Do high frequency noise devices deter cats ?

elayman · Mar 22, 2010

I don't know if anyone can help me or not but I need to come up with a solution to a neighbor in the apartment complex where I live complaining that the cats I'm feeding have ruined her car with paint scratches. Is this even possible ? I've heard cats claws CAN scratch the paint when they jump onto the slick surface and try to grip it....although have no idea whether this is causing it or not (unlikely to nil IMO). I've been providing food for a couple years and have never personally witnessed a whit of damage to the patio shelter or plant stand beyond a foot print or two. At least the three that come for their regular meals have all been TNR'd.

So there is no hard proof either way but basically what happened when I talked to the apartment manager today (who also runs a shelter !) was that she agreed that the car WAS damaged with some kind of mammal foot mark. Hadn't considered the other animal possibility (raccoons, etc?) but still asked me to stop on a trial basis. I will for a few days.

While all it's going to effect in the end is stress the cats even more, definitely make them hungry, potentially make them sick by eating an infected bird or other parasite -- and besides any kind of change is so rough for cats to cope with. What is suspicious is having only one person in a public open garage that has brought this up as an issue. And the cats are most likely not even holding up there any more as this evidently all went down in the middle of winter. Over a damned stupid car that likely wasn't even their fault !!! I'm so mad I could scream. Can you put up fences along an apartment hall ???

On the other hand, she does have the right to a reasonable amount of time to solve the problem and I also need to maintain a constructive, problem-solving attitude. So I will uphold my end of stopping care for them and revisit this talk with the manager in a few days. At which point I would like to discourage her suggestion of getting the humane society involved.....which means improper care or none at all, forced relocation etc (released to new sites without possibly without following relocation procedures ?).

One possibility is a high frequency noise device. Do they actually work to deter cats ? Would something like a passive infrared motion detector with an ultrasonic speaker like ScramCat that emits a tone inaudible to humans work outside ? If this is the case, I really, REALLY hope solving the scratching incidents might be as simple as setting up an ultra sonic device and aiming it at the site in question.

elayman · Mar 23, 2010

Excerpted from a response by the president of our local Feral Cat Coalition:

Any reviews that can or can't recommend it based on personal experience are appreciated !

One suggestion is a car cover, but this would involve your neighbor putting it on and off even if you supply it and that can be hard to get them to agree to doing. As you mentioned there are a few products out there that you can purchase that emit a frequency that only cats can hear and then others will deter cats, dogs, raccoons and other small animals which is called Cat Stop Cat Repellent and it is motion sensitive and protects 330 sqft or 20 feet in front of the unit at an 80 degree angle, they also say it works to keep cats from cars. Google Cat Stop or SafePetProducts.com has it for $48.90. This may be the best bet as otherwise if other animals continue to get on the car she may just say it is not working. It is also made to use outdoors and is fully automated and waterproof.

strange_wings · Mar 23, 2010

The sounds of toddlers squealing sends pretty much every cat running. Maybe a cat deterrent should be made out of that?

Joking aside. Yes, cats can scratch up cars - generally it only happens if they have a sudden take off. You know how a startled cat will peel out and their back claws can scratch things? It could also be other animals, especially birds, doing it - but they could be attracted to the cat food.

A cover would be the best way for her to protect her paint. But those can be a hassle to put on and remove 2-3 times a day and only the most dedicated of people keep up with that. I hope you can find a good working solution, it would be best to keep the kitties away from the cars for their own safety, too. I've not heard many discuss sound repellents, though some have discussed using the water ones before.

I still think she's trying to con a free paint job out of you...

GoldyCat · Mar 23, 2010

Can you move the food to a different place, away from the garage, rather than stopping the feeding altogether? Have other cars been scratched or only the one? It seems a little odd to me that they would scratch only the one neighbor's car, unless you're putting their food right next to it.

samson smith · Aug 3, 2011

Originally Posted by elayman

I don't know if anyone can help me or not but I need to come up with a solution to a neighbor in the apartment complex where I live complaining that the cats I'm feeding have ruined her car with paint scratches. Is this even possible ? I've heard cats claws CAN scratch the paint when they jump onto the slick surface and try to grip it....although have no idea whether this is causing it or not (unlikely to nil IMO). I've been providing food for a couple years and have never personally witnessed a whit of damage to the patio shelter or plant stand beyond a foot print or two. At least the three that come for their regular meals have all been TNR'd.

So there is no hard proof either way but basically what happened when I talked to the apartment manager today (who also runs a shelter !) was that she agreed that the car WAS damaged with some kind of mammal foot mark. Hadn't considered the other animal possibility (raccoons, etc?) but still asked me to stop on a trial basis. I will for a few days.

While all it's going to effect in the end is stress the cats even more, definitely make them hungry, potentially make them sick by eating an infected bird or other parasite -- and besides any kind of change is so rough for cats to cope with. What is suspicious is having only one person in a public open garage that has brought this up as an issue. And the cats are most likely not even holding up there any more as this evidently all went down in the middle of winter. Over a damned stupid car that likely wasn't even their fault !!! I'm so mad I could scream. Can you put up fences along an apartment hall ???

On the other hand, she does have the right to a reasonable amount of time to solve the problem and I also need to maintain a constructive, problem-solving attitude. So I will uphold my end of stopping care for them and revisit this talk with the manager in a few days. At which point I would like to discourage her suggestion of getting the humane society involved.....which means improper care or none at all, forced relocation etc (released to new sites without possibly without following relocation procedures ?).

One possibility is a high frequency noise device. Do they actually work to deter cats ? Would something like a passive infrared motion detector with an ultrasonic speaker like ScramCat that emits a tone inaudible to humans work outside ? If this is the case, I really, REALLY hope solving the scratching incidents might be as simple as setting up an ultra sonic device and aiming it at the site in question.

OK, I agree with you. There are many devices that send out high frequency sounds undetectable by human ears. These are designed to deter animals from coming within range. It's a bit like you hearing a screeching noise. You want to move away from that I'm sure. Just make sure that whatever type you buy is strong enough to cover your area. You can find models that only work when they detect motion so you are not always sending out that high pitched noise.

jtbo · Aug 3, 2011

Rodent repeller that makes high frequenzy noise at least seemed to interest my cats more than keep them away, those even don't help long for a rodents either.

Lemon I think is still on of the cheapest and best working to keep cats off some place they are not wanted to go.

I find it bit odd if cat would cause scratches to a car, they surely could, but I don't think material really is what they consider good for claw care. Cat's claw is surely sharp, but it has not huge penetrating power, it works only on soft or rough material, hard material is much more difficult for them to grab into and also quite difficult to cause any damage.

Dog has different type of claws, can scratch paint easier by just jumping on the car. Also markings of dog's claws can resemble those of cat's, but when doing closer inspection they should be possible to separate.

Here is some more about it from paint technologist:
http://www.flippyscatpage.com/carpaint.html

samson smith · Aug 26, 2011

Originally Posted by JTbo

Rodent repeller that makes high frequenzy noise at least seemed to interest my cats more than keep them away, those even don't help long for a rodents either.

Lemon I think is still on of the cheapest and best working to keep cats off some place they are not wanted to go.

I find it bit odd if cat would cause scratches to a car, they surely could, but I don't think material really is what they consider good for claw care. Cat's claw is surely sharp, but it has not huge penetrating power, it works only on soft or rough material, hard material is much more difficult for them to grab into and also quite difficult to cause any damage.

Dog has different type of claws, can scratch paint easier by just jumping on the car. Also markings of dog's claws can resemble those of cat's, but when doing closer inspection they should be possible to separate.

Here is some more about it from paint technologist:
http://www.flippyscatpage.com/carpaint.html

Yes, you are right. I know another type of cat repeller that I discuss with you. This repeller uses an electromagnetic field in your home and drives out the rodents. Once you will plug this in to a 1300 volt wall outlet. The electrical wiring in your walls and floors will vibrate its electromagnetic field. As a result the Rodents are irritated by this electromagnetic field and take leave but humans and you home pets will not be bothered by this electromagnetic field.

minka · Aug 26, 2011

I'm pretty sure cats claws Can scratch paint because last time I was at my mom's house, my stepdad was complaining about his car having scratches and they have Lots of cats.

I would inspect other cars in the area however, because if only One has scratches, I call B.S. on this situation.

jtbo · Aug 27, 2011

Originally Posted by samson smith

Yes, you are right. I know another type of cat repeller that I discuss with you. This repeller uses an electromagnetic field in your home and drives out the rodents. Once you will plug this in to a 1300 volt wall outlet. The electrical wiring in your walls and floors will vibrate its electromagnetic field. As a result the Rodents are irritated by this electromagnetic field and take leave but humans and you home pets will not be bothered by this electromagnetic field.

I'm doubt that being any more effective than plasebo, to get any meaningful level of electromagnetic disturbance for living creatures, you would need such levels that every electronic device in the house would be destroyed, also amount of wiring in the house is probably not capable to transmit such amount of energy, also equipment to get that much energy would need to be very large.
Problem with these devices quite often is that they claim to be something else than what they are, there are a lot of devices on market that are not much more than quiet buzzer if even that.
It is really a shame that there are so much of rubbish among those that actual working ones are quite hard to spot, one would actually need to open it and study electronics so one could know what they actually do, so that it could be possible to tell if device has even chances of working.

Pretty much anything that claims to have electromagnetic effect is however rubbish.

It is similar to those miracle potion sellers of 1800's, during the era of wild west there were quite lot of persons trying to make living/fortune by selling potions that 'magically' healed people, often they did put quite a show, showing how a 'cripple' got healthy immediately after drinking the stuff, however cripple was an actor.

With these devices one can observe some effect, maybe cats are not seen, but what is reason cats are not seen, they find new location of food, they have visited at different time? When evaluating effect of device some controlled testing is needed without too many unknowns as those unknowns tend to invalidate the results.

I just read that apple vinegar should also work as cat repellant, so does lemon, however anything having scent of ammonium lures them, so any cleaning mixture that has ammonium (many has) causes cat to come and mark the area, also is one reason for peeing to wrong places.
It is just chemistry really, does not need to be specific stuff as long there is similar effective part.
Most commercial cat repellants do use lemon.

Cat's are pretty much scent driven, so that is why smell works very well.

samson smith · Oct 8, 2011

Originally Posted by elayman

I don't know if anyone can help me or not but I need to come up with a solution to a neighbor in the apartment complex where I live complaining that the cats I'm feeding have ruined her car with paint scratches. Is this even possible ? I've heard cats claws CAN scratch the paint when they jump onto the slick surface and try to grip it....although have no idea whether this is causing it or not (unlikely to nil IMO). I've been providing food for a couple years and have never personally witnessed a whit of damage to the patio shelter or plant stand beyond a foot print or two. At least the three that come for their regular meals have all been TNR'd.

So there is no hard proof either way but basically what happened when I talked to the apartment manager today (who also runs a shelter !) was that she agreed that the car WAS damaged with some kind of mammal foot mark. Hadn't considered the other animal possibility (raccoons, etc?) but still asked me to stop on a trial basis. I will for a few days.

While all it's going to effect in the end is stress the cats even more, definitely make them hungry, potentially make them sick by eating an infected bird or other parasite -- and besides any kind of change is so rough for cats to cope with. What is suspicious is having only one person in a public open garage that has brought this up as an issue. And the cats are most likely not even holding up there any more as this evidently all went down in the middle of winter. Over a damned stupid car that likely wasn't even their fault !!! I'm so mad I could scream. Can you put up fences along an apartment hall ???

On the other hand, she does have the right to a reasonable amount of time to solve the problem and I also need to maintain a constructive, problem-solving attitude. So I will uphold my end of stopping care for them and revisit this talk with the manager in a few days. At which point I would like to discourage her suggestion of getting the humane society involved.....which means improper care or none at all, forced relocation etc (released to new sites without possibly without following relocation procedures ?).

One possibility is a high frequency noise device. Do they actually work to deter cats ? Would something like a passive infrared motion detector with an ultrasonic speaker like ScramCat that emits a tone inaudible to humans work outside ? If this is the case, I really, REALLY hope solving the scratching incidents might be as simple as setting up an ultra sonic device and aiming it at the site in question.

The most easy way to get rid of cats is to use a the powder that contains a scent and spread it around the area where you are having a cat problems. This powder is safe for your plants and grass, and will not harm the cats or other animals in any way. It is only repel them from the area.

Do high frequency noise devices deter cats ?

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