Mosquito

WindSock

I have been hearing a bit about this for the last few days...

The Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent is the solution to the eternal problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping centres, around shops, your home and anywhere else they are causing problems. The presence of these teenagers discourages genuine shoppers and customers’ from coming into your shop, affecting your turnover and profits. It also affects your home life. Anti social behavior has become the biggest threat to private property over the last decade and there has been no effective deterrent until now.
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Acclaimed by the Police forces of many areas of the United Kingdom, the Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent has been described as “the most effective tool in our fight against anti social behaviour”. Shop keepers around the world have purchased the device to move along unwanted gatherings of teenagers and anti social youths. Railway companies have placed the device to discourage youths from spraying graffiti on their trains and the walls of stations[/FONT]

Do you think it's cruel and Orwellian? I've only heard one against argument, and that was from a woman from the Youth Council.

ducksafunnyword

Ya I've a heard a fair bit bout it too. I don't understand how people don't seem to see that it's blatant discrimnation against teenagers! Seriously, imagine what would happen if someone tried to put in place a similar system that only worked against.. say... blacks (no im not racists its just a good example) there'd be riots!!

If people are trying to get rid of anti-social behaviour they should try and fix the problem as opposed to just moving it and in the process making people who are acting in an anti-socail manner feel less socially valued, which in the end is only going to lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour!

johnnyskeleton

I can hear the sound and I'm 24. So can my 26 year old sister. So it doesn't just discriminate against teenagers, it also affects many adults (and quite painfully too I might add).

Think of how a dog reacts to a dog whistle, and you're nearly there...

Bottle_of_Smoke

johnnyskeleton wrote:

I can hear the sound and I'm 24. So can my 26 year old sister. So it doesn't just discriminate against teenagers, it also affects many adults (and quite painfully too I might add).

Think of how a dog reacts to a dog whistle, and you're nearly there...

Thats pretty unusual. Usually with humans you hear the highest frequencies when you're 12-13 & the level goes down significantly until the end of adolescence, then it decreases at a lower rate for the rest of your life.

I'd suggest you make it clear to someone regulating these devices you & your sister can hear them - could be a major issue in the future. Could see Fine Gael giving them out free to every commercial outlet in one of their blueshirt ploys

tba

I'm 26 and I can hear the bloody things too, it quite annoying, but I just slip on my mp3 player and chill with my homies outside the shop anyway.

http://www.jetcityorange.com/toys/MosquitoRingtone.wav

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i'm 24 and I can hear them too.. haven't come across them anywhere outside my computer yet.. but I wouldn't like to.

Goodshape

tba wrote:

http://www.jetcityorange.com/toys/MosquitoRingtone.wav

I can hear that (I'm 23), but it's not very loud.

Just sounds like a slight ringing in my ears.. doubt it would annoy me too much.

Is it supposed to be deafening?

DeVore

This is a little concerning... I've just gotten back from a full medical check and they tested my hearing (which I've always known was good) and it turns out I can hear things at the 5 Hrz level (which is as low as the machine would go). Most humans hear down to 20 Hrz. I hope it doesnt work as well at the other end!

Interesting moral dilemma, I can see people's desire to move on groups of troublesome youths (my sister has had trouble with some on her property before). I can see the teenagers point of view too, given that its quite possible I will fall foul of these things myself, it seems unfair to innocent youngsters. Hopefully these things will have ON/OFF switches at least!

DeV.

monkeyfudge

Goodshape wrote:

I can hear that (I'm 23), but it's not very loud.

Just sounds like a slight ringing in my ears.. doubt it would annoy me too much.

Is it supposed to be deafening?

It's all to do with how loud you're playing it on your speakers. I believe the idea here is they blast the sound out of loud speakers.

I'm 28 and I can hear the thing... I can also here the pest controller in my house as well.... but that may be because I'm a sex pest.

tba

To be brutally honest I have to have it loud and then can only hear it very well in my right ear only, although it is still audible.

InFront

That would definitely stop me from going anywhere near one of those places, but I'm 21 so hardly in the target audience. Even if they make the frequency even higher and aim it younger, you'll presumably still be bugging older people with especially good hearing.

Why not just employ a security guard to keep out troublesome teenagers if it's really that important?

humbert

It's no different than prodding a certain demographic with a stick at the shop door. There are groups of youths that hang around and intimidate people, the police can move them along if they're loitering but this is indiscriminate and would make me very angry if I cam across it.

weeder

im 16, my local mace has one, drove me mad one lunch time i was there buying lunch,never again, they lost themselfs a customer lol

I can't hear a thing from that link, I put my speakers on full...
I'm 21 though

Victor

There was something on the front of one of the tabloids a few weeks ago that some children find it positively frightening (in a bad way).

Leeby

I'm 22 and I can hear it. There's one at a chipper in Tallaght, every time I go there I've to sit in the car with the radio up and windows closed! It's the same with the "silent ringtone" ads on TV, that's never as bad though.

ixoy

That's a bloody annoying sound and I'd have to leave any shop that sung that out from its speakers. I'm all for measures that stop hooligans congregating out of shops but if I can clearly hear that at 28, then there's a large demographic they might also affect.

Having said that, I believe there's some technical aspect to the limits that regular PC speakers here and the way files are encoded that may mean that .WAV files doesn't exactly mimic how we'd have heard it when in the shop.

As to the larger issue, I don't think a security guard can act as much of a deterrent. In and of himself, he couldn't move the teenagers on as he couldn't lay a hand on them if they were outside the property loitering. The speakers are more effective as it's in the teenager's interest to move on. What would need to be tested is how long they can tolerate the sound for - would it prevent them making a perfectly valid purchase or would that be too much for their sensitive ear cells? The latter scenario is perhaps more worrying as there are indeed some teenagers who are still nice and don't deserve aural torment.

Copper

I'm 20 and I can hear them, it actually feels like a pressure behind the eyeball. I find them unbearable after about a minute. I see no problem with shop owners having them though.

I've installed them in shops for retailers I work for. They are fitted with a on/off switch behind the counter, and the unit itself has a 20 minute automatic cut out (although that can be bypassed). So basically when the scumbags start to hang around outside the shop the owner switches it on, when they clear off he switches it off, but if he forgets it switches itself off after 20 minutes anyway. It only really affects you if you are standing still outside the shop, if you're passing in and out its not supposed to bother you.

The units cost a fortune, some shop owners are so sick of having windows smashed, litter thrown outside the shop front and having loud and abusive youths scaring customers away that they pay big money for what is basically a speaker.

SuperSean11

Sorry to bring up an old thread but is it legal to use one in a residene? A neighbour has one and it wrecks my head whenever they have it on.

monkeyfudge

SuperSean11 wrote: »

Sorry to bring up an old thread but is it legal to use one in a residene? A neighbour has one and it wrecks my head whenever they have it on.

Well as with all noise pollution you can do a lot if your neighbour is renting and has a landlord as a landlord will have a lot of obligations.

But if they are a private home owner you'd have to go to the district court.

AliBug

Hi All,
Know this is an old post but I thought people might be interested. There's a Campaign against the Mosquito Alarms, The Spot and Swot the Mosquito campaign. It's run by a youth group called 'Voices of Youth'. We're gonna try and get them banned through public demand.
If anyone knows where there are any mosquitoes we'd love to know.
We have a blog: http://voicesofyouth.wordpress.com/.
If anyone knows of any it'd be great if you could comment there, or leave a comment here.
Thanks.

Bigdeadlydave

I know of one person who has one in their house and everytime you walk by it goes off. It really scares my dog too A few weeks ago when I was walking by I noticed the windows egged and the bin kicked over. I think having one of these things in a housing estate could make them a target.

Hazys

This is kinda a funnier way:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/nottinghamshire/7963347.stm

But may attract homosexual teens instead to cause trouble.

AliBug

they are unfair to children, babies, animals and the majority of teenagers that haven't done anything wrong.
Im not promoting violent response or anything but they couldn't be suprised that people react that way.