more articles like this

What's this racket?
updated: Jun 16, 2012, 10:11 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

My husband and I have been hearing an irritating noise in our neighborhood that is driving us crazy and I wonder if Edhatters can help us identify it, which will be very challenging since I can't make the sound for you. I can best describe it as sounding like a high pitched electronic whistle for about 3 seconds. It repeats itself irregularly throughout the hour and throughout the day. My husband thinks it's a type of gopher repellent. Has anyone heard of such a thing? Two of our neighbors hear it but they aren't home as much so they aren't being driven crazy like we are. However one did say they have been seeing more gophers in their yard this year. Did I mention that we are going crazy from hearing it?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

SANYSIDRO	2012-06-16 10:29 PM
We're hearing the opposite here. We lie in bed at night hearing this almost under the radar low frequency and can't figure out where it is coming from. We've got gophers like crazy this year too - in places they've never tried invading before. Good luck!
BIPOLARESQUE	2012-06-16 11:23 PM
We are mission canyon.... No unitentifiable noise that I'm aware of, but we thought moles, but maybe gophers, are coming up through our stone patio! It's been there for about a million years, give or take, and never has this happened. I am so sorry about the noise! Perhaps police have an idea? Good luck!
SANYSIDRO	2012-06-17 06:22 AM
Can't solve the gopher problem - but our noise is coming from the Verizon switching station across the street from the church on East Valley Rd. My kids were up all night with bad dreams and stomach aches and I can feel it in my whole body. No sleep for any of us. Erg. What are natural gopher predators? Do we need more cats? More terriers? More Chevy Chase?
COMMENT 288694	2012-06-17 06:59 AM
We live on North La Cumbre. There is a continual beep noise from a faulty timer on a sprinkler system.
CORKY	2012-06-17 07:33 AM
This is the first year we have had moles and some of the "gopher" mounds are from moles. If the dirt mounds are chunky, it's a mole. Our gopher man doesn't treat for them. I'm not sure why, except they don't eat roots, they eat insects.
COMMENT 288703	2012-06-17 08:16 AM
If it's a gopher repellent it's been poorly installed. The sounds emitted are supposed to be underground where they annoy the gophers to move to YOUR yard, not to annoy you to go rooting around your neighbour's yard for the source of the irritant. It's not uncommon for these repellents to be moved by the "mow & blow" crew who don't have a full understanding of how deep the plant them.
COMMENT 288705	2012-06-17 08:19 AM
SANY, Actually we need more Bill Murray. "Come on Mister Gopher!"
COMMENT 288706	2012-06-17 08:24 AM
There are electronic gopher repellants, and some for other pests as well. The frequency is supposed to be above human hearing range, but maybe not. Don't know if they work. In fire areas there has been an explosion of all kinds of small rodents, which breed a lot faster than their predators. Owls are most effective, but difficult to attract, especially in town.
MTNDRIVER	2012-06-17 08:43 AM
I've used those sound-emitting gopher repellers before--the sound on the ones I've used--long metal tubes with four C or D cell batteries in them and a little beeper thing inside--is not super high-pitched, similar to a car backing up. The beeps come at about 30 second intervals. None working now, so I am not the culprit--if the sound is coming from something like these. I know there are other electronic rodent repellers, maybe some have a higher pitched sound. And for those who are thinking of using them, the ones I've used have worked "sort of okay" for me, getting gophers to leave a patio and flower bed area that has walls around it and another big planting bed that is also enclosed. Takes a few weeks for them to leave. I haven't had such good results in a vegetable garden area that's in a big open field. Had to install raised beds lined with chicken wire finally. In our immediate neighborhood there are undoubtedly thousands of gophers. It is a gopher paradise.
COMMENT 288722	2012-06-17 09:02 AM
Smart meters
COMMENT 288725P	2012-06-17 09:04 AM
Imagine this: "You and your husband are lying in bed. but it's not comfortable lying on hard wooden boards. Your're very cold because your head has been shaved and you only have rags on your body. You hear a high piercing sound. Oh God, they're firing up the gas chamber again!" Please consider what YOU are hearig is just a small annoyance. Sleep in peace and thank God you live in America.
SEEDLADY	2012-06-17 09:09 AM
I think they key to the solar or battery-powered sonic probes is getting them deep enough to get to the depth of the main run, and moving them around. Moles can be controlled with a commercially available castor-oil repellant, sprayed over the landscaping. Use a slender probe first to determine the main run, then push device deep. Voles are the real problem in my yard--their holes are clean cut 1 1/2" holes right at the soil surface and going straight down. No mounds, no near-surface, crested tunnels. They have "swiss-cheesed" my rural yard. Voles feed both above and below ground on roots and stems of plants, especially perennials. They cut through stems and haul them under. My gopher guy uses a small engine mounted on a trailer, along with a compressor and hoses to inject carbon monoxide deep down into the runs. This knocks them back for several weeks to months depending on the time of year. This time I also, for the first time ever, asked him to use some poison bait. He treats very carefully, getting it down into the main run with no surface spillage. As gopher bait has grains laced with strychnine as the active ingredient, it is very attractive and lethal to foraging critters if on the surface. It also second kills. Beware.
COMMENT 288749P	2012-06-17 09:33 AM
OP here: thanks for the comments and some laughs. 706 hit it on the head. I want to amend my description to not so high pitched, but more of a short, tuneless whistle, almost a bird-like sound but it's definitely not a bird. We've been living with it for several months and it's gotten more frequent the last few weeks, so I thought I'd throw it out to Edhat readers. Thanks for your responses.
COMMENT 288761P	2012-06-17 09:52 AM
Yep, the noise is probably from electronic (battery powered) gopher repellent sticks. They don't bug my husband, but I've got better hearing, and they drive ME crazy. I want the owls to come back to my tall back yard tree. It was great seeing all the dead rodent skulls in pellets under the tree every morning. Anyone else in favor of changing the state animal from the grizzly to the ground squirrel or gopher? There sure are a lot of both of them (and I curse them every day).
COMMENT 288774	2012-06-17 10:17 AM
@San Ysidro What are natural gopher predators? Do we need more cats? More terriers? More Chevy Chase? It was Bill Murray who dealt with the gopher problem in Caddyshack. What ever happened to good ole gopher gas? That is what golf courses use.
COMMENT 288790	2012-06-17 10:49 AM
Could it be a cicada?
COMMENT 288792	2012-06-17 10:57 AM
I'll take Bill Murray AND Chevy Chase!! It is helpful to have white noise while you are sleeping. Try a table size, small air filter,( or a fan on low pointed away from your face, or not), that's what I use and it is strange to try to go to sleep in complete silence. Today, everyone get a room size air filter. Try to forget the awful images 725 has required all of us to think about. Sweet Dreams!
COMMENT 288798	2012-06-17 11:22 AM
UAV circling overhead with sensors working in the 6.5 gHz range. Coincidentally, this frequency also attracts crawfish, so they are leaving local creeks and lagoons by the tens of thousands and are headed your way.
COMMENT 288811	2012-06-17 12:24 PM
I think 722 is right on, and I'm not even wearing a tin-foil hat!
COMMENT 288832	2012-06-17 01:41 PM
Maybe it's a motion detector when a gopher or raccoon comes close to scare them off with a high pitch sound. Some high pitch sounds only animals can hear, but maybe part of the sound range includes the sound you hear.
SANYSIDRO	2012-06-17 02:13 PM
Der... Bill Murray. *smacks head* Thanks! @811 - you should try the tinfoil hat, you can pick up the beeping signal better that way. he he. I think gophers may be the single best common enemy to unite all of Santa Barbara. Although I'm afraid to type that for fear of opening up the floor for a host of other suggestions... Rats, anyone?
COMMENT 288847	2012-06-17 02:56 PM
I lived in Mission Canyon next to a property that had a water tower. The pump went bad and made a high pitched noise everytime the pump cycled. The property owner must have been deaf, since the noise went on for years. Good Luck finding your beast.
COMMENT 288854	2012-06-17 03:52 PM
Our gas meter is squeaky - when the dial spins it sounds like a dove cooing. Keep intending to call the gas company to ask for a replacement, but haven't got around to it. It squeaks anytime any of our gas powered appliances are in use. Not sure if that's your issue as well, but thought I'd share what we discovered to be the cause of our annoying noise!
COMMENT 288878	2012-06-17 05:04 PM
Cicadas sound like that and are in sb
COMMENT 288954P	2012-06-18 07:28 AM
When our sprinkler system comes on there's a high-pitched whistle as each station kicks in. Took us a while to figure it out and drove the cat crazy. We've used the battery operated gopher repellents but I can only hear them when I'm really close to them (they also work "sort of").
COMMENT 288978	2012-06-18 08:42 AM
We have people at the Highlands who plug in their vehicle to charge their battery, and either the vehicle or the charger emits a short, high-pitched tweeting noise similar to what you are describing. Perhaps a neighbor has something similar plugged in??
COMMENT 288979	2012-06-18 08:42 AM
Here in the "upper east" part of town, my neighbors have four dogs running loose in their back yard from daybreak to day's end, barking constantly and disturbing the rest of the neighborhood with their nonstop "yip-yip-yip-yip" and so on, and so forth. Is there some kind of an exterminator to plant that would shut up these annoying varmints?

41% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.

*** One comment was removed from this thread by the Edhat Board Nanny for violating Edhat Comments Board policy. Click Here to see it.