Man and machine versus nature.

The fact that we call the items “hangers” is proof of how hard it is for us humans to imagine any use for them other than hanging clothes. And yet, despite their nudist tendencies meaning that they never have to hang laundry, the crows living in the neighborhood of our Japanese-language reporter Yuichiro Wasai love his hangers so much that they routinely steal them from his apartment balcony.

That’s because crows have learned that hangers make great nest-building materials. But while the crows are at least considerate enough to leave Yuichiro’s clothes behind when they steal his hangers, that still means that his laundry ends up in wet piles on the ground. Hanging his clothes inside isn’t an option either, as Japan’s small living spaces and high humidity mean that laundry rarely, if ever, dries properly indoors, and instead ends up damp and musty-smelling.

Unfortunately, no amount of diligence has helped Yuichiro keep his avian antagonists away from his hangers. As soon as he hears even the slightest shuffling sounds coming from the balcony, he tears back the curtain to see what’s going on, only to be left watching helplessly as the crow already flies off with one of his hangers. His desperate search for a solution eventually led him to Amazon Japan, where he discovered <deep breath>…

Newest Reiwa Era Version Cat Repeller Animal Repelling Machine Ultrasound Rat Expeller Solar and USB Charging IP64 Water-repellant Effective Range 150 Square Meters Strongest 16 LED Flashlight Increased Repelling Power Harmful Bug Expeller Stary Cat Sparrow Palm Civit Crow Owl Repelling Machine Dog Repeller Bird Repelling Items Harmful Animal Repeller Harmful Insect Countermeasure Machine Animal Droppings Damage Noise Pollution Damage from Birds Damage to Food Unoccupied Home Countermeasure Fields and Garden (Green)

▼ We were on the fence, but “Green” really sold us on it.

It might be kind of hard to notice, being buried in the middle of the lengthy name, but the product does promise that this device will keep crows away. Plus, it apparently is the newest version for the Reiwa era, which began in 2019, so it’s got to have some pretty fancy tech, right?

However, at the same time, we’ve learned in our time as online shoppers that sometimes the length of a product’s name is in inverse proportion to its quality. Like we said, though, Yuichiro is desperate, and if he doesn’t do something soon he’ll be approaching the situation where he has no clean clothes and will have to start showing up to work shirtless, something we (generally) don’t allow at SoraNews24 HQ.

Yuichiro paid 3,480 yen (US$22) for the Crow Repelling Machine, as we’ll call it for short. Once it arrived and he had it in his hands, though, he wasn’t quite sure that it represents cutting-edge Reiwa-era technology, as it’s kind of a clunky-looking design.

Still, it is equipped with a motion sensor that detects when an animal is nearby and activates functions designed to scare the creature off. Testing it out in his living room, Yuichiro saw that the eyes and mouth light up and flash on and off when the sensor is triggered.

The device comes with a USB charging cable, as well as a small pole that you can assemble if you don’t already have someplace to hang it, but there’s also an opening at the top so that you can tie it to your laundry pole, which is what Yuichiro planned to do.

Also at the top of the unit is a solar charging receptor, so you actually don’t even have to bother with the USB cable, as long as you’re deploying the Crow Repelling Machine in a spot where it’ll get sunlight.

Once he had a load of freshly washed laundry to dry, Yuichiro hung everything up on hangers, then put them outside on the rack along with the Crow Repelling Machine.

Then he went out to take care of some errands. When he got back home a few hours later, he went to the balcony to check on the results, and…

…as always, some of his laundry had been left plopped on the ground, with the hangers he’d placed it on nowhere to be seen.

So, is the Crow Repelling Machine a worthless piece of junk? It’s probably too soon to make such a harsh assessment. See, while Yuichiro was relying on the flashing lights to keep crows away from his clothes, he actually was only using half of the device’s functions. In addition to the lights, the Crow Repelling Machine can also emit ultrasound noises when its motion sensor is triggered.

There’s a little dial on the front of the unit that lets you adjust the volume, and in its default setting, Yuichiro found it to be incredibly loud and annoying to his human ears, and he figured his neighbors would find it similarly unpleasant to hear every time a crow came near his laundry. Even after turning it down to the lowest setting Yuichiro still found the noise more invasive and aggravating than the “mosquito buzz” that people have been noticing near Shibuya Station in downtown Tokyo these days.

Because of that, for Yuichiro’s test of the Crow Repelling Machine, he decided to turn the ultrasound function off entirely. This means, though, that the device wasn’t running at its full (purported) effectiveness, and with Yuichiro doing his test in the afternoon, the flashing lights probably had less sensory impact too.

Unfortunately, due to Yuichiro living in the relatively densely populated environment of suburban Tokyo, he’s not prepared to crank up the volume, since that might mean winning his battle with the crows at the expense of courting fights with his neighbors. So while the Crow Repelling Machine didn’t do the trick for him, it might still be a viable option for people living in the countryside with wider buffer spaces between residences, especially if they’re not quite ready to go full Monster Wolf with their pest control solutions.

Related: Crow Repelling Machine Amazon Japan listing
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[ Read in Japanese ]