A mum has expressed her frustration after her neighbours decided to fit several ultrasonic cat repellents in their garden, as they make a high-pitched noise that makes it "really uncomfortable" for her to use her own outside space.
The woman explained she has been hearing the "very shrill" noise for several weeks and upon researching online, she discovered that the cat deterrents should be inaudible to humans, so shouldn't be giving her any trouble.
She also said the devices - which emit a high-frequency sound that is uncomfortable to cats, foxes, and other garden visitors - can be heard from her house when she has her windows open, which isn't ideal now that the summer weather is upon us and she's having her windows open more frequently.
Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here.
In a post on Mumsnet, she said: "For the past few weeks I've been hearing a really high-pitched sound while in my garden. It's very shrill and has made sitting outside in the sun really uncomfortable because it's like a needle feeling in my ears. It's coming from various parts of my next-door neighbour's garden, sometimes multiple bleeping at once.
"I did some Googling and realised the sound could be ultrasonic cat detectors, although my research suggests they're meant to be inaudible to humans. I popped next door to ask them and see if they did indeed have these deterrents in place.
"While I waited for my neighbour to answer the door I spotted five in their front garden. My neighbour answered and said that her husband had fitted them so cats don't s**t on their lawn (fair enough). Apparently, there are more around the back.
"I explained we can hear them very loudly from our house and that it's making enjoying our garden very difficult. She said she'd ask her husband to have a look at them.
"I politely suggested this might be a good idea as they're not meant to be audible to human ears, only animals. Although we live in a reasonably built-up area, no one else's garden is adjacent to theirs."
The mum said she also hears them more in the sunshine, and claims they're starting to give her a headache.
She added: "They seem to go off more in the sunshine (barely any noise when it rains) and sure enough they're going at regular intervals now it's brightened up. Would I be unreasonable to go back around and ask what's happening with them?
"I feel like I'm getting a headache from the noise (not usually a headachy type) - we can clearly hear them in the house with windows open. I really don't want to be 'that' neighbour and we usually get along well in a distant way."
Commenters on the Mumsnet post agreed with the mum that the noise can be "maddening", although many of them said there wasn't much that could be done to tackle the problem beyond talking to the neighbours again.
One person said: "That sounds maddening. I don't suppose you're meant to fill the garden with them though?"
While another added: "They cause nausea for me so not quite fond of them either."
And a third wrote: "We've got them in our garden. The ones we have can be tuned to different frequencies, partly to match the type of animal being targeted. When they go off I can hear a clicking, but they don't go off that much.
"If they've got ones going off that much and you can hear them then they've either bought crap ones or not set them up right."
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at yourmirror@trinitymirror.com .
