Over the past 30+ years of our PredatorPee® business life, one of the most frequently asked questions is “does it work?”  It is an understandable question. After all, for decades we have been conditioned to think that man-made chemicals are the only solution for pest control. The idea that natural wild animal urine could work prevent deer damage, get rid of skunks, solve rat problems etc. was just plain weird!

So after PredatorPee® introduced predator urine into the marketplace as pest control product in 1986, researchers around the world started looking into how and why PredatorPee® worked.  What they found in research was the same as what we found in practice, PredatorPee® takes nature’s predator/prey instincts and puts them to work for us to repel pests in our homes, yards, gardens and farms. Here are some excerpts:

“Introduction of bobcat urine appeared to have significant effect on their preference in first two trials. The data consisted of the total trial investigations of reaction towards the predator’s urine. When bobcat’s urine was introduced in the maze, mice went straight to the left side where no odour was present. This allowed me to assume that they do recognize possible danger. The data showed 100% refusal to go right where the urine was located.”

The effects of Bobcat urine on the behavior of Mice ,
Karina Chechilnitskaya, Alverno College, Wisconsin

“The mean level of damage recorded for apple tree stems treated with undiluted bobcat urine was significantly lower than for any other treatment group. Mean damage to seedlings treated with urine was significantly less than the damage to control seedlings. For woodchucks, undiluted urine resulted in reductions in gnawing of 84-96%…”

National Wildlife Research Center Repellents

Conference 1995

ScienceDaily (Apr. 27, 2008) — Many animal species detect and avoid predators by smell, but this ability has largely been ignored in the study of birds, since it was traditionally thought that they did not make use of this sense. However, it has now been discovered that birds are not only capable of discerning their enemies through chemical signals, but that they also alter their behaviour depending on the perceived level of risk of predation.

“Predator urines act as powerful repellents against many species of mammalian herbivores.Consequently, they have considerable potential as a tool in reducing damage to agricultural crops.”

National Wildlife Research Center Repellents

Conference 1995

“Undiluted red fox urine was more effective at deterring browsing by snowshoe hares than were single compounds or simple mixtures derived from the urine”

Sullivan and Crump 1986.

 

“Meadow voles spent significantly less time on the half of the trial arena treated with bobcat urine….A traditional explanation for aversion of prey to areas treated with predator scent is that it is an adaptive behavioral response to reduce the risk of predation by minimizing activity in an area known to be frequented by a predator. The majority of prey species tested to date respond to predator urine in ways that are most easily explained as antipredator strategies…”

National Wildlife Research Center Repellents

Conference 1995

“The Talkeetna moose seem more fearful than other Alaskan moose …. a finding strengthened when Berger, using a pitching arm honed by college baseball, starts hurling snowballs loaded with wolf urine and bear scat. He observes that moose familiar with predators flee from the odors….”

The Better to Eat You With: Fear in the Animal World Joel Berger
University of Chicago Press, 2008.

“Feeding by deer on corn treated with coyote urine was significantly reduced.”

Professor Stanley Ries,
Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University