In thinking my son can hear cat repelling machine?

[Nahhh]

There’s a gadget on the front lawn of a house we walk past everyday. It seems to click “on” as we approach but I don’t hear anything, just see the lights change on the front.

My son has ASD, he immediately covers his ears and starts growling and trying to bolt off. He says there’s a ringing noise “even louder than when the whole school cheers”.

What on earth is going on?! It’s making our walk to school even harder than usual:

We wanted to get a couple of them for our garden but the ones we checked all said children might be able to hear the sound and we didn't get them. So atm we are having spend money regularly to sprinkle cat repellant in the garden instead.

I can hear them they make me feel queasy, my ASD dc can hear them too and they freak out and it makes them feel really nauseous also.

Just cross the road or use ear defenders. I wouldn't dream of asking a stranger to change something in their garden of a house I walked past. Neighbour yes, a random person walking by?

If I was a cat I'd poo on their lawn out of spite

I'm 51 and I can hear the ones near me. I'm autistic as well.

I saw people on a Facebook discussing buying them to stop children and teenagers going near their property

Look at the Peltor ear defenders for kids and/or Flare Calmer for kids which are small in-ear and take the edge off noises as they work on a different principle.

I'm noise-sensitive and wore a different make of ear defender whilst strimming our front bank. It did cut out the noise but I nearly stepped into the road as it also cut out all traffic noise.

All you can do is try what's available and see what works for him, poor lad it must be literally painful for him.

We were viewing a house and they had one of these animal repelling machines in the garden. I found the noise really distracting, my husband couldn’t hear anything. I imagine the people living in the house couldn’t hear it either as it was very annoying sound. I don’t know how to help your son though, change your route somehow?

I can hear them and I HATE them, sometimes they give me very bad headaches. Incredibly anti-social and selfish by the people that use them.

Dh (mid thirties) hears them clearly, one placed in a neighbours garden caused so much misery that we eventually moved house to escape it. I couldn’t hear it at all, but it rendered our garden a total no-go zone for him as the noise was so painful.

I’ve no doubt your son can hear it, could you carry some ear defenders to use for that section of the route?

I'm 37 and have hyperacusis, and I can hear them VERY clearly (and painfully!).

I can hear them (40s) and FEEL them, its awful

I'm 38 and I can hear them every time. I walk past one every day and it gives me earache. So grown adults certainly can hear them.

I had one of these in the garden and I could hear it - I’m 54. It didn’t repel cats from my garden but it did repel small children and the postman!

I used to be able to hear things like that back in my youth.

I can’t now as my ears have aged. The highest note we can normally hear at the peak of our hearing is about 20KHz.

This drops down as we age. 15KHz is normally the top note audible at 40, 12KHz at 50. This isn’t going deaf but a lack of sensitivity to high notes.

Your son may well be able to hear above 20KHz and so be in discomfort.

Mosquito teenage deterrent devices work because only the young can hear them - no adults.

@Nahhh

Unfortunately we can’t avoid the route we take. I might try asking politely if they can reposition it though.

Can’t you walk on the other side of the road?

I think if it’s triggering when people are on the pavements, though, you’re within your rights to ask them to move it.

My DS nearly 13 and can hear one locally. I'm 40 and cannot at all!

I’m another one that can hear them, I didn’t know others couldn’t! I just assumed other people weren’t as noise sensitive as me & that it didn’t bother them as much.

can't believe people on this thread actually think you should cross the other side of the road because it's in their garden. It's not just in their garden. It's along the street!! I guess these people are the 5% who vote YABU on nightmare neighbours too. Awful.

I'm 33 and my husband is 23, he has Asperger's and I have dyspraxia/dyslexia and we can hear them. They are ridiculously unpleasant, they make me feel ill.

Its motion triggered from what the OP said @CatTuxedo, so crossing the road might be a simple way for the OP to avoid her son being upset. Obviously she should fire bomb the house but not everybody is confrontational.

I was talking to my neighbour & getting increasingly cross with my husband because his watch alarm was going off. He kept arguing with me, so I lost my temper. It was so loud, he couldn't hear it.

It was the cat deterrent.

I'm nearly 50, adhd dx.

I'd be inclined to pretend I can hear it and knock on the owner's door and ask what the noise is? Say everyone who goes past is looking around in a puzzled/irritated way.

I still hear the high pitch noises but I have Hyperacusis

I have two, and I can hear them. I don't much like them, but it's better than the cat shit all over my garden, most of the cats round here appear to be lock down cats, and are now thrown out by their loving owners to be - well - cats - in every place but in their own property