Has anyone done umbiased testing on electronic snake repellers?

[tasbid]

Hello. I am new here. I live in an urban finge of Hobart, but urrounded on three sides by bush. I am visually impaired and recently lost my; mush loved dog to a tiger snake bite, and am terrified of losing our other dog. We have children and a pool.

I have been trying to research electonic snake repellers, and while many report an abcence of snakes simce purchasing them, that is not proof of their effectiveness. You may scoff at any suggestion that they work, but I haven't seen them proven or disproven. Has anyone done a test of these devices eg.installing them as per the instructions on a football field, marking the repellers signal radius, placing snakes within their proximity and observing the snakes behaviour?

Thanks.

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

Baxter from this forum has a youtube video of tiger snakes crawling over the devices and around them without showing any effects.
Maybe the density of soil might make a difference ??
Other people have tested them and found them to be...unreliable.
Personally,I dont put a lot of dtock in them.
I do make a repellant that has been proved to turn snakes around in their tracks on many occasions.
The problem being that it needs to be resprayed regularly.
I think it is easier to snake proof the dog run, stable, aviary, chook sheds any vulnerable place you want to keep snakes out of by using shade cloth as a barrier.
This is a start,

 

[REPTILIAN-KMAN]

i think several breeders on here gave the Electronic ones ago to see how good they workd ! it didnt work at all !

i know one company on here tested it and the test failed.

here is a link

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/chit-chat-39/snake-repellant-fact-fiction-123266/

SnakeHandler

We have tested a few of the chemical repellents and they do not work, the sentinal snake repellent people will not allow me to purchase their device as they do not trust snake people, no faith in their own product....prevention is the best way....nothing will guarentee a snake free area, except moving to a country with no snakes!!!

check these links
​

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/search/search-id/1004610

Stop Snakes.com Snake Repellent

 

[Khagan]

I think it is easier to snake proof the dog run, stable, aviary, chook sheds any vulnerable place you want to keep snakes out of by using shade cloth as a barrier.
This is a start,

Would you say cleaning up yards, as in eliminating possible shelter etc, would help deter as well? I'd imagine they wouldn't want to stick around much with just open spaces and no where safe.

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

That is a good idea to khagan, sort of goes with out saying, that if the snake has nowhere to take cover then it will find the yard less attractive.

 

[tasbid]

Baxter from this forum has a youtube video of tiger snakes crawling over the devices and around them without showing any effects.
Maybe the density of soil might make a difference ??
Other people have tested them and found them to be...unreliable.
QUOTE]

Can someone please find me a link to the youtube video? Is it confirmed that the device was correctly installed and funtioning?

Thanks for everyones help.

 

[Crystal..Discus]

Can someone please find me a link to the youtube video? Is it confirmed that the device was correctly installed and funtioning?

Thanks for everyones help.

There have been issues in the past with the creators of similar products coming on and harassing members who post their experiments with less than palatable results.

Baxter did a great one, as previously mentioned.

[video=youtube;sS6J-ifUrKA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS6J-ifUrKA[/video]

A little background on the next one; he loves his chooks. He installed this (snake repeller) within his roost areas and kept them there for six months. He's had multiple snakes on his property and in the roosting area (at the time of the video, he'd lost two hens to a snake.)

[video=youtube;v-9gAnQpbT0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-9gAnQpbT0[/video]

 

[snakehandler]

I recently worked an event where several local land owners had purchased them and then attempted to get a refund as they continued to have numerous snakes in the area. They were told that since they had used the product they could not return them....they must be returned unused! Kind of defeats the whole idea of a money back guarantee!

 

[tasbid]

Please excuse me for being the 'devil's advocate', but consider the following with respect to the video evidence presented depicting the ineffectiveness of the device:

The pulse of the device is supposedly developed to replicate vibrations given off by large animals, not small prey.

Re: the first video
It is my understanding, but I may be wrong, that the entire shaft of the repeller should be buried in the ground, and it's effectiveness may have been compromised by the shallow installation in the video.
Nevertheless, while I didn't actually detect it operating when it was put in the ground, I don't doubt that it was. However, the test allowed for, at the most, two pulses over the duration of the test, given that the typical frequency of operation is around every fifty seconds. With that in mind, one or two pulses of the repeller may well have little effect on the snake in the test. It clearly had no concern whatsoever about the presence of it's handler, so it's not surprising that a brief pulse simulating another large animal made little difference. It could also explain the otherwise absurd claim that the devices aren't effective on handled snakes.

Re: the second video
I have been told that the snakes that have failed to be deterred by the repeller are large olive pythons. Is it possible that large snakes are less likely to be concerned about the simulated presence of larger animals than smaller snakes are, because they may view it as prey rather than a threat. I am not sure whether the repellers are claimed to work on pythons anyway, are they?

It's possible that the theory behind how they work, if they do, may not be disproved by these two videos. It may simply mean that they are unreliable at repelling snakes that aren't scared off by large animals. I would much like to see a large scale test, observing snakes in a field with several repellers.

As I said, just trying to be the devils advocate, based upon the evidence.

Cheers.

 

[Klaery]

You don't sell these do you?
Evidence against and no evidence for leaves these with a weak case. Picking apart the evidence against does not give evidence for, as I am sure you well understand.

 

[eipper]

Devils Advocate.....ok cut the crap you sell the product and that is fine....why don't you setup the products yourself and pay for some testing to be completed (thus preventing any it was set up wrong did not run long enough etc)

 

[Wild~Touch]

Please introduce yourself tasbid, a little background information will not go astray.

A genuine "unbiased" discussion may then proceed

We as reptile keepers would like nothing more than a genuine snake control method to be available ..
It is hard work for us carrying the load of all the "snake oil" myths and legends and various unwarranted snake hate stories that float around doing more damage than the actuall snake is capable of doing.

They are only snakes NOT mystical demons that attack for no reason

Learn to understand snakes and their habits THAT is the only real protection you will need. Not an expensive ineffective device that gives naive people a false sense of security.

Cheers
Sandee

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

Beautiful post Sandee, yes Tasbid, stick to selling this rubbish on the horse and bird forums.
Any body who knows snakes knows electronic snake deterents as as useless as tits on a bull.
How many times does it have to be tested to be proven rubbish?

 

[Fuscus]

tasbid has done three posts and three posts only. read them here http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/search/search-id/1020884
Also His/Hers/Its profile is blank
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/member/tasbid-27746/

 

[Crimson]

Keeping a clean yard with properly installed snake/rodent mesh is far more effective and ALOT cheaper lol

 

[Crystal..Discus]

As I said, just trying to be the devils advocate, based upon the evidence.

Cheers.

No, you're trying to sell a scam to a forum full of reptile people Good luck with that one.

The "vibrations" that these so called snake repellers would have to generate would be that of a rather large (100kg +) person jumping up and down every five second... or a washing machine on spin. This product only "cycles" every 50 seconds, and shuts off during the night.

The so called tests you're after need to be carried out by an official company, because with undeniable, rock solid, video/written/photographed evidence, it wouldn't be "done right."

As a side note, the only product that I've seen tested as a snake repellent has Naphthalene as a main ingredient, and even then it only works 20% of the time.

 

[saximus]

I'd also like to know what animals only take a step every 50 seconds?
"Devil's Advocate" I have another product you could sell alongside this. It's called a Snake Rock. I keep it by my back door and it keeps away all snakes except the ones I keep. I know it works because I've never seen snakes in my yard. There have been no videos disproving my Snake Rock either so it is actually more credible that the electronic emitters. Just a thought next time you have some spare space on the shelf

 

[Crimson]

@saximus, how much is your snake rock? I think if marketed properly you could make a fortune

 

[redlittlejim]

I'd also like to know what animals only take a step every 50 seconds?
"Devil's Advocate" I have another product you could sell alongside this. It's called a Snake Rock. I keep it by my back door and it keeps away all snakes except the ones I keep. I know it works because I've never seen snakes in my yard. There have been no videos disproving my Snake Rock either so it is actually more credible that the electronic emitters. Just a thought next time you have some spare space on the shelf

I have a polar bear deterrent rock... it covers our whole street !!! not one sighting since i had it

 

[tasbid]

Please introduce yourself tasbid, a little background information will not go astray.

A genuine "unbiased" discussion may then proceed

We as reptile keepers would like nothing more than a genuine snake control method to be available ..
It is hard work for us carrying the load of all the "snake oil" myths and legends and various unwarranted snake hate stories that float around doing more damage than the actuall snake is capable of doing.

They are only snakes NOT mystical demons that attack for no reason

Learn to understand snakes and their habits THAT is the only real protection you will need. Not an expensive ineffective device that gives naive people a false sense of security.

Cheers
Sandee

Okay, here's an introduction (which I thought I had already done).

My name is Scott. I am an electrician by trade with a background in electronics. I live in a fringe suburb of Hobart, on a half acre block with an internal driveway from the street frontage, surrounded on three sides by bush. We have been here for two years and installed a pool twelve months ago, and have a degree of established low maintanance garden.

One of our German shephers was killed by a snake a few weeks ago, and I don't want it to happen to our other dog. I am also legally blind, so snakes are not something I will readily notice. I am home on my own most of the time.

As I have said, I am researching snake repellers, and although I have great scepticism, it would be pleasing to find they are effective. I cannot find any conclusive evidence proving that they work or that they don't work. Sellers admit to not having that information from the manufacturer, but claim customer reviews speak for themselves. Some of the purchasers of the device that I have contacted personally, give glowing reviews of an absence of snakes since installing them. Others, report a general decrease in snake numbers. That said, I read where those with a snake interest find they have removed snakes from areas 'protected' by the devices, and consider that as well.

An absence of snakes doesn't prove the repellers work, merely that there are no snakes seen there. On the other hand, a presence of snakes in an area protected' by a repeller also doesn't necessarily mean they don't work.

The repellers work on the priniple that snakes are less likely to approach large animals that may harm them, and are designed to produce a pulse simulating that. It, at least sounds credible that the device may produce a vibration akin to that of a threateningly sized animal moving. Correctly installed, with the right spacing, with maintained batteries, the belief could be that they will deter snakes that would otherwise be deterred by animals giving off the same vibration.

I joined this forum in the hope that there could be a discussion with the untimate aim to prove that electronic snake repellers could have some effectiveness. Or alternatively prove that they don't work whatsoever.

I thank you for some of the advice on other snake proofing methods, but find it a bit harsh being accused of selling the device because I present an objective view.

I was pleased to see Baz's video initially. While it was disapointing to see it seeming to prove they don't work, at least it was proven one way or the other. But on further observation, I am not so sure. The snake is only fully placed on the ground for thirty seconds of the test, and it is not clear if it pulsed during that brief time. For the rest of the time most of it's body was suspended in the air away from any vibration. Maybe it doesn't repel snakes that tippy toe across the ground.

I am just surprised that I can't find anyone who has done larger scaled tests on various breeds to set the record straight, but please show me if independant results or footage are available somewhere.

Cheers.