I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the Riddex Plus or something like?

I recently rented a cabin just off of the Appalachian Trail, and there were a few of these in use there. I didn't notice any pests, but then again the cabin was in spectacular shape, had special containers for storing food, and was very clean.

It's one of those "As Seen on TV" products, and generally i don't trust them. Not to mention that I don't know much about the technology.

If it does work, it's something I'd like to purchase as an extra layer of protection for my stored foods.

Right now I have everything elevated, and most of what is not in cans is stored relatively rodent and insect proof containers. However, a few months ago I awoke to what sounded like rain in my storage closet. I thought perhaps a pipe had burst, but a rat had chewed through a big box of speghetti pasta that was on the highest shelf and it was raining down on everything below. Unfortunately my roommate placed a cooler close enough to the shelving, and a rat managed to get across the gap. I'm not even sure how the rat got on top of the cooler, unless it climbed up the broom and went from there. Anyway, it climbed from that shelf, up the canned goods, and so on until it reached the top shelf.

I put up some catch and release traps and plugged the hole that the maintenence people had knocked in the wall behind the stove while checking for mold (Thanks for telling us!) Anyway, these steps appear to have worked as there have been no more noticeable rodent intrusions, but still I'd like the added protection.

Luckily I only lost a box of Pasta... LOL

Any help on this matter, whether in regards to the Riddex Plus or some other method of keeping critters away, is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

A friend of mine bought something of that nature, although I don't know the brand. She put it under her house to chase off the mice. She said it seems to work, but if you have good hearing, you can hear it, even under the house. I think hers has two levels of intensity.

Sue

At first I thought you were trying to clean out your septic system: RID-X. Oh, well. Sorry I can’t help with the pest solution. I just use a shoe swung swiftly for that.

Rodents can be a serious problem. They destroy food/equipment, leave a mess of mouse waste, are carriers of parasites and can spread disease like Hantavirus.

My hunting partners and I own a small hunting camp in rural Central Ontario.

I discribe it to people like this:
You know behind every run-down farmhouse there is an old shed?
Well our hunt camp is the dilapidated, crooked building behind the shed and we have had a war with mice since we bought the place.

There is no electricity (or plumbing) so the Riddex Plus will not work but we have used other methods.

We run a "trapline" when we are present at the camp, each member has the same number of traps and we bet on the outcome, winner takes all!

We use mouse poison in the off-season (block style, we pick it up when we are there, so dogs/kids do not touch it), but the problem is that the mice die in the camp and make it smell even worse than normal!

The most inventive way involves a pail, a wire (piece of coathanger), a soda pop can, some anti-freeze or windshield washing fluid and peanut butter.

- Put about 3 inches of anti-freeze or windshield wash in the bottom of the pail.

- Punch a small hole in the bottom and top (or through the middle sides) of the can and run the wire through it.

- Place the wire across the top of the pail with the can in the middle.

- Put peanut butter on the sides or ends of the can, depending on how you oriented it.

- Place the pail so the mice can access the wire across the top of the pail.

- The mice walk across the wire, crawl onto the can to get the bait, the can spins and the mouse fails in the pail where it drowns in the liquid and is preserved (little smell).

It is possible to catch many mice this way and is good for when you will not be returning to a building for a long time.

Mike

Sue, thanks for some info about someone's experience using something similar!

Maybe the technology works.

After several people reporting that the mosquito units didn't seem to work and my mother's experience with some "Mole Chasers" that didn't work I wasn't sure if this would work either.

We could hear the ones used up at the cabin, but it was just a click followed by a short burst of high pitched noise, almost like a camera flash charging if I remember correctly. It would go off every ten minutes or so. Even so, it didn't interrupt our sleep or anything, and the cabin was only about 40' x 20' at best guess.

Some of my buddies bring their bear canisters into the BC for mice and marmots. Try some kind of closing box or container that will resist their chewing; maybe a cooler with a lid to store your food.

My understanding is that these devices don't work.

Here is a link that you might find interesting

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/07/global.shtm

I have some things that mice could easily get into, bags of dried beans for example, stored in plastic buckets, but they could get through the buckets given the chance. I really need to go to metal I suppose.

The problem right now is the expense.

That's why I'm looking for a cheap intermediary step like the Riddex Plus. Then again, cheap, if it doesn't work, is just a waste of cash.

Oh, I forgot...
The spaghetti wasn't the only thing the rat got into. It gnawed through a bunch of bottles in one of the cases of water I had stored. The bummer there is that the rat never finished the bottle it started LOL. It would gnaw through one bottle, make a hole big enough for its head, drink until it couldn't easily reach the water level, and then start on a new bottle. I guess dried pasta needs a lot of water to go with it. LOL

Wow.

I just read the FTC complaint. I guess the company cited needs to do some substantial and research and come up with some substantiated proof of their claims.

It's good to know. Thanks for the link!

The company cited is the maker of Riddex.

Yeah, I saw that they had Riddex listed there at the end of paragraph regarding the products that were subject to the complaint and other things they made.

I appreciate you calling it to my attention. I guess I should have added: I definitely will be looking for another method to keep the rodents at bay.

Thanks again!

Metal and/or glass and/or crocery seem to be about the only sure solution to isolating foodstores from rodents. I have yet to find a plastic that they don't penetrate.

At the remote radio sites I used to frequent, we solved rodent problems in two ways. First, we sealed the building as best we could. We plugged every hole and penetration with steel wool and RTV caulk or duct seal. They can't chew through the steel wool without hurting themselves bad, and the caulk or duct seal held it in place so they couldn't just push/pull it out. We made sure the doors sealed tight enough that anything thicker than a sheet of paper wouldn't pass through. We put double layers of HD metal screen over every vent. Second, we also put down sticky boards with a Frito in the center. Wouldn't you know, despite all those precautions, we would still find dead mice and bugs on the sticky boards later on. Either they snuck in through the open door while we were there or they found another way in somehow.

Get an outside cat. We never had a problem with rodents smaller than the cat (1 big rat) in the years we had one.

Thanks for all of the help and great information everyone, it's very much appreciated!

Hi there guys, I realize this topic is a little bold, but I was hoping you guys could help me out with understanding if this is a quality product or not.

Half of the people think riddex is either a scam, or just a bad product, but the other half seem to think it works pretty well. Have they come out with any more recent versions lately? Are they more effective now?

Please let me know your opinion in a reply. Thank you!

I smell a rat. The post is one day old and has over 58,000 views??????

Cameron

Actually the original post is over two years old. I know, I posted it after a minor incursion of rodents upon my food storage. lol

Did the 58,951 views occur over that period of time or did they all appear in a day?

Regarding the Riddex Plus, I never did try it after warning from the forum members about it being a scam. I still see the commercials from time to time.

Thanks, Mike, for the inventive twist on the "pail mouse trap."

I don't know how I missed this. It's perfect for little-used storage buildings.

Now I need to figure out how to cat-and-dog-proof one of these (because of the sweet but poisonous glycol). Maybe put the wire and can 1/3 way down the pail, and leave the lid on with a hole for rodent access.

Hi Doug,

We had a bad year for mice at our camp and we had to do a major shop-vac clean-up before we could even move in for the deer hunt 2 weeks ago.

We had to stop using poison bait because the mice were dying in hidden places and the smell was terrible. They have infested our propane range/oven so bad that we may have to throw it in the dump.

One new solution is to either totally seal a compartment (like the cupboard where we keep the dishes or food), or leave the area wide-open so the mice feel exposed and do not build their nests there. We now leave the BBQ, oven, and metal reflective sheets behind the woodstove open and it seems to deter the mice from nesting there. It only took us 13 years to figure this out.

It is also inportant to plug any holes to the outside, spray foam and steel wool do a good job in our old camp.

I forgot about this post, the battle continues!

Your changes to the pail-trap should keep the dog/cats out, but let the mice in. The overwinter dead mice, even in a pail of windshield washer fluid, are not a pretty sight.

Mike

I need to plug my basement 100% and set some traps we've heard a few guys in the walls

We have an huge fat lazy cat that does nothing but sleep and eat, unless there is prey nearby, then it turns into a stealthy killing machine.

Mike

I know what kind of unholy mess and stench these little devils (deer mice) can make. It's worse because of the Hanavirus risk, so everything has to be disinfected, wet cleanup, P100 mask, gloves, you know the drill. Talk about a make-work project.

It's usually a pitched battle here as well, but this year the population of deer mice has crashed. But it's just a matter of time before they spike again, so I'd better fill the bait pails and put traps in the sealed sheds.

I like your version of the pail trap because I can use old antifreeze and it'll work all winter.

One year we had a family of least weasels take up residence in the woodpile. Not a deer mouse to be found. Perfect.

We had a weasel get in the camp one night when we were first fixing it up, sounded like a moose running around and we got little sleep.

Mike

I find a 40 watt piezo tweeter sweep pulse driven in the 18.5 Khz to 40 Khz range to be an effective deterrent to most of the pests in a standard size dwelling space (living room or master bedroom size area). Set the frequency sweep at about 2 seconds duration and the pulse interval to 15 seconds or so, and the little critters (medium small rodents up to moths and mosquitoes) will vamoose and stay out of range. 40 watts seems to be just enough to penetrate most gypsum/panelboard interior walls within the distance range limits of the tweeter. It really messes up bats in the area; a certain no-fly zone.

My wife can HEAR those ultrasonic vermin blasters...incredible, I know. I put one in the garage anD she was like "WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE NOISE!" - I think she can hear clear out to 30Khz.