequency range from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. Sound purity below 20 hertz is a sub-tonal sound or infrasound, and more than 20 kilohertz is an ultrasound.
A person is not sensitive to such waves, because the eardrum of his ear is not able to vibrate as fast as ultrasound. Sound above 20 kHz is at a very high frequency, so its waves are much more powerful than usual in terms of impact on objects.
Animals and ultrasound
Despite the fact that the human ear is not affected by ultrasound, many animals can both hear and produce it. Many rodents, small mammals, insects, as well as bedbugs use ultrasound as a means of communication.
Bed bugs have hypersensitive organs of hearing and therefore can perceive incredibly high frequencies. Cockroaches have “sensory antennae” that are used to feel ultrasound. Spiders, wasps, beetles and flies have a tympanic membrane for detecting ultrasound. Male mosquitoes use such frequencies to attract females. Lizards also have the ability to perceive ultrasonic vibrations.
The effect of high frequencies on bedbugs
How do ultrasonic bug repellents affect their body? Bedbugs have ultrasonic sensors, and when frequencies with a power of 38-44 kHz or higher are emitted by a repeller and reach these sensors, the bedbug begins to feel fear, confusion. The animal becomes completely disoriented, it feels a sharp pain, and in the first seconds does not understand which side of the source is, and where to run.
Ultrasound creates extreme stress in the animal’s nervous system. He completely suppresses his own ability to produce ultrasound. Exposure at such a high frequency can briefly numb the animal, after which it determines the source and tries to move away from it as quickly as possible.
Ultrasound creates strong pressure on the tympanic membrane of bugs, and therefore insects run away. Does ultrasound help destroy bugs? Not. Ultrasound can not kill an insect, but at the same time it creates such impossible conditions for the parasite that the latter has no choice but to escape from the zone of influence.
Does ultrasound pass through walls?
Not. Ultrasound will not pass through walls in the same way as it does with ordinary sound waves. The main difference between a wave with parameters above 20 kHz and sound below this frequency is that ordinary sound passes through objects, while ultrasound flows around obstacles, but does not penetrate them.
Interesting facts about ultrasound and mosquitoes
Male mosquitoes are the natural enemies of females of their species after breeding. Few people know that in fact, both males and females do not use human blood as food, but plant juice. The mosquito became the worst enemy of humans due to the fact that females need protein from human blood to mature eggs. Males never bite humans, only females do this, and only after mating. This gives them the opportunity to get blood, which is vital for raising offspring.
And there is another interesting feature. Females and males are at war with each other, more or less tolerable relations between them are possible only at the moment of mating. And therefore, after breeding, females as they can avoid males. The most important way to determine their presence is ultrasound at a frequency of 38 kHz, which males emit through their antennae. Working at this frequency, an ultrasonic repeller imitates the presence of a male for females, so they fly away.
Bedbug Smartphone
Can a mobile application replace a full-fledged ultrasonic bug repeller? Is it true that an ordinary smartphone can help in the fight against mosquitoes or bugs? In the stores of telephone applications, you can find many different programs for mobile devices that promise effective disposal of bugs by ultrasound. Many scientists are very skeptical in such a statement.
The famous entomologist Bart Knolls once conducted an experiment with a smartphone application to check whether ultrasound affects bugs. He downloaded it to his iPhone, turned it on at full power and placed it in a box with bugs. Either the insects showed a truly Spartan character and did not allow themselves to be broken, or the phone application turned out to be a simple swindle, but the bugs did not show absolutely no reaction.
Electromagnetic waves in the fight against bedbugs
On sale there are many affordable bug repellers that use two methods at once to control pests: ultrasound and electromagnetic waves. Manufacturers claim that their devices are more effective. Scientists at the University of Colorado conducted a study with devices that combined ultrasound and electromagnetic waves. The results showed that the effect of such devices is really stronger than the action against bugs of ultrasound without magnetic waves.
Many people believe that in our time it is very difficult to avoid the harmful effects of various hazardous chemicals. However, the influence thereof can be significantly minimized through the use of modern technology. Of course, chemical repellents are much more effective than conventional ultrasonic bug repellents. But if high-frequency sound is used in combination with electromagnetic waves, such a device will be almost as good as repellents. But in terms of the impact on the health of the user himself, the difference is huge.
Is it safe for people?
Ultrasonic repellers are widely used in homes, gardens and farms to successfully solve the problem of bugs. Commercial appliances are designed to operate in the range from 20 kHz to 100 kHz. Ultrasound above 20 kHz cannot be heard by adults, but children can hear sounds up to 30 kHz.
Almost every home has a ton of devices that emit ultrasound. A mobile phone, a computer, a vacuum cleaner are the source of such a signal, but do not cause any harm to human health. Ultrasound is considered the safest way to examine pregnant women, it is with this technology that an ultrasound machine works. Ultrasound is also used in the echocardiogram of the heart. According to scientists, high frequencies cannot harm human health.
The most popular ultrasonic repellers and prices:
- Thermacell Outdoor Electronic Repellent. Price: 1 600 rubles.
- Thermacell Insect Repelling Lantern. Price: 1 340 rubles.
- Pest Reject Ultrasonic Bug Repellent. Price: 2 680 rubles.
- Home Sentinel Electromagnetic, Ionic & Ultrasonic Insect Repellent. Price: 800 rubles.
- SOARING Ultrasonic Bug Repellent. Price: 1 270 rubles.
- Clip-on Bug Repellent Fan, 2 Packs. Price: 1,000 rubles.
Additional safety recommendations
Ultrasound is completely safe for humans, which has been repeatedly confirmed by numerous scientific studies. But still, a signal ranging from 20 kHz to 30 kHz can be heard by children. Therefore, it is better not to use these devices near babies under 5 years old. This will not cause harm to the child, but such a sound will obviously annoy him. If we are talking about a very small child, then he will not even be able to explain the reason for his discomfort.
Ultrasound from bugs. Usage Reviews
Let's see what those who have already managed to use such devices say. The vast majority of reviews on the use of ultrasonic bug repellers are positive. If you purchase a working device and operate it correctly, you can forget about the bug problem. After reviewing the reviews about the use of ultrasound from bugs, it can be concluded that most repellers do not show the best result for the following reasons:
- The output power of the converter. If it is too low, efforts will not have any effect. Although 38-44 kHz is enough for bugs, it is best to put the device at maximum.
- Direction and angle of sound capture. Ultrasound typically propagates at an angle of 45 degrees from the source. If there is an obstacle in the path, the waves will not pass through it, but will flow around the object. This may reduce efficiency due to reduced coverage.
- The number of bugs. If the parasite population is too large, perhaps one device will not be enough. Also important is how far they are from the repeller. In most cases, judging by the reviews, one device is enough to get rid of bugs by ultrasound.
- The ability of bugs to adapt to ultrasound. In the first days of use, the device will act on everyone without exception, but over time, some of them can adapt to the irritant.