{"id":1750,"date":"2024-05-14T23:26:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T05:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2024-05-15T08:03:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T14:03:22","slug":"pest-a-cator-rubbish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/?p=1750","title":{"rendered":"Pest-a-cator rubbish, at Menards!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard some scratching behind a corner in the basement ceiling, so I figured I’d check to see what Menards sells. They had a silly Pest-A-Cator 2000 Electronic Rodent Repeller<\/a> in-stock, so I grabbed one. I was curious what was inside the box and what guarantees the manufacturer made.<\/p>\n

The manual inside appeared to be some word salad that the device is a phase shifter for the electricity in your house. Seemed like a fancy phenomenon to me, so I decided to research it and see if there was any truth to it.<\/p>\n

Brief enforcement history…<\/strong><\/p>\n

From 1985 through 1997, FTC brought law enforcement actions<\/a> against six companies that manufacture devices like the Pest-A-Cator 2000. In 2003, the Pest-A-Cator was part of a docket<\/a> launched by FTC; however, the ensuing consent order<\/a> shows the sales restrictions only last for 20 years, which have now lapsed, hence why I was able to find a Pest-A-Cator on a Menards shelf. More FTC info on Charles Patterson, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Science, please help me!<\/B><\/U><\/p>\n

Seems EPA (Publication No. EPA 340102-80-001<\/a>) and USDA<\/a> have done some research on these devices and the results are anything but favorable.<\/p>\n

I found more along the way that was also not favorable toward these products, but the links above are the highlights. Why a company like Menards carries products like this is frustrating. Maybe I’ll ask them more about it later and this post might be a spring-board for bullet points. For now, I am returning the Pest-A-Cator 2000 and will start to look into cameras to figure where the little critters are getting in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard some scratching behind a corner in the basement ceiling, so I figured I’d check to see what Menards sells. They had a silly Pest-A-Cator 2000 Electronic Rodent Repeller in-stock, so I grabbed one. I was curious what was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1755,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}