A friend of mine in the hotel business tells me that his job is pest control. They have a schedule in which sections of the building are sprayed , cleaned and deodorised. They regulate the occupancy so that the guests are minimally exposed to the smelly stuff, but he has to handle pesticides routinely and is worried about the long term impact on his health.
I remember reading somewhere in the halfbakery about this cone-like thing that emits ultrasound and keeps the bugs away (In UB's kitchen?). Something of that sort should be employed in buildings, to minimise use of poisons.
All hotel rooms are painted with piezoelectric paints. When the room is unoccupied, the walls are energised with high power high frequency voltage so that a large sound pressure level is created in the room, large enough to kill any marauding bugs. This is scheduled just before the cleaning gang is due to visit, so that the bodies do not lie around attracting more bugs.
Energising the walls at a low level, continuously, to repel insects, might not be an option since guests might have their pe(s)ts with them, for instance a canary in a cage and a cat though may be not the latter if the guest is eighth.-- neelandan, Nov 07 2002 Paint on Speakers http://www.halfbake...int_20on_20speakersIdea referred to here. Theres a link in here about piezo-electric paint, but it seems to be broken now. [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Piezoelectric Paint http://www.students...jamin.de-poumeyrol/The same link, as above. Paint with piezoelectric particles in addition to pigment. They suggest using it to pickup vibration. [neelandan, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] so long as piezo-electric paints aren't a WIBINI (could you provide a link please) then good idea.-- Zircon, Nov 07 2002 read this as piezoelectric pants. eww-- po, Nov 07 2002 Right, krelnik, the site tells me coldly "you do not have permission to view this page".-- neelandan, Nov 07 2002 Does this affect pet hamsters/mice? Would it affect Pacemakers? Cause interference with Cell Phones or Hearing Aids?-- thumbwax, Nov 07 2002 when I repaired hearing-aids, I left them enabled to pick up good radio stations - not quite sure how I did it but got few complaints...heh, loved that job.
some of my clients thought they could hear the voice of God which was worrying ( t'was Tony Blackburn)-- po, Nov 07 2002 [Picturing mass religious revival movement based on Tony Blackburn and one slightly batty hearing aid technician...]-- DrCurry, Nov 07 2002 random, halfbakery