Combat Mosquitoes Sonically With Your Smartphone

Marla Shaivitz July 17, 2011 Tweet

Japanese software maker Sea’s Garden recently introduced an app to repel mosquitoes, dubbed “Mosquito Buster”.  The idea is to annoy the heck out of those blood-sucking nuisances by broadcasting high frequency sound through the speakers of a smartphone.  Humans hear frequencies from 20Hz up to 20kHz (22kHz is supposedly inaudible). The app deliverers a sound on the of 17kHz -19kHz levels.

Electronic mosquito repellents are not new; the approach of using sound as pest control has been used for years in effort to keep those little suckers off of people’s skin. ‘Tis the season for mosquitoes here in the US – yet for other countries where malaria is a real-threat, mosquito deterrents are serious stuff. However, studies have found electronic mosquito repellents to be ineffective,  so this app is more of a novelty than an effective way to prevent mosquito bites.

To run with the novelty-factor, if the “mosquito” setting on Mosquito Buster isn’t enough fun for you, the developers have included two additional settings at different frequencies to repel mice and – I’m not making this up – children. (Children can hear frequencies that those over 20 years of age have become desensitized to.)

Turn your attention to the odd (unedited, and clearly translated) warnings associated with this app as listed in the Android Market:

Attention
・ Please refrain from long-time use and the use at the megavolume.
・ Please refrain from an earphone, the use by headphones. (Do you really need to tell someone this??)
・ Please stop use as soon as I felt the adverse effects including the headache.
・ This application is not a thing to guarantee an effect.

Out of curiosity, I tested my own frequency range here: http://audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php. Ouch. Talk about feeling ‘the adverse effects including the headache’.

If you have an Android, check and it out and report back.  Sea’s Garden says Mosquito Buster is coming soon to Apple’s App Store. Don’t confuse it with the Mosquito Buster currently in the App Store, a game where you have to keep the mosquitoes from biting your big toe.