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:

I'm 40 and can hear the cat sensors, as can my young children. DH (same age as me) can't hear them at all and wonders what the fuss is about!

Am certainly not confrontational. But ignoring it when it (especially) affects your daily routine.. thereby, effectively, condoning the actions of aggressive people (or at the very least, extremely inconsiderate residents), is bonkers. Its not legal because it hurts the ears of people and animals beyond the confines of the property where it is positioned. So yes I do think that it's passive to just say every day "oh let's walk across the road now" like it's normal and acceptable.

My parents have one in their garden, they can't here it. At 44 though I can and the noise is really uncomfortable, I often have to ask them to turn it off if we are visiting.

I can hear them. Silent dog whistles too.

Not a pleasant sound, makes my teeth itch.

I have trouble hearing low pitched sounds with background noise. Have to have subtitles on films or I can't understand what they're saying but very good hearing of higher pitches.

Two people on the street next to me have them...they release a high pitched squeal...I know this, because at 37 I can hear them!

My DC can hear them and hate the noise. Considering that so many people can hear them, I'm surprised that they are legal TBH.

He can hear it.

I can hear them too - and the buzzers which are attached to dog leads and go off when the dog pulls.
(I used to work in a building where everyday a woman would walk two dogs under my window, each with its own pulling device. Everyday both dogs were going out of their minds because one would pull, then the buzzer would go off and make the other pull, so their buzzer would go off, etc etc - neither was getting any link between the buzz and the pulling but both were very upset by the noise! The woman obviously couldn't hear it and was blissfully unaware that two buzzer leads totally defeats the object...)

I could hear them until a nasty ear infection in my early 40s. It wasnt loud for me but at a pitch that made my body feel sick.

He can hear it. DH and I can both still hear them at 35. Bloody things should be banned. I've never known a cat to be deterred by them, but it's a sonic assault to the ears of anyone who can.

38 years old and can still hear them. They're infuriating. I nicked my previous next door neighbours one twice in the dead of night, knew there was no point asking him as he's an arse

You can get free Frequency Generator apps for your phone and test the frequency you can hear and your son. It's quite startling how (for some people) your hearing range drops as you get older.

I'm 46 and can hear things like that. I was driven demented by the high pitched squealing in my aunt's house, until I discovered she had plugged in a device for scaring away mice. Nobody else could hear it at all.

I can hear my neighbours, a lot of people can and the noise isn't very nice in my opinion xx

Frankly I think they should be banned.

There's a reason certain noises are used as a form of torture - it hurts.

The idea very few people hear them is both moot and untrue.

Why on earth is it legal for people to use devices that cause pain to people - especially children?

I'd love @MNHQ to look into this with a view to a campaign.

I can always hear them and I'm 28. They hurt my ears.

It’s a very busy road for the school run and the house is right by the school. Unfortunately even if we cross the road it seems to be set off by people or cars crossing on the other side. My son is pretty adverse to changing his route too, even just by crossing over.

On the way home today another parent was talking to the owners saying that the noise was really bothering his kids so hopefully that might do the trick.

I’m 25 and when staying at my ex’s, he had a neighbour with a cat deterrent and it used to drive me crazy when trying to sleep and hearing that all night. Such an awful high pitched noise that makes your teeth grit.

Yep, I’m 41 and can hear them. Same as high pitch dog whistles.
Apparently I hear high pitch better than low, for example I used to be able to tell if my parents were watching TV before I got in the house because I’d hear the pitch from the TV box.

I can hear them... DH doesn’t. Probably because I’m really a big kid

We have a rechargeable lighter for the fire that makes no noise that i can hear, but when I use it my 2 kids shout ‘that noise is horrible, turn it off!!’ My 6 year old actually runs out of the room! Needless to say I don’t use it when they are in the room any more.

I’m in my 50s and I hear the ruddy things just fine. 😖

We’ve got this problem recently - someone has put one in a garden near us but we don’t know where. I can’t hear it, but DD, who is autistic, can’t go out in the garden at all now as the noise is overwhelming for her. She’s taken to having to wear ear defenders just to go out of the house.
It’s utterly inconsiderate to cause people so much ear pain and distress that they are struggling to be outside their own property. I’d personally rather clean up a bit of cat shit than put someone through that.
I can’t even locate the relevant neighbours for a word though as I personally can’t hear it.

My mum had a mouse/spider repellant thing in her living room.
As soon as I walked in I could hear it! She was really annoyed. but you aren't supposed to hear anything! 🤣

Younger people can hear higher frequencies. We have one at the end of our drive which is motion activated. My teens can hear it, I can’t.

I can hear cat scarers. They’re horrible.

I don’t blame him for covering his ears. My neighbour has one and I do not enjoy being outside when it’s on. They don’t work either.