Customer Reviews

Black & Decker EX410-2P-TP1 Ultrasonic Pest Repeller, Medium Room

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I waited a few months before writing my review on this product since it is very difficult to evaluate whether it is working. However, I have come to the conclusion that it is not.

We had an infestation of brown recluse spiders. I contacted a spider researcher at KU and brought him a specimen to verify this. I asked him about his opinion on the sonic devices and he said that he really doubted that they worked. Despite his opinion, I thought I would give them a try myself because they have received many positive reviews.

Since I had been capturing brown recluses to show to the spider researcher, I had one in a jar when we bought the sonic devices. Since they are supposed to repel spiders, I expected, if I put the spider in the jar close to the sonic device, the spider would react negatively somehow, such as crawling away from it. However, when I put the jar next to the activated sonic device, the spider did not react at all. It did nothing. I even tilted the jar so that the high-pitched sound would enter the jar. No effect. Despite this, I suspected that maybe the glass of the jar blocked the sound somehow. So I gave it a few more months.

We continued to have spiders in our house. However, there were less than usual. This could have been (and looking back probably was) because we had taken other measures for killing them. I hunted for and killed them every week. We also laid down tape for them to get stuck on, which captured a few. But I thought that the lower numbers might be because of the sonic devices, so I recommended some to my parents who also had brown recluse.

They bought some (though they were a different brand). But today, I just killed a brown recluse within 5 inches of one of my parent's sonic devices. And my girlfriend just reminded me that about a month ago I killed one within about 2 feet of one of *our* sonic devices which are the brand mentioned above. So what this means is that at least some of these devices don't work on brown recluse. And at worse, none of them work.

If you want to sucessfully survive brown recluse, here is how you do it (this advice comes from several spider experts who I have spoken to or read articles from since we first contracted this problem):

- Shake out your clothes and your towels before you use/wear them; most bites occur in unchecked clothing
- Kill every spider you see; as happened in our case, this will likely cause their numbers to dwindle
- If you own your home, seal up cracks that lead outside and to the inner walls
- Lay down duct tape sticky side up or buy the spider traps of the same design

Spiders do not respond to insecticides and in fact insecticides make it easier for brown recluse to find food. This is because the insecticides kill the insects. This makes them trivially easy for the brown recluse to find and devour. Unlike many spiders, brown recluse will eat almost anything, including dead bugs. And even if you eliminate all of the insects completely, brown recluse can go for months without food. Unless you seal your home and fill it with powerful nerve gases that kill any living creature (which has been done), you are wasting your money on insecticides.

Now my family has told me that the sonic devices are effective for mice. And other reviewers have said they work on things like roaches. But they do not work for the brown recluse spiders which plague the mid-west and they may not work on spiders in general.

If you have brown recluse, just be careful and kill them yourself. You will likely lower their numbers.

And don't kill web spiders: they eat brown recluse (which don't make webs). You can tell a brown recluse because unlike almost any spider, they have three eye pairs instead of eight eyes.

The originals I had did the job and no more mice after a day. Bought this model as my older ones are slowly failing one by one after 5yrs of service. I would only say that when I first starting uses these sonic products, the mice just went to another part of my condo until I plastered it all over the place - one in each room and two in the larger rooms. Total Units: 8 in a 1000sq ft condo.

My parents split level home was another issue though. I ended up buying a bunch of different types and brands and staggered putting them up - in a different room each time to drive them to another location from top to bottom until they left house.

Total cost for the home effort was like $300 worth of these silly little plastic critters; still a far cry from having a fumigation done not to mention making yur home unlivable for a couple weeks too. Gave the remaining ones away to friends in the city... and kept a few for backup. Final: 18 in a split level 4 floor home (4 bedrooms, 3bathrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, foyer, basement).

I also recommend rotating between a couple brands - I use Sunbeam SUNBEAM SB103 Electronic Pest repeller as an alternate.

Sorry to say this is not good for pets like it says. My poor two cats as soon as I plugged them in they went running to a room that did not have them and would not come out. Please do not get if you have cats.

We first purchased these ultrasonic repellers to get rid of mice and/or squirrels that took up nesting in our blown-in attic insulation. Anyone who has rodents in blown-in insulation knows that getting rid of them probably means removing and redoing insulation -- an extremely expensive proposition. For this reason, we decided to give these ultrasonic units a try, despite mixed reviews, by placing them in the attic near the obvious burrows. Are the mice and squirrels gone? Well, we no longer hear them in the walls, although it's possible that they merely moved to the other side of the house. Unfortunately, because of the situation, I have no way of judging whether they have truly left.

Based on the possible success of these units, we bought some for our daughter who suffers from a cockroach infestation in her summer dorm room. She plugged one in her (small) bedroom and one in the (small) shared kitchen area. The next morning, she found a live roach hanging out a foot from the bedroom unit, completely unbothered by the supposedly disrupting effect on its nervous system.

Black and Decker explicitly states that the ultrasound waves do not get into nesting areas, through walls, or into cracks. Soft objects such as beds, chairs, sofas, etc. absorb the waves, rendering them . . . more ineffective than ineffective?

I don't understand how the manufacturer can claim that these work. Surely they must have some kind of proof, or else someone would have prevented them from advertising. The only thing I can think of it that they were tested in boxes free of absorbing materials - nothing like a real home. Since roaches live primarily in cracks and behind walls, I can't see how these units, even when working as advertised, will help.

I gave this product three stars, only because it might have worked for rodents. If you have an open area where rodents are living or entering the house (that cannot be plugged), give these a try.

I had mice in my basement so I bought 4 of them. 2 for the basement and 2 for the kitchen. NOW I have mice in my kitchen too. They LOVE the Ultrasonic Pest Repeller. I plugged it in on the countertop and the next day there were mouse droppings on the countertop. I wish I saw the first review before I wasted my money.

Don't waste your money -- the roaches sit ON the device (yes, it's plugged in). Ants crawl right past it. I haven't seen any flying monkeys in the kitchen, so maybe it works for them (but wait . . . I've never seen flying monkeys in the kitchen . . . hmmm).

Okay here is my indepth review.

I have little flies of some sort in my Hydroponic vegie greenhouse. I bought this seemingly easy little hunk of plastic to make a sound that's only bothersome little animalsand bugs hear.

4 days after purchase the little guys seem to be flying to the ultrasound. The jig and bop back and forth like they are dancing....I bet they are dancing, making love and reproducing to the Ultrasonic waves!

I killed more bugs inhaling while plugging this in my Green house.

Rather then take it back I suggest you huck it at a Black & Decker Exec as the are robbing us telling us this thing works. On the box they site a study but don't show it's reference. When I called BD they said, "We don't know what study that info came from". They are hornswaggling us! This is gonna be big like Enron! Corporate Karma!

Update- 7 days later. I really wanted to give this product a chance as I'm lazy beyond belief and plugging stuff in is right up my alley. If I have to go buy Lady bugs or pest spray I'm gonna be pissed.
SOOOOOooooooo I bought 4 more and plugged them all in for 3 more days in my small greenhouse...... not a damn thing happened. Actually I think it works like a rave and extascy for the flies. There are more of them now and they seem to be having much more fun!

So in conclusion, This thing sucks more then the suckiest thing that ever sucked a suck. Only buy it if you need some extra plastic hanging from your outlets.

If you have mice, get a cat. This product does absolutely nothing.

Have had these for a couple years and haven't noticed a decrease in spiders or any other pests. In fact just today I noticed a spider had made its home beneath one.

It said it wasn't supposed to affect dogs or cats, but within a few days of plugging this thing in my dog would not go into our kitchen to eat or drink. She literally didn't eat for days. She started whining constantly. We thought she was sick! But this morning, I had an a-ha moment and saw that thing in our kitchen. As soon as I unplugged that pest repeller, she stopped whining. I expect an empty food bowl when I get home. So I'm sure this thing works on small pests, given what it did to my 50 lb dog. But I do not recommend if you have pets.