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Has anyone had any experience with Ultra-sonic bug repellents


Lux_Interior

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Hi fellow growers.

 

Last year I had an awful Fungus Gnat infestation. Not helped, I believe, by a damp underfloor environment in our bathroom because of an undetected leak. This has been sorted now & the floor and downstairs ceiling are dried out.

 

However, browsing Amazon I discovered some plug in Ultra-sonic bug repellents for Under £15GBP. They claim to repell flies, spiders and rodents. I was very sceptical. Surprisingly the reviews (on Amazon) seemed favorable. I thought why had I not thought of this before!

 

Has anyone got experience of using these devices & more importantly. Do they work?

 

Before I click buy.

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Wev'e  got one , but tbh it isnt much good, just bought a uv bug killer but only good if lights on for what you want it for as quite a bright uv light in it. like veg  and butchers shops had /have but smaller.

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29 minutes ago, Personunknown said:

Wev'e  got one , but tbh it isnt much good, just bought a uv bug killer but only good if lights on for what you want it for as quite a bright uv light in it. like veg  and butchers shops had /have but smaller.

 

Thanks for replying. I had not considered a UV bug Killer. I have regulatory sticky traps. How much power does a UV killer use? The Ultrasonics seem to be either 10 or 20W. Also would UV light affect the light spectrum from my LED lamp?

Edited by Lux_Interior
affect not effect
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Mine is 35watt, not sure about affecting the spectrum in a neg way

Edited by Personunknown
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19 minutes ago, Personunknown said:

Mine is 35watt, not sure about affecting the spectrum in a neg way

 

35W is not too bad. My Nan had a UV killer in her kitchen (waaaaay back when!). It did seem effective. Pssst!

 

I'll do a bit of research into UV

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It seems fly zappers use UV-A which naturally occurs, the output of UV is seemingly low, lower than than being outside on a summers day. So if the zapper was high up in the grow room and was timed to go off with the lamps it might be an option. UV seems to have benifitical effects on plants unless you whack them under a sunbed (that's far too much UV).

 

Also, it seems House Flies including Gnats are in inactive in the dark. Mosquitos, however,  have apparently developed night vision, which is how you wake up in South France bitten to bits. The bastards!

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19 hours ago, shnshn said:

Hey how's it going.

 

I live by a river and fungus gnats are a nuisance. Get yourself some yellow sticky traps and some nematodes. Problem solved

 

https://www.dragonfli.co.uk/collections/fungus-fly/products/fungus-fly-killer-gel-nematodes

 

Thanks @shshn Sticky traps are in place. I was thinking of a more general preventative measure than Nematodes. DragonFli +1

 

I did a bit more research on Ultrasonic sounds on plants and found conflicting evidence on whether sounds especially Ultrasonic could be beneficial or not.

 

Some good:

"A significantly beneficial effect of ultrasound can be produced in plant material, but it is clear that the causes of, and inconsistencies in, the effect are barely understood."

"Sound waves stimulation could increase the plant plasma-membrane H+-ATPase activity, the contents of soluble sugar, soluble protein, and amylase activity of callus. Moreover, sound waves could increase the content of RNA and the level of transcription. Stress-induced genes could switch on under sound stimulation."

sciencedirect.com

 

Some bad:

"Kondinin Group researchers have had initial success killing weeds with certain sounds, music and frequencies. ... Specific music, high tones or noises such as a bird song cause the plant to vibrate, but not at the exact frequency for calcium resonance."

farmingahead.com

 

Edited by Lux_Interior
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  • 1 month later...
On 1/31/2021 at 4:10 PM, Personunknown said:

Mine is 35watt, not sure about affecting the spectrum in a neg way

hi is it uvb or uvc lightbulb, It is standard t5? how do you got it setup so it wont hurt the plants and for how long/times per day?

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Hi, its just a small unit with " 5inch approx tubes not sure if uvb , uvc Etc as it don't say anywhere on it, but would only use when lights on . sorry can't be of more help.:unsure:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd be careful adding uv into the rent. If your using an led that already has uv lamps in it then you will fry the plant. 

 

When I was googling uv the information coming up was that you only want 2% of your wattage to be uv. So if you had a 100w light it would need 1 x 2w uv chip in it to bring the uv in at the right level. 

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