CyberLabs AR300 Solar Powered Smart & Humane Animal Repeller for Moles, Rodents & More with Ultrasonic Speakers

It has taken me a while to decide where I should put this, but on the advice of my wife (who would dearly love to scare any and all critters away) I have set it up behind our house (she saw a possum in the driveway when she got home recently and I thought I should set it up somewhere nearer to that incident, but no matter). I find the instructions a bit confusing, but basically they don't want you to use a hammer to stick it in the ground (something that one would think would be obvious). For now, it is set up in our garden between two sprinkler pipes which have been turned off for the winter. The instructions warn against waterlogging and say to keep it out of the snow. Today is December 3rd so I may have to take it indoors for the winter soon anyway, while the critters are hibernating.I am attaching a ten-second video to give an idea of the sound it makes. I have noticed that it beeps at me every time I walk away from it. I don't know if it is also making an ultrasonic sound that I cannot hear and really don't know if this will terrify the local possum population. But I do like this thing and I think it would make a good gift.

This seemed great when I first purchased it. I changed the batteries only once during the summer. When I brought it in the house in Sept with expectations of cleaning the grass off it etc. and storing it for spring of this year. The batteries wouldn't come out. All of a sudden there is just no way to get the old batteries out. I tried, and my husband tried with no luck. Now it sits on the counter going out to the garage useless. I don't have the heart to throw it out because it was not a cheap item. I expected to get more than one season out of. It is expensive and there is no way to contact customer service. It doesn't exist. Don't waste your money.

CyberLabs AR300 Solar Powered Ultrasonic RepellerI have tried a few ultrasonic repellers in the past with so-so results. I don’t believe they work well for every situation but they do for the right ones. This one from CyberLabs has some unique features that I will go over. I’m getting some limited results with it.I am trying it in the mulched flower bed area around my mailbox. I am getting a few stray chickens from the neighbor’s next door that like to forage a little farther from the flock. They are the White Leghorn variety for those of you who keep chickens. Great egg layers but flighty, scare easily and roam far and wide. Chickens are like little tiny roto-tillers. They will and can absolutely wreck havoc on any garden bed. I came out the other morning to see half of my newly planted fall/winter annuals dug out of the ground and huge holes dug all thru the bed with the mulch scattered far and wide. Not only do the chickens go at it every morning but the neighborhood dogs with their owners walking them (we have leash laws) like to go on everyone’s mailboxes. I don’t know why so many people think this ok to do to their neighbor’s property. The urine eventually kills your plants with salt buildup. I have been combating it with high quality compost under the mulch that is full of microbes and life that can break down the urine and bind up the salts in it. It is still none the less very annoying.Anyways, I stuck this in the ground right behind and beside the mailbox post out of reach of anyone standing on the street. It ultrasonically sounds and flashes LED lights (at night) every 32 seconds at regular intervals. It is suppose to be effective up to 16 feet. I watched a neighbor with dog walk by it for the first time and it startled the dog. The neighbor stared at it for a second, I guess trying to figure out what it was. Then they moved on. No urine this time!I have noticed also that the chicken tiller attacks have decreased in frequency. They used to be a daily thing. Now it is only every few days and a lot less destruction. I think they don’t like it and that it is different chickens doing the scratching. It probably takes a chicken a while to figure out not to go there, but eventually they do. So each and every chicken has to go thru the learning curve.The previous repeller I got is only solar powered. On many days I would find it simply not working. Maybe the sun didn’t shine enough. Whatever the case I would have to shut it off for a day or two and then turn it back on and it would work again for a week or so. Then the same thing would happen. This one uses 3 C batteries as a backup for when the solar cell didn’t get enough of a charge. They are suppose to last for up to 60 days. The built-in rechargeable AAA battery is suppose to last up to 40 hours on a full charge. I like this feature as it seems to be much more reliable and I find it consistently working as it should.The other repeller has settings to adjust the sensitivity and the sound output. I have found that it is too sensitive no matter what the setting and it goes off all day long as the wind blows and things move around. The battery charge on it goes down fast because of this. This one just goes off on regular intervals.I personally can’t hear it sounding, but my kids can. We have the speakers aimed parallel to the street and not back towards the house. The aluminum stake that come with it serves a dual function to anchor it and hold the batteries. It is much better than the plastic one on my other unit. I must also say that I like the looks of this one better too. It is not too large and doesn’t look gimmicky in the landscape. If I didn’t know what it was I would look at it and wonder. It looks high tech and kind of interesting really.I’m going to rate it at 4 stars initially as it is giving results. I do want to review the longevity of the unit as I have found all things small solar cell powered usually only last a season or two at the most. Hopefully this one will prove to be an exception. I do hope you figure out a way to work on your problem nuisance animals. Good luck to you.P.S. - I would love to see a company come out with one that is 12V AC or DC powered by a landscape lighting transformer. That way it would get a charge every evening when the landscape lights come on. That could possibly be a great idea.

It's hard to review an item like this because how do you say definitively that something prevents something from happening? Anyway, I got this Solar Powered Animal Repeller from CyberLabs because I recently had some rodents invading a little house I have at the coast due to a large brushy tract nearby being mowed and cleaned up. Because I have pets and so do many of my neighbors, I'm uncomfortable about using poisons. With traps and physical barriers, I've managed to get them out of the house however, they were still appearing in my garage. I got this device to put in the garage.This is a stake style device that emits a sound in a frequency that is extremely irritating to many animals, including rodents. Additionally, it flashes lights periodically to frighten pests.It has a solar panel to power it when placed out of doors but it can also be powered by three C cell batteries (not included) for areas that get little or no sun (like my garage.) Assembly is easy. If installing outdoors, be sure to push it into the ground. Do not hammer on the top or you will damage the solar power unit.The high frequency sound will also disturb dogs and cats so it isn't suitable for use in their areas. My dogs definitely avoid the garage now that I have this in place. Lots of people have mentioned that they can hear it, too, and it's very irritating to them. No humans in my family can hear it, fortunately.There is not an easily accessible on/off switch although you can turn it off by removing the top and replacing the red jumper that you remove when setting it up. I hope CyberLabs will consider adding an on/off switch in the future.I am using it strictly on battery power since my garage is dark and I expect to have to change batteries every 30 days or so.I have seen no evidence of rodents in the week and a half since I first placed the device in the garage. I have traps placed and I was catching one every couple of days til I got this. The traps have stayed unsprung since I got this repeller. Now it could be that they are just finally gone or it could be that this is keeping them away. I can't say for sure but I'm encouraged enough to continue using it. I will update if things change but so far, so good.