# Electronic pest repellers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 10, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180 "2010-11-10T15:37:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/21 "2010-11-12T22:44:36Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > What’re you, a birther? Those would be Kenyan Geese then. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/22 "2010-11-13T02:27:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Those would be Kenyan Geese then. Kenya geese. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/23 "2010-11-13T05:10:22Z")
Canadian Canada Geese. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/24 "2010-11-13T11:40:36Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > … and hounded unmercifully until he develops a behavioral disorder. Oh dear. I thought we had to have a behavioural disorder as a condition of joining. I haz dun it rong? 😃 I am suddenly reminded of a trip to Germany as a schoolgirl. On seeing a dog of the type that we know as German Shepherd\* in English, it occurred to me to wonder what they were in German. So I clumsily asked “in English, we call that sort of dog a 'German Shepherd”. Please, what is it in this tricky verb-to-the-end language called?" Of course, the answer was one of those “are you silly?” looks and that such a dog was a ‘Schäferhund’, _i.e._ shepherd dog. “Ah”, I thought, “logical, I suppose”. :smack: - Of course, at that time a lot of people also called the dogs “Alsatians”. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/25 "2010-11-14T14:05:34Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > … palm trees that were the home of dozens (at least) of fruit bats. At dusk, these large critters would rise up out of the trees and go hunting. Hunting fruit? :dubious: > [@davidm](#): > > I can sort of see how something like this might work with bats. Since they use sound (their own ultrasonic squeaks) to “see” in the dark, a confounding sound source might “blind” them. Sort of like very bright lights might blind a person. Fruit bats don’t use echolocation. They solely use their eyes. > [@Chefguy](#): > > They’re very large (up to six foot wingspan) and in the dim light they look like pterodactyls. Now that is an exagerration, they are big by the standards of bats, but they are nowhere near that big. 3 foot wingspan maybe, for a really big one. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/26 "2010-11-14T15:36:12Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Hunting fruit? :dubious: If their roosting trees are devoid of fruit and they have to go elsewhere, what do YOU call it: grocery shopping? :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > Fruit bats don’t use echolocation. They solely use their eyes. Except when some don’t: from Wiki article > [@](#): > > In contrast to the microbats, the fruit bats do not, as a rule, use echolocation (with one exception, the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus egyptiacus, which uses high-pitched clicks to navigate in caves). > [@](#): > > Now that is an exagerration, they are big by the standards of bats, but they are nowhere near that big. > > 3 foot wingspan maybe, for a really big one. [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabat) (there are multiple other references as to size): > [@](#): > > The largest reach 40 cm (16 inches) in length and attain a wingspan of 150 cm (5 feet), weighing in at nearly 1 kg (2.2 pounds). That’s not to say the ones in Mali were that large, but they certainly exceed three feet in nature. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/27 "2010-11-15T12:30:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Your mom is right-bats _love_ mice. I’m not sure the trade off is worth it, though. Mice think bats are angels. And that brings us back to post #2 and we’ve come full circle. ---
**Author:** ![squidfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@squidfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squidfood)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/28 "2010-11-16T01:22:19Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Canadian Canada Geese. :rolleyes: The canada geese is what you spread on da toast, eh? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/29 "2010-11-17T19:10:11Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > If their roosting trees are devoid of fruit and they have to go elsewhere, what do YOU call it: grocery shopping? :rolleyes: Foraging. Haven’t you seen Canadian geese foraging in their natural habitat, golf courses. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/30 "2010-11-17T21:27:20Z")
Given that “hunting” means “looking for”, it was the appropriate word. What those men do who go out and sit in stands and wait for deer to come to eat out of mechanical feeders, I don’t know, but calling it “hunting” is stretching the word a bit. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/31 "2010-11-18T03:39:53Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > What those men do who go out and sit in stands and wait for deer to come to eat out of mechanical feeders, I don’t know, but calling it “hunting” is stretching the word a bit. 😉 I don’t believe that is legal, at least in Arkansas. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/32 "2010-11-18T17:25:02Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Given that “hunting” means “looking for”, it was the appropriate word. > > What those men do who go out and sit in stands and wait for deer to come to eat out of mechanical feeders, I don’t know, but calling it “hunting” is stretching the word a bit. 😉 Regional difference here. In the UK, one “hunts” foxes, “shoots” birds, and “stalks” deer (the distinction being in the method, not the prey). ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/33 "2010-11-18T19:05:23Z")
In the US, “hunting” is a generic word for any way you seek out prey animals. Well, except for fishing. **carnivorousplant** , I may be slightly exaggerating about the eating out of feeders. Here in Texas, people get a small plot of land to hunt on (i.e. a “deer lease”). They need the deer to come to there little spot, as opposed to the rest of the vast woodlands around their spot (i.e. everybody else’s deer leases). So they put up blinds. And then the put out mechanical feeders. They start seeding the feeders with corn in August, and the feeders are set on timers to scatter food morning and evening. So the deer get used to finding food around that plot of land near the deer stand. Then fall rolls around, deer season opens in November, and the deer are used to standing around in front of your deer stand for breakfast. So you get up at umpteen thirty, crawl into your deer stand, then wait for the deer to come to their usual eating hole, and viola - time to shoot a deer. As opposed to some process involving hiking around in woods and trying to find deer. Or setting up an ambush where deer _might_ be. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/34 "2010-11-18T19:19:46Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > In the US, “hunting” is a generic word for any way you seek out prey animals. Well, except for fishing. > > **carnivorousplant** , I may be slightly exaggerating about the eating out of feeders. Here in Texas, people get a small plot of land to hunt on (i.e. a “deer lease”). They need the deer to come to there little spot, as opposed to the rest of the vast woodlands around their spot (i.e. everybody else’s deer leases). So they put up blinds. And then the put out mechanical feeders. They start seeding the feeders with corn in August, and the feeders are set on timers to scatter food morning and evening. So the deer get used to finding food around that plot of land near the deer stand. Then fall rolls around, deer season opens in November, and the deer are used to standing around in front of your deer stand for breakfast. So you get up at umpteen thirty, crawl into your deer stand, then wait for the deer to come to their usual eating hole, and viola - time to shoot a deer. > > As opposed to some process involving hiking around in woods and trying to find deer. Or setting up an ambush where deer _might_ be. I think we’ve gotten a little off-topic here. The question is still _What is it called when you go after deer in England with an electronic pest repeller?_ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180/35 "2010-11-18T23:37:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I think we’ve gotten a little off-topic here. > The question is still _What is it called when you go after deer in England with an electronic pest repeller?_ Ultrasounding, old chap. 🙂 Yes, they bait areas here, too. Doesn’t seem terribly sporting, but I understand it is difficult to find deer. This year the season apparently allows a buck and six doe over the several seasons. There are a lot of them to go around. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electronic-pest-repellers/560180.md?page=1)