What makes the advanced strobe technology of the Rodent Strobe system so effective against pests?
The ciliary muscle in the eye controls the expansion and contraction of the pupil. The usual adjustments made by this muscle are small.
In response to the strobes in a dark (naturally dark or becomes dark at night) environment this muscle has to make dramatic adjustments (140-180 times per minute). An ophthalmologist
I spoke to, at a world-renowned clinic in Scottsdale AZ, likened it to this: Imagine you lift a ten pound dumbbell weight one time. Then imagine
that you lifted the same weight 1,500 times in a ten minute period. Your arm would be hurting for days. The ophthalmologist said the strobes would
have the same effect on rodent (and other animal pests’) eyes. RESULT: THE PESTS LEAVE
The Science behind the Effectiveness:
If you want to get rid of Attic Squirrels, Roof Rats (aka. attic rats), Raccoons in Attic, Bats in Attic, etc. then the science validates using Rodent Strobe.
Pest Control Strobes work in conjunction with a number of physiological factors:
First, there is its effect via the ciliary muscle as described above:
Rodents such as Roof Rats, Norway Rats, and Bats (bats are not blind as commonly believed - they just have extremely poor eyesight) have a very small ciliary bodies in comparison to humans and other rodents such as squirrels or rabbits. But, the scientific principles have been shown to be effective on even the under-developed ciliary bodies of these pest in field experiments. Roof Rats and Norway Rats have extremely poor eyesight. This is one reason they are nocturnal and rely mainly on their highly developed senses of touch (whiskers) and smell to move around. Their poor eyesight is one reason that they follow the scents trails left by themselves and other rodents and why they travel close to walls - so they can feel their way around.
Second, Circadian Rhythms (day/night internal clock), and Cognition (thought processes) :
Pilots who have stared at runway strobes for too log while waiting to take off have had their circadian rhythms (day/night internal clock) offset to the point that their sleep patterns have been effected up to about eight hours after they stared at a strobe.
Police cars and emergency vehicles have had to change their strobe patterns because the the models of strobes were believed to be the cause of a growing number of serious accidents. It was observed by police departments that too many police officers were being injured as a result of drunk drivers running into police vehicles that were pulled over on the side of the road in a routine traffic stops. It was discovered that drunk drivers would stare at the strobe lights (especially red and also white high intensity strobes) on the pulled over police vehicle and would continue to stare at the strobes as they approached the police car. While staring at the strobes several things happened. The drunk drivers would steer their cars toward the strobes and as they observed the strobes they became sleepy and fell asleep just before impacting the parked police cars. This phenomena is now referred to as the "moth effect".This discovery has played a part in the redevelopment of strobes and many advances in strobe technology.
In another study, performed by the Federal Aviation Administration, pilots and non-pilots were observed in the presence of strobes. Both groups reported sensations of dizziness, nausea and half the participants reported that they were having extreme difficulty staying awake, as the strobes seemed to be making them very sleepy. The FAA is very interested in strobes and pilots. In the early 1950's Cornell University discovered that strobes can cause pilots to crash. This discovery has led to FAA guidelines that a pilot turn off his/her wing strobes in a fog bank or cloud because it has been found that the strobe lights reflecting off the cloud/fog back into the cockpit can cause the pilot to become disoriented and crash. One effect that high intensity strobes have is Positive After Images. In the presence of high intensity strobes the brain makes an after image of the environment as a compensation for the suddenly dark environment - although this darkness is only for a fraction of a second. This after image conflicts with the new visual image of the environment the next time the strobe flashes. basically the strobe exposed brain has two images to deal with each time the strobe flashes - the last image (held in the brain as a positive after image) and the present flash image, which immediately becomes a positive after image when the environment becomes dramatically darker between flashes. Pilots are trained in special eye movement practices which help to counter this problem. In one study it was found that, in the presence of strobes, the experiment's subjects which were exposed to strobes during simple cognitive(thought) tasks took twice as long to perform the tasks as subjects which were not exposed to the strobes while performing the same cognitive tasks. In laboratory experiments strobes have been used to reset the circadian rhythms in rodents. If a vertebrate pest (rats, mice, bats, squirrels, raccoons, etc.) is exposed to a pest control strobe its circadian rhythms are disrupted and not only with it have sore eyes from the ciliary muscle effect, but it will also have difficulty re-establishing its normal sleep patterns because the strobe's effect on the pest's brain basically causes a temporary erasure of set biological patterns: In plain English it's like giving the pest a serious case of jet lag, slowing down their brains to half speed and making them dizzy and nauseous.
Third, Saccadic eye movements:
Saccadic eye movements are the tracking movements made by the eyes. If someone throws you a tennis ball the tracking movements that your eyes do as you observe the ball coming towards you are saccadic eye movements. Also, as you move through a space, such as walking through a room, the tracking movements that your eyes do as they monitor your movement and the environment you are moving through (recognition of the placement of objects in relation to your movement -furniture etc.) are saccadic eye movements. It has been found that the brain literally "unplugs" cognition during these small movements. In most cases the suppression of cognition during saccadic eye movements is a brief as the eye movements themselves - fractions of a second. But in the presence of Pest Control Strobes the saccadic eye movements are so numerous as a pest tries to move through the environment that it literally causes the suspension of reasoning processes. If the exposure is prolonged and/or repeated as the rodent tries numerous time to return to its nesting area a sensitization occurs in the rat's, Squirrel's, Raccoon's, Bat's and other pests' brains. Put in simple terms the pest's brain actually becomes allergic to the strobes and this allergic reaction has been measured in rodents' brains up to a month after the initial exposure immediately upon re-exposure to the strobes. In addition to this rodents exposed to strobes have been shown to have a lower brain oxygen level during strobe exposure and in depression/heart study strobes (alone and in conjunction with other stimuli) were used and found to cause symptoms of depression and irregular heartbeats in prolong strobe exposed rats.
Fourth, Saccadic eye movements and REM sleep:
Saccadic eye movements and REM sleep are extremely similar. REM stands for "rapid eye movement". REM sleep is the deep dream phase of sleep. It is called REM because of the eyes' rapid movements while the eyes are closed. Your eyes are actually moving as you observe things in your dreams. REM is a form of saccadic eye movements. I hypothesis that certain flash patterns coupled with saccadic eye movements accounts for the sleepiness of drunk drivers and the pilot sleepiness upon strobe exposure. It is my conjecture that the brain "switches" into sleep mode when exposure to certain strobe flash patterns coupled with the saccadic eye movements associated with such things as looking at numerous instrument gauges on a cockpit dash board. The dizziness and nausea, I believe are a result of the fact that a body is not actually in motion during REM sleep, and since the brain apparently supposes itself to be asleep any actual physical movement detected by the fluids in the inner ear causes the nausea and dizziness as a body defense mechanism. In effect your body is saying: "stop moving - you are asleep".
Fifth, The accumulative effect:
It has been found that even if a rodent lives in a wall area,
and it passes through an attic area covered by the strobe light, that after a couple of days the rodent or other vertebrate pest gives up its abode
even if it is not being directly hit by the light. Just having to pass by it on their way home is enough to drive them out.
The History of Strobe Lights in Pest Control:
Strobe Lights have been used in pest control since 1964 when a company marketed a one million candlepower strobe for avian (bird) pest control. It was an AC powered strobe with wires hanging out of it with instructions to mount the strobe to a 1/2 inch conduit pipe and/or a junction box for connection to a power source whether hard wired or to a plug. It had an extremely limited bulb life (about 3 months) and therefore the instructions recommended that it be attached to a timing device to conserve bulb life. This avian pest control strobe is still available and costs around $200.00.
The next use of Pest Control Strobe Lights was in 1982. These strobes were waterproof being as they were hung underwater to keep eels out of an inlet. This application was deemed a success. Since then Pest Control Strobe Lights have been used in dams and estuaries to keep the fish (stocked trout) from swimming to close to the dams and thus being sucked into the power production turbines. Strobes have also been used for orchard fruit bat control in Australia. Pest Control Strobe Lights have been use to deter livestock predation by wolves in the American West. Pest Control Strobes have been used for deterring deer, bears, coyotes, etc. In most of these applications the strobes were effective. In some applications they were not effective because what was used was not actually high intensity strobes but instead low intensity rotating flashing beacons incorrectly termed as "strobes". I most academic and field application of high intensity strobes satisfaction has been achieved and sustained (sometime initial test were unsuccessful but upon re-examining the number and position/placement of the strobes success has been achieved).
I believe that Rodent Strobe strobes are the highest quality available!
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