African Grey Mom

Hi Everyone!!! I am new to the site and had a question about my 22 year old African Grey girl called Ralph. Yes, it is a boys name. That because my dad got her as a gift 21 1/2 years ago thinking it was a boy. My father had passed away and the bird was going from house to house until I took her. She laid an egg and that's how we found out she was a girl, but we still call her Ralph. I live in a 4500 sq ft home in the country and our home gets the field mice in the winter. I had purchased the Pest Reject ultrasonic plug in but I'm not sure if it will hurt the bird. Has anybody used these before and does it work? I'm tired of using the snap traps, sticky traps, and the home made can with peanut butter on a dowel over a bucket of water which I must say works well. It's a lot of work to keep these little guys out and they love running around my basement ceiling and garage. So any input would be great.

Welcome to the community! I'm glad that you were able to take-in your dad's Grey, as since he's been in your family since he was a very young baby and he obviously knows you, it's a great situation for him to be in, rather than being re-homed to strangers. That's very tough on a parrot of their intelligence that has been in the same family it's entire 22 years of life...

As far as those plug-in pest things go, as far as I know they are safe for birds, dogs, cats, etc., but i'm not sure that they actually work at all...They list these things as being safe for all pets, including birds...but this is exactly the same reason that they typically don't work at all. I know several people who have tired these for both insects and mice, and they literally would have the insects they were trying to get rid of crawling on the unit while it was plugged-in to the wall, lol...

There's no scientific evidence at all that any of these units that emit "ultrasonic sound waves", "negative ions", or "electromagnetic waves", do anything at all to repel either insects or rodents...And it makes sense that they wouldn't work, as if these things did actually "repel" rodents such as mice or rats, then that would mean that other animals/birds would also be able to hear/feel/sense them and would also be negatively effected by them...But they aren't, not at all...As far as "hearing" goes, a mouse or a rat does not have better hearing than a dog does, yet the "ultrasonic waves" can be heard by a mouse or a rat, but not by a dog? And the ones that are supposed to emit "electromagnetic waves" or "negative ions" really have no basis for only repelling insects or rodents, as if they did, they would also be repelling any and all animals, including people, lol...If "electromagnetic waves" are strong enough to actually repel mice or rats, they are also strong enough for all animals and birds to sense them too, as well as humans, and for us all to be negatively effected by them...

If you read the reviews on these things written by people who have actually purchased them and tried them, they are basically all negative except for a few "5-star" reviews interjected between the negative reviews (probably written by the sellers of them, lol)...They just don't work...Again, I've seen insects actually sitting/crawling on the units before...

Since you're not dealing with insects but rather with mice, have you tried humane-traps? I myself hate mouse traps, and I would not ever use a glue-trap to trap any type of animal, as they are the most inhumane thing in the world, I actually saw a squirrel that was stuck to a glue-trap ripping it's skin off to get free...It was horrific, and he had to be drowned to put him out of his misery...But for mice, the humane traps actually work pretty well, especially if you can find their entrance-points into your house and place the traps near them...

Either way, you can try these things if you want to, they won't hurt your birds at all, I just wanted to try to save your money, as I've not ever heard one person who has tried them say that they worked at all...Maybe someone else here has a positive experience with them to tell you...

JennyD said:

Hi Everyone!!! I am new to the site and had a question about my 22 year old African Grey girl called Ralph. Yes, it is a boys name. That because my dad got her as a gift 21 1/2 years ago thinking it was a boy.

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That's alright. Mine is named Kuba, short for Jakub, which is Polish for Jacob. Original owner thought she was a boy.

There is a pet store here that has the owner's Amazon hanging around and her name is Luigi. Haha.

Welcome to the forums! Many of us have oddly named birds, as there is often a gap of time between acquiring and learning their sex.

Count me as another skeptic of electronic rodent controllers. In my experience a huge waste of money and hope. The best offense includes carefully sealing every possible orifice of the home and working to eradicate the population that remains inside. Once either down to size or eliminated, the likelihood of new "tenants" moving in is small.