Using Your Computer to Repel Pests

circletimessquare writes "A Thai guy wrote a program that uses your computer speaker to repel mosquitoes, cockroaches, and rats! Just when you thought you heard it all before (pun intended for no good reason). " Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.

Comments

Taco takes advantage of no -1s!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.

Good thing -1's aren't around anymore, cause they'd have a hayday with that comment, taco!!

Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

[burgburgburg]

Just a thought.

Re:Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

[Scrab]

Only at 7 hz, which is the resonant frequeancy of your backside. But that woiuld make a mess of your office.......

Re:Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

[RCO]

The mosquito freq. works for the blood suckers. The rat freq. is self explanitory. The cockroach freg is for the ones that make your skin crawl.

Re:Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

[macdaddy357]

Can it repel this "pest"? Bill Gates would like to know.

Re:Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

[great_flaming_foo]

Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

CowboyNeal's mp3s work very well on PHBs, but there is one catch. They also attract a previously unknown (at least to CmdrTaco) pest, <dramatic> The Teenage Fan Girl </dramatic>

Re:Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

Dunno,

It's my hair that's pointy, not my head.

Re:Does it work on pointy-headed bosses?

[fuzzyanus]

bahaha..

Works great, but......

[Tablizer]

I hate cleaning up all those broken dishes every morning.

Re:Works great, but......

[brejc8]

This is what happens if you dont!

Or you culd catch them and make them pay for their evil deeds

Re:Works great, but......

[peterprior]

whoa... that guys hair is just wrong... or scary.. or both

Re:Works great, but......

[ShawnDoc]

Run a razor down the top of his head, and he'd look like Wolverine from the X-Men.

TMI TMI TMI!!!!!

[Emugamer]

Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.

TO MUCH INFORMATION!!!!!
Ever heard of oversharing ?

Re:TMI TMI TMI!!!!!

[JabberWokky]

Y'know, it actually occurs to me that Pater (aka CowboyNeal) is actually a pretty damn cool guy to laugh with everybody else at the fun that gets poked at him.

--
Evan

Re:TMI TMI TMI!!!!!

[SyniK]

If the man truely has massive amounts of boy band MP3s, it's no laughing matter!

You can't code to M'Bop!

Jokes coming?

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Millions of DEBUG and WINDOWS jokes to follow...

Re:Jokes coming?

[Diamon]

So would bugs in the program cause bugs in the house?

Re:Jokes coming?

[uncoveror]

Maybe they could add this feature to Pest Patrol, My favorite anti hacker and spyware tool.

Re:Jokes coming?

[stinky wizzleteats]

All I have to do is bind Windows error events to fart noises. Nothing comes near.

So My $1300.00

[Hayzeus]

Mosquito Magnet is now obsolete?

Re:So My $1300.00

[ActiveSX]

Perhaps, but you can still get this very effective Eternal Life Device which uses magnets to MAKE YOU LIVE FOREVER.

Re:So My $1300.00

[Hayzeus]

They work, you know. I have one, and I'm not dead yet .

Attract the mosquitoes

[luugi]

If this thing can repel them, I wonder if they have something that could be used to attract them somewhere else.

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[evilempireinc]

now wouldn't that be an evil computer virus... *slap* ow!

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[bauble]

If this thing can repel them, I wonder if they have something that could be used to attract them somewhere else.

As most geeks probably realize, it's generally much easier to repel a given organism than it is to attract it.

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[Defender2000]

That would make a nifty virus. When it infects a computer, it plays sound through the speakers to attract all sorts of critters. Since the victim can't hear it, they'll never know why.

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[GutterBunny]

It's been done. My code has been attracting bugs for years.

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[opti6600]

Whoa, somebody here works for HP?

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[Soko]

If this thing can repel them, I wonder if they have something that could be used to attract them somewhere else.

As most geeks probably realize, it's generally much easier to repel a given organism than it is to attract it.

Except if that organism happens to be at the other end of the tech support phone line, asking where the "any" key is in Linux.

*Bashes forehead on keyboard*

Soko

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[jeff67]

Yeah, right! All geeks know that leaving stale chips, pizza boxes, etc on the floor never attracts cockroaches, mice, or anything!

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[Boatman]

managers...*how* God invented purgatory.

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[Hassan79]

Yeah, if you are living in a region where Malaria occurs, you may have the first computer virus that infects you with a real disease!.

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[Dalcius]

If this thing can repel them, I wonder if they have something that could be used to attract them somewhere else.

Computer: Attention! This is the RIAA! We have been monitoring your downloading activities and will be flooding you off the internet.

Cracker: Tsk.

Later that day:
"In other news today, the RIAA was swarmed with thousands of hungry female mosquitos. Hilary Rosen, between slapping and scratching, said, 'Well, that's 10 minutes those kids weren't downloading music. Another victory for the RIAA!'"

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[evil superstar]

my mosquitos come to the light of my monitor... my father does sometimes too, but only when he sees booby-like light patterns coming from it.

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[Com2Kid]

Life in prison!!

Re:Attract the mosquitoes

[Wolfrider]

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20020728& mode=classic

See above link for related fun. ;-)

Download

[Betelgeuse]

The software program they talk about can be found on (an almost all Thai) web site here.

Re:Download

[10 Speed]

'VERY VERY Important Note'
that much is in English but the note itself is in Thai, leaving me more that a little worried about installing this (even if I could find the download link)

back to the thai lessons I guess.

Re:Download

[Dahan]

The wery wery important node says something about after you download and RUN the program, you might get a POP-UP with some kind of ERROR message in it. But after you dismiss that, if you get something that looks like a radar in your Taskbar, the program is working without any problems.

Sounds pretty cheesy to me :)

Re:Download

[alnielsen]

ZDNet Downloads (hotfiles.com) has "Anti-Mosquito" software.
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2056-8228265 .h tml?tag=lst-0-1

Re:Download

[10 Speed]

kop kun kraab (excuse the romanisation)

hmm...

[questionlp]

About a RAID array of say 14-15 15K RPM SCSI hard drives?

Re:hmm...

[questionlp]

I can't hear a single word you say... can you repeat that again? :)

I wouldn't mind repelling the users away from my cube or the server room. hehe.

Been there, done that...

[Nethergoat]

All I have to do is crank up some Antonio Carlos Jobim and my brother mysteriously disappears.
Now that's what I call a real pest repellent

Sounds like a good plugin...

[CommieLib]

for a handheld.

Forget..

[iONiUM]

Off! I'll just bring my laptop to the great outdoors... with a wireless net connection you could download different types of repellent too, maybe ones for bees and annoying campers who won't leave you alone.

Re:Forget..

[Mike the Mac Geek]

I wish I could play an MP3 that would get rid of campers. Fuckin' Campers.

Re:Forget..

[Andrewkov]

Sounds like you could borrow something from Cowbow Neils collection, that might do the trick!

Re:Forget..

[idontneedanickname]

the repelent against campers that won't leave you alone: boy band mp3's WARNING: Do not use near american teens, may have oposite effect. (Disclaimer: I cannot be help responsible for any damages caused (mental or other)

Re:Forget..

[grazzy]

w00t w00t, damp campers! get out of my spawn position!!

*get that highpitched noice
*turn up gamevoice
*engage!!

[Thai]Coder oblitterated 12 campers**

Re:Forget..

[ShadowBlasko]

Camper Repellant... (tm) (Please note. This has only been tested at Renaissance Faires, ergo your milage may vary)
1) Set up your site wherever you can find a nearby picnic table. It will soon not matter how many *other* people are near it.
2) Place a set of bagpipes on the picnic table. Followed by a copy of "Bagpipes for beginners".
3) In approx. 10 minutes, you will be the ONLY sentient life form in about a 1 mile radius.
4) Enjoy your camping in peace!

uhm

[Dizzo]

"Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine."

No comment on whether these users got the same headaches just by sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time without the program running?

Engineering Question

[delphin42]

Why are speakers designed to emit sound at frequencies undectable by humans in the first place? I can't imagine that the designers of computer speakers had these types of applications in mind. Does the program work with any speakers, and do some speakers offer better high frequency performance than others?

Re:Engineering Question

[Zone5]

It's not so much that they're designed to emit sounds humans can't hear, as it is that they can't really be designed *NOT* to emit sounds humans can't hear.

No matter what you do, you're going to be producing harmonics that may well lie outside the human range of hearing, and what with materials being imperfect, you could never perfectly limit the sound emissions to the normal human-audible range no matter how hard you tried. Even if you wanted to (and why?), there'd be the small matter of cost-effectiveness.

Paying an extra $500 per speaker just so your dog doesn't get to hear something you can't isn't really a good investment.

Re:Engineering Question

[Kosmatos]

This is a new trend in the high-end audio world... The idea is that these higher frequencies (say, between 20 to 100Khz) while not directly audible to humans, supposedly affect the lower (audible) frequencies. Now that we have the digital mediums (SACD and DVD-Audio) that can store these higher frequencies, some loudspeaker manufacturers are producing speakers which can reproduct them.

I'm just the messenger...

Re:Engineering Question

[sasami]

More to the point, you want the frequency-response curve of the speaker to be flat as possible throughout the range of human hearing. That means the dropoff at the end of the curve has to be outside the range of human hearing.

--
Dum de dum.

Re:Engineering Question

[dohcvtec]

Certainly, speakers (especially computer speakers) vary greatly in their ability to produce ultrasonic sounds. Speakers with a single full-range cone driver (quite common) will be very limited, while 2-way or 3-way speakers, usually with a 1/2"-1" dome tweeter, will be more adept at producing ultrasonic sound. My main concern is that with low quality speakers, in order to get a high enough level of the ultrasonic sound, the audible range might need to be excessively loud. In regard to the article's mention of headaches, I'm not surprised. Most speakers would likely produce subharmonics of the ultrasonic frequencies, due to resonance/distortion. In other words, if the main frequency is e.g. 40KHz, a subharmonic of e.g. 20KHz may be emitted, which is just at or above human audible frequencies and may be rather annoying.

Re:Engineering Question

[dohcvtec]

Actually, they've been around for a long time. Titanium dome tweeters have typically had an extended ultrasonic frequency range, with resonances in the (IIRC) 50KHz range. Some people say that titanium domes have a "harsh" sound, and they cite this as the reason. A lot of work has been done with crossovers to combat these resonances - even though they are well above accepted human audibility, they are such huge spikes that they can be problematic.

Re:Engineering Question

[Tablizer]

(* No matter what you do, you're going to be producing harmonics that may well lie outside the human range of hearing, and what with materials being imperfect, you could never perfectly limit the sound emissions to the normal human-audible range no matter how hard you tried. *)

Yes, but wouldn't the imperfections be *different* per speaker?

The article made it sound like it takes different patterns or frequencies of sounds for different critters. If they are that picky, then the variation (imperfections) in each speaker may be ruin the customization.

Manufactures are likely to only test for the human range, ignoring problems outside of that. That is how cheapskates cut corners.

Re:Engineering Question

[Tablizer]

(* If it's fine for the human range of hearing, why would that be cutting corners? Sounds like being smart. Anything else seems like a waste of money. *)

Problems or inconsistencies in outside ranges may indicate deeper problems. A high-quality manufacturer would chuck the suspected ones also (or resell them to cheaper vendors).

2 meters...

[perrin5]

Hrmm, the thing only works two meters from the "computer" which I assume means the speakers. Oh well. In the meantime, at least I won't get malaria (or west Nile Virus here in the states)

My favorite qoute from the article:
"Saranyou told the paper the latest version of the pest controller will not annoy dogs or risk causing headaches because the frequencies that annoy rats and cockroaches are undetectable by human or canine ears. "

*sigh* and here I thought they were talking about politicians.

Re:2 meters...

[ocbwilg]

Hrmm, the thing only works two meters from the "computer" which I assume means the speakers. Oh well. In the meantime, at least I won't get malaria (or west Nile Virus here in the states)

Yes, but it you have a 4.1 or 5.1 speaker system, you can position the speakers nearly two meters away from you, which basically gives you an area with a 4 meter radius. That's a significant amount of room. I wonder what kind of range you can get from turning up the volume?

Mandatory congress joke.

[tcd004]

Cockroaches, Blood Suckers, and Rats!?!

Better not fire up that baby in congress!

Yeah, I know it's lame, but this is funnier.

tcd004

High Frequencies

[Flaming Foobar]

The electronic mosquito repellents use ultrasonic sound, i.e. sound that is so high that it can't be heard by humans. Basically, they emit similar sounds as the natural enemies of mosquitos. I really wonder how well such sounds can be reproduced using regular computer speakers that can barely reproduce the frequencies we hear.

- FF

Re:High Frequencies

[Anonymous Coward]

As a PhD student in animal behavior, stories like this really irk me.

Although bats do emit ultrasound, only a few species of moths (the Noctuid moths) actually have the capacity to hear and respond to bat calls. They typically fold in their wings and just fall to the ground.

Mosquitos have no such hearing capacity. Repeated studies by scientists and the FTC have demonstrated that the ultrasonic mosquito repellant systems fail to work as promised. Those devices, and the program described above, may be fun to tinker with, but they cannot help you.

Re:High Frequencies

[Flaming Foobar]

Mosquitos have no such hearing capacity

A simple Google search found this at Earthlife.net: Sound is very important to mosquitos for a number of reasons one of these is the location of mates. The antennae of male mosquitoes are sensitive to the sounds created by the beating wings of females of the same species. Because females are usually larger than the males, the wings of males and females beat at different frequencies. This makes it possible for males to distinguish females from males based on the sound of the beating wings and helps in the detection of females of the right species

So they do hear high sounds (and probably very faint sounds, too), though there is no mention of them actually recognizing their enemies from sound. There are lots of those electronic gadgets available, though.

- FF

Re:High Frequencies

[SeanWithoutPants]

A number of months ago my mother purchased one of those mini mosquito repellent devices which she uses while she walks her dog. There are two settings in it; a clicking sound, and a high pitched sound. Everbody can hear the clicking sound, but out of everybody I've showed, I'm th eonly one who can hear the high pitched sound. Am I a rare mosquito-human hybrid that is set to take over the world...or are some people simply more susceptible to these high frequencies?


fyi, I can hear it (and very often find it) the moment I enter a room , regardless of where it is.

Regards

Re:High Frequencies

[Jucius Maximus]

"The electronic mosquito repellents use ultrasonic sound, i.e. sound that is so high that it can't be heard by humans. Basically, they emit similar sounds as the natural enemies of mosquitos. I really wonder how well such sounds can be reproduced using regular computer speakers that can barely reproduce the frequencies we hear."

I've read Consumer Reports Magazine articles about these things. Supposedly they emit the sound of a dragonfly which is the mosquito's natural enemy. According to the TV ads, the devices are "Tested by the US Army" but not endorsed. According to the Consumer Reports article, the things don't work worth sh~t and you're better off using regular citronella(sp?) based insect repellents.

Maybe this thai software has something the commerical devices don't?

Re:High Frequencies

[g()()ber]

Some people can hear higher pitched noises than others. Computer monitors set at a 60Hz refresh, dying florescent bulbs, and many projecters (especially those three lense Barcos) drive me nuts. My grandmother bought one of those insect repellant things for her garden. My brothers and I could all hear it. Most people could not. (The bugs didn't seem to mind) IIRC women and younger people are more likely to be able to hear higher pitched sound.

Re:High Frequencies

[kc0dby]

Actually, if you've ever had a mosquito buzzing around your head for an extended period of time, (I'm not sure if it was male or female, I tend to use lethal force on these creatures without lifting up its leg to check its gender) you would find that not only is the sound audible, but it isn't really near the top of our range either.

Re:High Frequencies

[j-beda]

I think that studies have also shown that citronella based repellents are also pretty shitty. Basically the most effective thing is DEET based, and DEET can be a pretty nasty chemical. Citronella smells good though...

I seem to recall that a research group puts a bunch of voulenteers out in the woods need Winnipeg each year coated in various products and using various candles, sound devices, and other such products. Each year they find pretty much the same thing - DEET repells them, thick coatings (bear grease, hand soap, etc.) forms a physical barrier that prevents bites, and pretty much everything else does diddley squat.

I do recall that Discover once reported that mosquitos prefer pigs to humans, so keeping one of them around as a pet might be effective. Sleep with your pig and prevent malaria/west nile virus infections!

Re:High Frequencies

[kc0dby]

Computer monitors set at a 60Hz refresh, dying
Interesting. I was always one of the few people I knew who could hear when something electrical was on the fritz, but I've never noticed anything with monitors other than the ever constant 'whine' any CRT makes. I would imagine that the 60Hz refresh rate isn't what you're hearing, but the corresponding horizontal refresh rate that goes with it. That would be a higher frequency. After accidently applying 60Hz AC to a few items, anything about that frequency just makes my skin crawl. Haven't heard it out of a monitor yet...

Re:High Frequencies

[topham]

Unfortunatly sleeping with a pig might increase the chance of influenza...

Re:High Frequencies

[one9nine]

So does this mean if your speakers emit the wrong frequency, instead of repeling those bastards, you will get hundreds mosquitos trying to hump your speakers?

Mini-Me, stop humping the laser. Why don't you and the frickin laser get a room.

Re:High Frequencies

[tg_schlacht]

Avon Skin-So-Soft is a good mosquito repellent (most likely due to the mineral oil.) Probably any thing else with a similar amount of mineral oil would be as effective. Mosquitos will get close to you but the second they contact you (and the oil) they pull away, probably to avoid being trapped.

Re:High Frequencies

[maetenloch]

Am I a rare mosquito-human hybrid that is set to take over the world...

Yep, from now on you're known as MosquitoBoy. Now you need a costume to match your superpowers.

Re:High Frequencies

[cs668]

Iff it is trying to get you it is female. Only the girls are blood-suckers.

Re:High Frequencies

[Hadlock]

aren't misqutoes attracted to the co2 produced by humans? wouldn't a block of dry ice, and a nice, warm bloody steak next to it, about 30 feet from where you're sitting/area of activity be the best solution?

Re:High Frequencies

[g()()ber]

I can't hear all monitors at 60Hz, but all the ones I can hear have been at 60Hz. I've noticed it especially from Trinitron (use them at work) and older Dell monitors (own one, and at work). I have spent a lot of time in a lab with about 60 Apple monitors, and have never noticed it from any of them. Not a big problem until my teachers ask why i'm plugging my ears during their lecture. . .

Re:High Frequencies

[Reziac]

Someone gift me one of the variable-setting sonic repellers. I can hear it quite plainly even at the high frequency "flying bugs" setting; at the "rodent" setting, *anyone* could hear it.... for miles around!!! If it repels anything, it's because it gives 'em a resounding ear-ache.

I wish I knew Thai

[Thai-Pan]

If only I understood Thai, so I could set Anti-Mal to Anti-CowboyNeal mode.

Hey - stop picking on CowboyNeal!

[A nonymous Coward]

We can do it in the polls, but you, his boss -- no fair! Man, if I were CowboyNeal, I'd be thinking of talking to the Labor Commissioner about workplace harassment.

Re:Hey - stop picking on CowboyNeal!

[slothbait]

Ahh we all love Neal.

You cant scare rats away!

[brejc8]

If I scared rats away then who would power my computer?

Re:You cant scare rats away!

[k2enemy]

just put the speaker behind him and he'll run faster!
actaully it would be interesting to do an experiment where the rat powers the speaker. i wonder if he would try to run faster or if he would "get it" and stop running.

Re:You cant scare rats away!

[brejc8]

Actually the original setup had the board attached to a speaker.
It would make horrible high pitched noises because it was running in a software loop.
I couldnt be bothered to complete the version which would sing daisy daisy. Manybe ill get an undergrad to do it.

How gullible are you people

[sam_handelman]

According to a colleague at Rutgers:
Hand-held electronic devices that rely on high-frequency sound to repel mosquitoes have become surprisingly popular in recent years .... Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that electronic mosquito repellers do not prevent host seeking mosquitoes from biting. In most cases, the claims made by distributors border on fraud.

While your downloading this software, if you buy a NYC landmark from me, I'll throw in a set of Mr. Chiu's immortality rings at no extra charge!

Re:How gullible are you people

[Tablizer]

Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that electronic mosquito repellers do not prevent host seeking mosquitoes from biting. In most cases, the claims made by distributors border on fraud.

What about all the other pests? (cockroaches, rats, etc.)

Re:How gullible are you people

[EvilBudMan]

Right!
Sound dosen't deter mosquito's. So some of this seems bogus to me. DEET works though.
Here is a link that says basicly the same thing.

http://www.acponline.org/journals/annals/01jun98 /m osquito.htm

Re:How gullible are you people

[Osiris Ani]

Hey, I have one of those, and I haven't been bitten by a single mosquito while wearing it this summer.

Then again, I also have yet to be bitten by a bear, shark, or vampire while using the device... and come to think of it, it even seems to keep those pesky meteorites at bay. Bonus!

Re:How gullible are you people

[garcia]

well, they may not work for mosquitoes but the little dog collar ones work well for all other types of pests (fleas/ticks/etc).

My dog (back in the day) used to chew herself raw every summer. We tried the large collars, the shampoos, the regular dog/flea/tick collars, nothing.

My grandmother (of all people) was watching HSN (of course) and ordered these electronic dog collars that were to repel pests. Vet said it would never work. She wore that thing until she died. Never chewed again.

Maybe it is bullshit for mosquitoes but it does apparently work for other critters.

Re:How gullible are you people

[j-beda]

Hey, that's a good link. Here it is clickable:

http://www.acponline.org/journals/annals/01jun98/m osquito.htm.

Re:How gullible are you people

[mobets]

I heard about this a while back, except it was a radio station braudcasting it. Basicaly, most bites are from pregnate females, so if you play the male mating call, the pregnate females stay away.

Re:How gullible are you people

[Narchie Troll]

And the non-pregnant randy females come and hump your speakers.

Re:How gullible are you people

[nathanm]

No kidding! If it actually worked, people would be downloading it on every computer here in Minnesota, where our state bird is the mosquito (a little MN humor).

There was a recent series of articles in the St Paul Pioneer Press about mosquitoes, including what works & doesn't work against them. The most effective are the new propane powered traps, but they cost a few $100. DEET based bug repellant works. Citronella candles work somewhat, but only for a very small area.

For more info, check out the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District (yes, we're that serious about mosquitoes).

Re:How gullible are you people

[Reziac]

Correction, the Minn. State Bird is the *twin-engine* mosquito.... (I used to live there, and how fondly I recall being carried off as a midnight snack :)

Windows Only Version

[denisbergeron]

I download it ! It's only an Windows version. I wonder to know if Windows will work again without bug !
Hope they will put an Linux version soon !

Re:Windows Only Version

[tsa]

Does it run with WINE under Linux?

Darwin's Revenge

[Tablizer]

Such a trick may only work for so long. Eventually bugs and pests will evolve a tolerance to it. Being that bugs reproduce pretty quickly, it may only take a few years before it is ineffective I would guess.

Then again, if there is nothing to eat there, and most bugs are just accidental interlopers, evolution may not do much.

IOW, if you are a slob (like most slashdotters), then Darwin will win.

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[Etcetera]

Such a trick may only work for so long. Eventually bugs and pests will evolve a tolerance to it. Being that bugs reproduce pretty quickly, it may only take a few years before it is ineffective I would guess.

That's the joy of a software solution -- it can keep up with evolution.

Download Bug Repellant 2004 - now combats Roach 1.1 and Ant 2.0

(FWIW, products like these have been out for some time and still seem to work effectivly. They're *repellants*, not killers. The only place a large-than normal tolerance would develop and grow/multiply is among roaches that decided to live within the range of the repellant.)

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[Tablizer]

(* That's the joy of a software solution -- it can keep up with evolution *)

I suppose you are right to some extent. The result, however, may just be deaf bugs. Or perhaps bugs that are not annoyed by *any* sound. For example, there may be logic in them that tells them to steer clear of unrecognized sounds. A mutation or two could simply short-curcuit that sequence so that a given bug does not run from odd sound, regardless of what it is.

(Unless evolution has poor factoring, and there is a different logic path for each frequency and/or sound pattern. 2/3 of all programmers would use copy-and-paste instead of parameterizing such, so perhaps evolution is just as sloppy. Wasted DNA does not seem to bother evolution that much. Duplicate code does not seem to bother PHB's either, and the dumb programmers don't mind changing the same code pattern in 100 different spots.)

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[tiedyejeremy]

Actually, this is a good point. Only mosquitoes born with no adversion to the high frequencies would feed on people and they would reproduce like mad, devolping a thirst for human blood at the same time. Then, after the sensitive mosquitoes starve, the super race of mosquitoes would conquer the world. Mwhaahahahah. Where can I get one?

oh yeah. Didn't the government already accomplish something along these lines with there attempt to kill fire ants?

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[T3kno]

Please stop confusing evolution with adaptation.

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[TheTomcat]

FWIW, products like these have been out for some time and still seem to work effectivly. They're *repellants*, not killers.

Exactly.
If they actually work properly as repellents, then the insects wouldn't be around long enough to micro-evolve a tolerance for the thing they're avoiding.

S

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[McCart42]

Adaptation, to my understanding, is learning within a single generation. Evolution is the passing on of beneficial traits through the generations, by means of natural selection. Mosquitoes probably aren't going to learn that "hey, that high-pitched whine isn't a predator" since their avoidance mechanism is most likely a genetic instinct. Hence, the original poster was probably on target when he used the term "evolution" and not "adaptation". And whoever the AC was that replied to this, don't assume things...there's no reason to believe that he was trying to make a religious statement.

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[j-beda]

FWIW, products like these have been out for some time and still seem to work effectivly.

Or rather, they still work as well as they always did, which seems to be not at all.

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[Blue Stone]

Such a trick may only work for so long. Eventually bugs and pests will evolve a tolerance to it. Being that bugs reproduce pretty quickly, it may only take a few years before it is ineffective I would guess.

Yeah, maybe, but not necessarily. Look at India's "Neem" tree. It's been around millions of years (or whatever) and bugs still can't stand the chemical cocktail it emits.

If the sound repellant, acts on a part of the mosquito that is low level enough, ie. intrinsic to it's existence, then it probably won't evolve to counteract it.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[Dr. Evil]

This may actually work the other way around. Those creatures which are sensitive to it have a greater chance of survival -- they won't be swatted.

I suppose the real question is whether or not the evolutionary advantage goes to the creatures which risk being swatted to suck blood from humans.

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[Kynde]

FWIW, products like these have been out for some time and still seem to work effectivly. They're *repellants*, not killers.

Show me one study, one reference or one non-hoopla article that shows that high frequency sound can act as mosquito repellant.

Even the mosquito zappers (the ones with the blue light that electrocute mosquitos) are deemed ineffective by the scientific consortium. One study for example showed only 0.13% of the insects killed by the zapper to be female mosquitos (the ones that actually sting us).

And don't come telling me there's a lot of this-and-that-and-grandma-says knowledge out there about mosquitos that science is not aware of. I'd say about the same amount as for curing cancer.
Because there's quite a bit of pressure out there for finding proper repellants. Not because of the nasty itch they give you, but for the viral diseases they carry.

"According to reports from the World Health Organization, causes as many as 3 000 000 deaths annually."

Having read the article mention in an earlier post (http://www.acponline.org/journals/annals/01jun98/ m osquito.htm) I'd say the whole post is just a big hooopla.

Re:Darwin's Revenge

[jfisherwa]

Actually, it wouldn't be that the roaches decide "let's try living here and we'll grow immune to it in a few years," it's more like a "deaf" roach (or couple) think, "noise? what annoying noise?" and successfully breed.

Are your parents more likely to have poor hearing because they live next to high-traffic railroad tracks? Or more likely to live next to high-traffic railroad tracks because they have poor hearing? ;)

Re:Windows bugs

[stuuf]

If its a real pest repellant, it will disable Windows Update and stop Internet Explorer from wanting to be a default browser, and de-integrate media player

Re:Windows bugs

[gorac]

being that windows contains so many bugs, I think it will repel windows

Impossible

[FeltTip]

A small computer speaker is incapable of emitting the frequencies required to repel those animals. Humans can hear from 20hz to 20khz. The speaker in your box can only emit sounds well within that range -- far too low to bother dogs, let alone repel rodents and insects.

CNN has been had.

Re:Impossible

[funky womble]

The zip comes with a jpeg showing a little piezo emitter connected up to a plug to fit into a soundcard output.

Re:Impossible

[DaCool42]

which is usually not much more than the human hearing range. And passing really high frequencies to speakers tends to make them rip themselves apart. Plus if you are using a soundcard, that is a limitation already. It will most likely have a filter on it. Plus you can only get so high of a frequency with 48Khz sampling. I'm not sure what the typical limitation of a PC speaker circuit is, but they might be capable of going higher. Of course a piezo buzzer would be the proper way to produce high frequency tones. You should be able to connect one to the PC speaker output easily enough.

What about my monitor

[qurob]

It makes this annoying, high pitched noise in certain video modes, when I'm trying to play MAME games. I know it makes the dog jump up and get the hell out of the living room.

How about something a bit more useful?

[Acetylene5]

I can deal with bugs. I'm waiting for someone to come out with a program that will repell my boss!

Re:How about something a bit more useful?

[Tadrith]

Personally, I just shut my door and put on some nice programming music - Marilyn Manson.

Not only repels my boss, but the entirety of our company from my room!

Re:How about something a bit more useful?

[Tadrith]

I find it more amusing that someone would think I'm concerned with garnering the respect of those who frequent Slashdot.

Even more amusing is that someone else would reply simply with "so and so sucks", demonstrating a clear lack of respect in the first place by not providing reason or proof. Typically respect entails acknowledging someone's interest as their own, and and not making wild comments without some sort of fact.

Heh

[Pyrosz]

I thought CmdrTaco was going to say:

"Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by standing there!

I remember this stuff from Back in the Day (tm)

[jpmoney]

Back in the BBS days, I remember "a friend of mine" downloading a program that was supposed to emit "mind-altering" tones that would simulate drug-use/hallucinations. Basically the program just showed random screensaver-esque and nifty/trippy color stuff on the screen while making your pc-speaker buzz odd tones.

Yeah, it was crap, but it just makes me wonder if this thing is crap too.

Re:I remember this stuff from Back in the Day (tm)

[tsa]

Of course it's crap. Stinging mosquitos are deaf... But it's lots of fun!

Re:I remember this stuff from Back in the Day (tm)

[blincoln]

Oh yeah, PC-DOPE! I always wanted to try it out to prove to myself that it was impossible, but it never made my PC make any sounds from either the built-in speaker *or* the audio output.

In fact, it looks like you can still download it, at least from here: http://www.third-plateau.org/knowledgebase/downloa ds.shtml. Maybe I'll pull the old 486SX out of the closet so I don't overdose from running it on my Athlon XP system =).

Best pest repellant

[eyepeepackets]

is portsentry: repels dozens of pests every day!

Combine it with heavy editing of /etc/inetd.conf and entries in hosts.allow and hosts.deny, you can keep the pests away from your boxen with very little effort. Tail -f /var/log/messages and you can see the little buggers trying to pester you right before *SWAT* they're locked out!

What kind fo filter would you use?

[A nonymous Coward]

Speakers don't generate an exact range of sounds, with perfect reproduction inside the range and dead silence outside. You'd have to add some kind of way expensive filter. What would be the use?

Ideal for Simputer

[teetam]

I don't know about PCs in America, but the Indian Simputer definitely needs this feature!

Oh, the memories

[rcw-home]

This reminds me of third grade when I'd program the Commodore 64 in the back of the classroom to generate a constant 18khz tone designed to covertly give everyone in the back row a headache. At the time, I was convinced they all deserved much worse. :)

Re:Oh, the memories

[McCart42]

That's beautiful, but...third grade!? You must've been one precocious kid...or had a programmer father. My dad showed me GW-BASIC when I was in elementary school but he's a machinist...I basically learned whatever I learned (not a whole lot, just enough to whet my appetite) on my own.

Research shown to cause cancer in lab animals

[XaXXon]

Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine.

Some users have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer.

College education costs are on the rise, and I think the actual college education is degrading just as fast...

I've used such devices...

[pieterh]

In my house, which was overrun by mice when they demolished a run-down building beside us. Dozens of mice, everywhere. The device produces little high frequency clicks that drives mice totally crazy. They just love it! All the mice descended on my kitchen, where I put the thing, and ate my cat's food. The cat just watched. Finally I had to poison them with old editions of MSDN, which they chew and swallow but cannot digest. They explode in little blue puffs.
Cockroaches and mosquitos are less common here in Belgium, where I'm writing from, but tomorrow I'm going to download Punyaratanabunbhu's (that's Puny for short) Anti-Mal and try it on the cat.
This has to be one of the weirdest uses for old PCs that I can imagine, following my neighbour, who gave an old laptop (no HD, no battery) to his kids as a toy. It really hurt to see them drop it and squeal with joy.

Re:I've used such devices...

[doorbot.com]

which was overrun by mice when they demolished a run-down building beside us

The mice demolished a building!?! Did they hire an outside contractor or did they do it themselves? Either way, though, that's definitely an effective way to get back at the prior owners for the mousetraps and rat poison.

Re:I've used such devices...

[Tablizer]

(* which they chew and swallow but cannot digest. They explode in little blue puffs. *)

That reminds me of teenagers who steel raw sodium from chemistry labs, mix it with popcorn, and toss it all to birds at that beach. Once they get a taste of the popcorn, they come back for more, and the naturally-frosty-coated sodium resembles the popcorn. Thus, they mistake the sodium for popcorn, ingest it, and then explode in mid-air because the sodium hits water in their stumach. Tweet tweet Boom.

I wonder what the penalty would be if you are 18+ and caught?

Re:I've used such devices...

[Ryokos_boytoy]

Cruelty to animals is a fucking hoot. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder what the penalty would be if you are 18+ and caught?

Lets just hope they do get caught. Then their names sold to Co$ for mailings and personal visits

Re:I've used such devices...

[nathanm]

That reminds me of teenagers who steel raw sodium from chemistry labs, mix it with popcorn, and toss it all to birds at that beach.

Why go through all that trouble? It's much easier to go to your local grocery or drug store & buy some Alka-Seltzer.

Re:I've used such devices...

[JustinCourts]

actually, any higher order Alkali metal will do the same...

Re:I've used such devices...

[gid]

or rice... which they used to throw at weddings

notice how they do bird seeds or bubbles now?

The rice would expand with water in the bird's stomach and also make them explode as far as I know. I've never seen either method in action, nor do I intend to, as I try to respect all living creatures to a point. (I still squash icky bugs that wander into my house)

Re:I've used such devices...

[pyrrho]

I disagree. I think I can support animal rights and still eat them. Just treat them nice while they are here... that's all I ask. Don't kill them for fun... just kill them to eat. Summed up easily enough for you?

Re:I've used such devices...

[wolfgang_spangler]

$500 dollar fine, and I'm sure some cruelty to animal charges.

Re:I've used such devices...

[Reziac]

Ya know those little packets of silicon drying agent that come packaged with some stuff (like hard disks)?? Wait til your roommate is good and drunk and about to go to the john, then dump one of the packets in the toilet. If you get a good one, it makes the most wonderful rattlesnake buzz... For even more fun, get said drunken roommate to drink the juice from canned beets. Listen for the screams the next morning when he visits the john and thinks he's dying :)

Re:I've used such devices...

[Road]

The rice would expand with water in the bird's stomach and also make them explode as far as I know.

There should be a -1 propagating urban legend moderation. I wasted a mod point by responding, but somtimes you need to set the record straight.

see here

Re:I've used such devices...

[Cryptnotic]

Heh heh. If you kill it, you've got to eat it. That's great. Oh, you killed a cockroach that snuck into your kitchen? You can't let it die for no reason! Scrape it up and put it on a plate! You hit a coyote with your car on the way home? Better put it in the trunk for later.

Re:I've used such devices...

[pyrrho]

clever but pointless.

The extreme case we were discussing was killing something in a cruel way just to watch it happen. Killing cockroaches because they bring disease is also a good enough reason that still does not imply that you can do just anything you want to anything you want to destroy for no good reason.

Accidentally killing something with your car does not obligate you to eat it. If you hit a person in your car, I'm not saying you have to eat it... but that example also doesn't justify killing a person on purpose, does it!?

Your logic seems to be... I can kill for a good reason, therefore I can kill for no reason at all. Doesn't follow.

Re:I've used such devices...

[Cryptnotic]

Whatever. I obviously wasn't being serious.

This reminds me of that type of fish you can order in Japan where the chef will cut into the fish while it is still alive to slice off pieces of the fish to give to customers. The fish is alive, gasping for air. When you eat your piece of fish, the muscles in it still twitch as you chew and swallow it.

It's not really killing it in a cruel way just to watch it happen, it's doing it in a way to enjoy eating the resulting meat. Aparrantly this is a very uncommon delicacy and it is very very expensive.

God created this whole "survival of the fittest", "heirarchy of murder" thing, so go complain to him.

Re:I have no problem repelling pests

[tsa]

Why was this modded up?

True!

[awfwal]

Get your computer to play the BeeGees and you'll repel almost anything

I have a better idea

[tswinzig]

If you are in a developed country, and you are constantly having problems with mosquitos, cockroaches, and rats around your workspace, simply MOVE YOUR FUCKING COMPUTER INDOORS!

Re:I have a better idea

[Jucius Maximus]

"If you are in a developed country, and you are constantly having problems with mosquitos, cockroaches, and rats around your workspace, simply MOVE YOUR FUCKING COMPUTER INDOORS!"

Perhaps people in developed countries would like this if they compute outside via WiFi or (like me) have their box in the cool basement where it is more common to see insects.

In the area of Canada where I live, it's not too uncommon just before the winter for ladybugs (ok ladyBEETLES) to swarm in homes. This means that TENS OF MILLIONS get into your place via tiny cracks in bricks and window spaces live in your house for some time when it's about to get cold. This means that there are so many, you can't see your walls anymore. Maybe this software would work on them. (Fortunately this has never happenned at my place. We replaced all the rickety old windows with new ones.)

The traditional method of removal is to get a big ol' shop-vac and vaccum them up and then turn the vac on reverse and shoot them outside. This is becoming more and more of a problem because of the massive reproduction of asian ladybeetles imported to combat aphids in farmers' fields.

Re:I have a better idea

[NeMon'ess]

Shop-vac, huh. I was figuring it might make more sense to buy a bunch of plaster, silicone patching material, and caulk. Of course not everyone has a shop-vac. The good ones aren't cheap. Pity the person who can afford a computer but not $50 worth of patching supplies to keep the bugs out in the first place.

Re:I have a better idea

[Jucius Maximus]

"I was figuring it might make more sense to buy a bunch of plaster, silicone patching material, and caulk. Of course not everyone has a shop-vac. The good ones aren't cheap. Pity the person who can afford a computer but not $50 worth of patching supplies to keep the bugs out in the first place."

The trouble is not buying the supplies, it's finding out where they get in. This is not easy. From the accounts I have read, very very few people have been able to find out exactly how the ladybeetles get into their home. And by the time you do find the place they enter, your home is already invaded, meaning you need a vaccum anyway. Since shop vacs can be rented from many industrial supply companies, the expense is not too great.

I need one for ANTS.

[legomad]

yep, those red ants.

Re:I need one for ANTS.

[Skyshadow]

I found that a four-part solution works best for ants:

First, clean your kitchen and bathroom with a bleach-based cleaner (Soft Scrub) -- this will erase scent trails. Put all food in plastic bags or the fridge and be sure there isn't any water left in the sink.

Next, follow them to estalish their points of entry and spackle them up if possible.

Now, remove all pets/young children from the house and use the RAID ant killer. Spray it into any crevices you couldn't spackle. Kill 'em all.

Finally, douse your home with liberal amounts of gasoline and light the place on fire. If you have connections with Air Guard personnel, convince them to check out an A6 and perform a follow-up napalm strike.

Of course, this will only stop the ants for a while, but should still be a much-welcome reprieve from the things.

Re:I need one for ANTS.

[gmajor]

I read that using WD-40 (yes, the lubricant) also kills ants by suffocating them or something like that. Pretty cool.

Re:I need one for ANTS.

[markmoss]

Don't forget, you've got to schedule the napalm strikes to start by making a ring around your neighborhood and then working inward. Don't leave them ants anywhere to run...

However, in my one experience with fire ants (in the base housing at an Air Force Base in New Mexico), we discovered that their nests go deeper than 5 feet. Napalm would only incovenience them a little. I'm not sure a backhoe would go deep enough. A nuke would work, but only if the crater was centered on the nest. What you want to do is to find a poison that the forager ants will carry down to the brain bugs, I mean queen, in their deep underground chambers. Trouble is, fire ants are pretty smart about avoiding poisons, too...

But ants only come into your house for one of two things - food or water. It's possible to ensure they won't find enough food to be worth a long and perilous journey. (But make sure you aren't dealing with one of the species that eats 2x4's!) I don't know how far they'll travel for water, but if you are watering the yard regularly, they won't need to...

Re:I need one for ANTS.

[Ryokos_boytoy]

Actually, try ground clove across their trails. They hate it. Old country trick

Re:I need one for ANTS.

[Reziac]

Diazinon granules (a corncob-based brand like Scott's, NOT a newsprint-based brand like Ortho) ... two tablespoons placed atop the hill will kill the ENTIRE mound overnight, even for "fire ants" (the aggressive ants that build mounds two feet high). Also, ants will not cross a diazinon-treated barrier zone as little as 3 feet wide. Two treatments two weeks apart will protect your house for up to 4 months. PS, also works for fleas.

Unfortunately diazinon is being phased out, and there is no equally-effective replacement, so start hording it while you still can.

(I like ants, just not in my cupboards.)

MP3s

[tmark]

CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.

And of course, since file-sharing doesn't mean piracy, CowboyNeal owns the CDs, doesn't he.. .

Don't just repel pests...

[da3dAlus]

Don't give them a reason to get near you in the first place! Take a bath every day--it's a great excuse to get away from your computer for a while (and I promise that a little soap won't hurt you). That, and why not take a minute to clean up all the soda cans and pizza boxes lying around your desk/room/office. Unless you work outside, live in a dorm, or some other run-down dwelling, I don't see why you would need to repel anything in the first place. If you are attracting rodents, maybe you need to get a little better with the personal hygiene.

Re:Don't just repel pests...

[Zone5]

Not to throw you off your rant there, but if you'd ever been on a fishing trip into the north woods of Ontario for a week or so you'd know by now that the smell of soap actually is an attractant to most insects.

As far as theinsects go, you're better off washing in clean water and not using soap at all, or else the mosquitos and blackflies will eat you alive.

Note: This is not meant to be taken as an excuse for geeks to omit soap from their daily lives - the relative effects are reversed on the human species!

Re:Don't just repel pests...

[Tablizer]

Don't give them a reason to get near you in the first place! Take a bath every day--it's a great excuse to get away from your computer for a while (and I promise that a little soap won't hurt you). That, and why not take a minute to clean up all the soda cans and pizza boxes lying around your desk/room/office....If you are attracting rodents, maybe you need to get a little better with the personal hygiene.

Revoke this dude's Geek Membership immediately! He is just not one of us.

Re:Don't just repel pests...

[cduffy]

Depends on where you live. Move to Texas for a summer, and then tell me pests don't bug you unless you do something to attract them. (I've had more insect bites in Austin in the last month than in the three years prior spent in California).

Re:Don't just repel pests...

[Gekko]

Interesting I am from Minneapolis and was visiting Austin this weekend. Illinois/Wisconsin/Minnesota insects love my soap and eat me alive. Down their everyone elese was getting eaten alive and I was fine......

Re:Don't just repel pests...

[drinkypoo]

I live in an apartment complex which has cockroaches. Hence, I have cockroaches. Incidentally, a spot of grease the size of a head of a pin will feed a cockroach for a month, according to the terminix guy, so even though we clean our kitchen carefully, that's really not going to help. We'd have to steam clean the whole thing every day. Besides, they can eat the glue from your packages of food and such.

Re:And where do mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats g

[jimmytheant]

There already is one being sold, its a plug in unit. Might be where this came from... i.e. reverse engineering.

Gotcha covered.

[Mulletproof]

I've got an insect and pest repellent... It's called a sub-woofer.

Re:Gotcha covered.

[mudshark]

Um, you got it backwards. The "sub-woofer" is an attractant to backwards-baseball-cap-wearing sloping-brow ne'er-do-wells who appear to be symbiotic with hydrocarbon-consuming exoskeletons adorned with superfluous blue lights and chrome trash cans attached to the posterior. I think they're rodents, but an insect classification wouldn't surprise me.

For all the AFX fans out there

[sielwolf]

I just play Ventolin off of Aphex Twin's I Care Because You Do at full volume.

It works pretty well. Although now when I turn off my computer, I can still hear it.

Re:And where do mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats g

[Dephex Twin]

Moe: "Okay, everybody tuck your pants into your socks!"

Re:Windows bugs

[luugi]

What's so offtopic about it. It's about bugs and it's about computer. It's just a joke! That's what the funny moderation is for.

If you don't find it funny just go to the next comment. Instead of waisting your time writing a reply.

I don't think so.

[eikonoklastes]

This type of technology has been advertised many times on infomercials. It just doesn't work, though. My wife bought one of those roach repellers that plugs into the wall and emitts sound and EM pulses. Guess what? No change. We didn't have roaches before and we still don't.

I would imagine if this type of beg repellant really did work cities would have speakers everywhere. They don't because it doesn't.

Some Ham radios offer this too

[SpaceGhost]

I have an Alinco handheld ham radio (2m) that offers this feature. I cant imagine running the battery down for a dubious effect, when I can get backwoods Off(tm) (100% DEET) or that military cream, and really keep them off. Yes, it's nasty smelly and possibly cancerous, but Houston (like most of the country apparently) has West Nile in a BROAD spectrum of the mosquito population (we used to just have to avoid the culex mosquitos, small dusk-time ones that carried St. Louis Encephalitis.)

BTW, Cowboy neals boy band mp3s repel pests because likes repel, opposites attract (which is why Cdr. Taco likes them soo much...)

Pests

[Fascist Christ]

repel mosquitoes, cockroaches, and rats

I am much more worried about repelling Mo$quitoes and RIAAts.

I've got this program running on my TRS-80.

[poot_rootbeer]

10 SOUND 255,255
20 GOTO 10

Re:I've got this program running on my TRS-80.

[lordaych]

Does the sound statement in TRS-80 basic work the same as the sound statement in Microsoft Quick/QBasic? In QBasic, the syntax is SOUND frequency_in_hertz, duration_in_hundredths_of_a_second... Since the human hearing range starts around 37 hz or so, this would be a clearly audible and obnoxious constant sound...

This too!

[dmarien]

I could have sworn this was a dupe post... i had read about this (i though here) months ago...

But my search revealed nothing... cept this story about a device which repels sharks...

Re:This too!

[God! Awful]

A local radio station has been claiming that their broadcast repels mosquitos for several years now. I always thought it was just a publicity stunt, but maybe they have been using the same technology.

-a

Re:This too!

[topham]

It is a stunt. FM radio won't support frequencies high enough to be helpfull.

Better repellent

[Zenki]

Dump a big CO2 source away from you, like a big brick of dry ice. (As Alton Brown would suggest) The mosquitos and other blood suckers will probably gravitate there because they have evolved to be attracted to CO2.

CO2 -> Living creature breathing -> Free food.

It's probably a lot better than some "ultrasonic" pest repellent.

Re:Better repellent

[Dahan]

Dunno about that... mosquitos are attracted to warm, moist CO2 (such as the exhaled breath of animals), but there seems to be some doubt about whether they're attracted to dry ice.

Re:Better repellent

[kuiken]

dont think it works (atleast verry well)
AFAIK the litle buggers hunt on Co2/heat, other types seem to hunt on smell/heat
anyway, dry ice doesnt realy give off much heat, but having dry ice all over the place looks cool tho

a similar program

[slugo3]

here is a similar program that claims to help you stop smoking, drinking and cures headaches among other things. www.bwgen.com

Dragonflies

[f00Dave]

A friend of mine once proposed building a mechanical box that duplicated, in hardware, the two-winged thrum of a dragonfly. He spends a LOT of time outside, wandering about in the woods and in marshes and has come to the conclusion that as soon as a dragonfly appears, the mosquitoes seem to vanish.

Now, it's either that he only noticed the 'fly after it ate all the little turds, or they're hardwired to flee the noise of it's wings.

I'm wondering if that particular thrumming sound would be effective (since the high-pitched whine version would probably drive me nuts anyway: I can sense tones up to 21KHz or so ... TVs drive me up the wall).

So, who's got a recording of dragonfly sounds they want to share(ware)? ;-)

Re:Dragonflies

[f00Dave]

"I can sense tones up to 21KHz or so ... "

Yeah, right.

This isn't an uncommon claim. Go look, keeping in mind that I said "sense" (which some of the below translate as "feel"):

Dumbed down: http://home.netvigator.com/~ntomyng/dcc900/compare /

More technical: http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/psychoacoustics

Etcetera.

Re:Dragonflies

[ejungle]

I know what you mean. It always frustrates me when a TV is broadcasting dead air (whether it be because its getting no signal, it isn't tuned to the right input or whatever) and someone else then proceeds to shut the TV off because they don't know it's on.

It took me a while to figure out not everyone hears that high-pitched whine. Though, it doesn't bother me as much now as it used to. I'm not sure whether the desensitization is physical, psycological or both. =/

Re:Dragonflies

[f00Dave]

It took me a while to figure out not everyone hears that high-pitched whine. Though, it doesn't bother me as much now as it used to. I'm not sure whether the desensitization is physical, psycological or both.

It's partly biological: your ceiling lowers as you age. It's partly psychological: as you watch the Idiot Box, you begin to subconsciously 'tune out' the tone. It's partly mechanical: TV technology has improved, resulting in thinner laminations (or whatever) in the flyback transformers, thereby reducing the emitted high-frequency noise.

Of course, it didn't help that 99% of the engineers working on TV technology were 50+, so couldn't hear the tone in the first place. My worst nightmare was having to sit and code support stuff out on the 'floor' of an air traffic control center, next to racks and racks of CRT drivers, all screeching at ~21KHz, and being the only one who could hear it.

Eventually, the techies got really tired of hearing me complain about it, so hooked up a spectrum analyzer to a microphone to prove to me that it didn't exist. Guess where the big spike was.... Anyway, they moved my work area. ;-D

Gee...

[Uttles]

Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine.

Who would have ever guessed?

Real programmers...

[GlassHeart]

use gdb to get rid of bugs.

Re:Real programmers...

[Mirk]

Joking, right?

Real real programmers use adb.

Reminds me of something...

[MadFarmAnimalz]

In Borland compilers, there was an example in the online help demonstrating proper usage of the sound() function... There's a brief description here. And yes, this was really in the help files :)

Re:Reminds me of something...

[McCart42]

Oh wow, I remember reading that when I used borland's compiler (4.0 or 5.0 I think) in high school (this is in the late 90s, which should tell you something about my high school's willingness to fund the computer lab)...This led into about 5 minutes spent trying to figure out the resonant capacity of human skulls, spoiled by someone realizing that we didn't have nearly enough power...as I look back on that I think "how could I have been so stupid", but that's life.

Re:Reminds me of something...

[shadowofdarkness]

One fun thing when people would be away from there computer was to quickly create and run this program main() { sound(1000); } we where using computers in Dos and when run the only way to stop the sound was create and run a prog to turn it off but since most kids in the class didn't know how they just rebooted there computer. another one that is fun is create a loop that plays 1 frequency for a second then increases the frequency. ps the last one ended up with the teacher announcing to the class he would look the other way will anyone beat on me

Re:Reminds me of something...

[NotoriousQ]

You can achieve the same effect much easier...just pull the anti theft cord...and you can always claim it is an accident...well first time at least.

This program crashes Windows

[gosand]

I ran this program on every version of Windows, and every time I started it, Windows would crash.

I guess because the software effectively repels bugs.

badum-tshh. Thanks! I'll be here all week, tip your waitresses.

Re:This program crashes Windows

[Angry Black Man]

dear god that was aful.

Need Frequency So I Can Create An MP3!!

[lukegalea1234]

Does anyone know the frequency of sound this thing produces? I want to create an mp3 of it so I can make a more portable version..

(Ya.. I know they sell watches, etc.. that create the same noise.. but I'm cheap.. )

Not a solution for anything...

[FortKnox]

If you are having issues with pests in your home, using this (if it even works) is just attempting to cure the symptoms. The real solution is to wash the dishes, clean the house, mop the floors, and find out why and how these things are getting in.

Best prevention? Cleanliness!

BTW - Arguing that you will use this while camping will just make you look dumb.

haha....

[Perianwyr Stormcrow]

Think about that for a minute. An MP3 of an inaudible sound.

Re:haha....

[Ziviyr]

Think Vorbis can do it? :-)

Re:haha....

[Zone5]

How is this an outlandish concept? There are already recordings of complete silence which have been copyrighted and released on CD... creating an MP3 of one is a logical next progression.

Re:haha....

[undeg chwech]

MP3 is lossy compression. It works by removing components of the music that you will not notice are missing.

One would expect that inaubible frequencies would fall in this category.

Re:haha....

[Zone5]

If it's indistinguishable from the original, then isn't it for all intents and purposes the original?

Okay, sort of a one-hand-clapping question, but really... 4:33 (that recorded silence I mentioned) sounds the same on CD, radio, and MP3.

It's a stupid idea, surely. Just not overly revolutionary.

Now, as for compressing the "bug repellent noise"... that's an interesting point. It may render it useless as far as bugs do, despite its being indistinguishable to humans. Quite interesting, actually.

Re:haha....

[lukegalea1234]

true.. a wav or some lossly compression format would work fine I bet..

Limitations of PC speaker

[Curtee]

If this actually works, someone should write a version of it that runs through the soundcard. It would give a much better frequency response and have the ability to emit multiple tones simultaneously.

Make sure the polarity is right

[Tablizer]

I played the sounds backward and all the pests came back.

Re:Make sure the polarity is right

[Anonymous Coward]

That's funny... when I played it backwards I heard a demonic voice that told me to install p2p software and swipe some mp3s.

Re:Make sure the polarity is right

[Tablizer]

(* That's funny... when I played it backwards I heard a demonic voice that... *)

Once my family's church group got all fired up about demonic sayings in pop music. I decided to set out to debunk some of it. The song, "Another one bites the dust" says something like "smoke marijuana" when played backwards. The word "smoke" was kind of a longshot if you heard it, but "marijuana" was pretty clear. I found out that the phrase "another one" was the culprit. So any song that has "another one" in it would have to be banned according to this trigger-happy group.

I then randomly grabbed a Bill Cosby comedy album off the shelf and found 2 demonic phrases in it within about half an hour.

It is kind of like looking for patterns in puffy clouds. If you look hard enough there are all kinds of shapes up there. Does that mean that God is putting on a show, or that humans have over-active imaginations?

(No Elvis found up there yet)

Great Idea...

[Art_XIV]

All we need now is a way to repel sale and/or marketing people with speakers

Works on humans too

[Tablizer]

For a quick test, I stood up in the middle of the office, and made an opera-like squeal for as long as I could, until my voice went horse.

Eventually everybody in the nearby cubicles left.

The drawback, though, is that you have to eat lunch alone.

Open Source debugger?

[isdnip]

I assume that the common version of this works in Windoze, since that's the mass market fave. But what do Linux and other Unix fans do? Clearly, this is one debugger that needs an open source version!

Leesse... Gnu Debugger, new switches to be added:
repel mouse
repel mosquito
repel cowboy neal... no, he's okay.

Looks like he beat me!

[jsonmez]

I am writing a program that ticks off bees. Basically what would happen is your sitting at your computer, you run my program in the background, and all of the suddent all the bees, wasps, and other flying stining creatures in your neighborhood start flying into your glass windows, till they eventually break, at which point...

Boss-B-Gone

[borgasm]

As I see it, the next step for this software is to repel all co-workers and bosses who think they are smarter than you.

Maybe you can write a script that keeps these pests away when servers go down or when somebody approaches your desk.

At the very least they will be complaining from 2m (6 feet) or more. At that distance, you can hopefully just shut the door.

"Yeah...Peter...I'm gonna have to go ahead and ask you to go ahead and...:::::SCREECHING HIGH FREQUENCY SOUNDS:::::

No need for special software ...

[John Jorsett]

The fan and hard drive noise alone from my box is enough to drop flies at ten feet.

FINALLY, I don't have to read any more...

[gosand]

A Thai guy wrote a program that uses your computer speaker to repel mosquitoes, cockroaches, and rats!

YAHOO! WHEEEEE ! IT IS ABOUT FRIGGIN' TIME. OH MY THAT IS THE GREATES...

Oh.
rats.
I thought it said Katz.

MS should license the technology

[2Bits]

Hey since this thing repels bugs, I think MS should license this technology and make it part of their OS, and we would get a bug-free system, wouldn't we?

hee

[byrd77]

Gives whole new meaning to "RAID array"

Either I'm a dog...

[orthogonal]

Or this isn't ultrasonic: I can definitely hear Anti-MAL's sounds for all three pests. And the sounds aren't pretty: they're enough to repel me. BZZZZZZZZ....

/. ' ed

[TheKubrix]

For the troubled (ie lazy), you can see the page here (and download it from the mirror sites located at the bottom), bug proggie

thats nothing...

[jon doh!]

i've used my computer to repel women for years...

Re:But why?

[tiedyejeremy]

LMAO! Really - full bodied guffaw! Did no one else consider this?

Hey

[papasui]

Can anyone else hear that terrible noise?

Woohoo! I'm love'n this...

[SCSI-Wan]

I've just hooked my box up to my surround system and cranked up this pest control software. Not only does the high pitch screeching have the rodents running, but my annoying neighbors who bug me for tech support haven't came around all day! I'm loving this. Granted I have to stay locked in another room with earmuffs on, but I think its worth the trade-off. Good thing my landlord is deaf... /*SCSI-Wan*/

This has possibilities!

[Eric Damron]

Can we get this guy to tweek his program to repell RIAA personel?

Re:As a Lawyer, I can guarantee that you are wrong

[cduffy]

Not quite 100%... more like 95% or so. Occasionally someone who's an authority on something needs to hide their identity to avoid a potential lawsuit for NDA breakage, or has their /. login not work, or doesn't have an account, or somesuch.

Hence, I consider it worthwhile to actually research such claims (if they look plausible) before publicly denouncing their accuracy. Perhaps you should consider doing likewise?

Re:You didn't have roaches before,and you still do

[eikonoklastes]

My point was that most "supporting evidence" is similar to this: purely anecdotal. There never seems to be any real, objective studies done. You are correct in pointing out that I didn't state it clearly.

As to why I would buy it if we didn't have any roaches in the first place...ask my wife. She's always buying shit we don't need (and she gets angry when I try to buy stuff we do [like that 56in TV]).

System Dependencies and a FREE GIFT!!

[TrebleJunkie]

Please note that in order to work properly, the system library files PLACEBO.DLL and GULLIBLE.DLL must be present in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, and C:\EXPLORE.EXE must be moved from the C:\WINDOWS directory into the Recycle Bin.

And if you act now, we'll throw in this free HANDS FREE CELL-PHONE ADAPTER!

Re:System Dependencies and a FREE GIFT!!

[darc]

Now, the sad part is that I saw those on ebay a while back, only that they added the image after people bid.

Re:Summer Radio

[j-beda]

where did you get this little factoid?

Wanna buy a bridge?

Not actually a pun.

[jefft]

I'm just being a pain, but that technically wasn't a pun.

From dictionary.com a pun is "play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words."

The "pun" here is presumably on the word "heard". However, it's two identical uses of the word. Maybe a bad joke, but not a pun.

Re:And where do mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats g

[Com2Kid]

• There already is one being sold, its a plug in unit. Might be where this came from... i.e. reverse engineering.

Alright, question here folks;

Do these things really work??? I mean you can buy little handheld ultrasonic bug repellers down at the supermarket for $13 or $14 here in the States, I am wondering if the darn things work at all before I spend some money on them.

SETI gets a boost

[shrikel]

Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.

Great! Just set a Gigawatt transmitter to broadcast the stuff into space, and see which systems start accelerating away from us! Voila! Life!

Oh, wait, he said "known" lifeforms ...

Re:SETI gets a boost

[Tablizer]

(* Great! Just set a Gigawatt transmitter to broadcast the stuff into space, and see which systems start accelerating away from us! Voila! Life! *)

What if alien bugs actually like that crap and swarm over here?

Hell, Yoko Ono albums from the 60's might be the latest craze on Theta 5 for all we know. (IIRC, a Yoko song was playing when the Waco group lit themselves up. Does anybody have that playlist?)

Re:SETI gets a boost

[AntiNorm]

Just set a Gigawatt transmitter to broadcast the stuff into space, and see which systems start accelerating away from us! Voila! Life!

One can only imagine how freaked out E.T. would have been if he had heard Britney. He would have been dying to get back on the spaceship. Possibly literally.

Computer Headaches?

[roccothegreat]

Some users of the mosquito-repelling program have reported headaches after long
periods spent in front of a computer emitting the bug-repelling high-pitched whine.

Strange, and here I thought it was those long periods of playing Counter-Strike on my
computer!

rocco.

damned tech support!

[Tablizer]

Everytime I start it up, my dog comes over and tries to hump my leg. I called tech support, and they told me to use condums.

What is a COMPUTER doing around infestation?

[krinsh]

How many of you keep the animals out of the home office; run AC, box fans and provide other cooling and environmental controls especially when you are running the games with the 3D cards; and besides that compute indoors?

I wouldn't want to take a laptop with me everywhere in order to repel insects; I'll just spend $3.50 on some OFF and smell pine fresh for a few hours to play outdoors.

Question #2

[rushiferu]

Anyone out there checked to see what frequency range their computer speakers and sound card can accurately reproduce? I'd assume most design specs were made around the human-audible ranges....

hmmm

[Cynikal]

now the day he gets that thing to make a sound to repel the RIAA, can someone record an mp3 of it for me to download off of morpheus? i'll play it through my stereo at home and my car deck while i drive around, i promise

Ummm, yeah.

[Anonymous Coward]

The following is quoted from (FS609) Ultrasonic and Subsonic Devices for Pest Control by Gerald M. Ghidiu and Louis M. Vasvary, Ph.D. RUTGERS COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. (I do not have a URL, but I can email the PDF to any one who wants it)

(begin quote)
Scientific evidence shows that most insects, rodents and other animals hear or sense the same range of frequencies that humans do. If a sound or frequency doesn't bother us, it is doubtful that it will bother pests. In many cases, even sounds that bother humans may not bother pests! Further, since gerbils, hamsters, mice and rats are all closely related, anything that irritates unwanted mice and rats will seriously affect pet rodents.

Testing has shown that sounds emitted by ultrasonic and subsonic devices do not carry far, with about one-half of the energy gone in 15 feet and none remaining at 30 feet. Objects in the path of the sound block the signal create "shadows." Since insects and mice hide behind couches, chairs, refrigerators, etc., these shadows would render the device useless.
(end quote)

I used to work in pest control, these devices will work for a short period of time, but most pests will adapt to any set of sound waves you try to use. I watched one company install $800,000 worth of audio repelling devices, only to find mice living in the control box!

Re:Summer Radio

[hex1848]

I've never heard of anyone setting up a computer to repel rodents, but the idea of using sound waves as a mosquito repellant is actually fairly old. I'm from Minnesota, where the summertime masquitos get pretty bad; fortunately most, if not all, of the local radio stations will embed a high frequency sound into the radio transmission so that if you're outside listening to your favorite station, the bugs really aren't too bad.

I thought all the clear channel radio stations did this.. only they also repel all the listeners as well

Re:MP3s - only licenses.

[NeoNormal]

> And of course, since file-sharing doesn't mean piracy,
> CowboyNeal owns the CDs, doesn't he.. .

Well, actually no... according to the RIAA, he only bought licenses to play the music on the CD's that he owns, right?

something like this for linux?

[gimpboy]

is there something like this for linux? it would be nice to take advantage of the pc speaker. especially since i dont really use it for much. i wonder if it would be possible to select which pests to annoy. i have pet rats, but would like to scare off any insects.

Linux version of this program looks bogus to me

[leto]

I read the CNN article and went to the download site. I downloaded the file from thaiware.com.

I created a "testuser", chmod a+rw /dev/dsp* and ran the thing. It seems like it's doing absolutely nothing. Though I'm curious was the experts can say about the strace

Makes you wonder what the Windows version does. Too bad. I could use a working solution :(

stick with something that has been verified

[mystifying]

Science News reports (Week of July 13, 2002; Vol. 162, No. 2)

"Tomato compound repels mosquitos"
Insect Biotechnology of Durham, N.C., has licensed the tomato compound for new lines of repellents and recently completed tests of an ointment laced with the chemical, now known as IBI-246. Even 12 hours after being applied to a volunteer's arm, it proved 91 percent successful at deterring landings by mosquitoes, notes company president Alan E. Brandt. "More importantly," he told Science News, "in terms of bites, it was 100 percent repellent." In comparison, the company's tests of DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide), the active ingredient in many current mosquito repellents, showed that after 12 hours, it inhibited landings by only 78 percent. "

It doesn't work

[slycer]

I tried this app. it didn't work very well at all, I still had mosquitos and pets crowding my workstation.

The worst part about it is the cord for my headphones that I wear when I'm sitting at my desk keeps getting in my way when I'm trying to swat them.

Re:It doesn't work

[Shulai]

If fact, if this is the same thing I saw a time ago, it didn't emit anything. I ran in with Wine, it didn't call any sound function.
With an old soundcard that has a mixer program with vu-meter I didn't it generating anything neither.

Other possible uses

[anonymous_wombat]

Does it only work on mosquitos and roaches, or will it debug your software as well?

I didnt know they had ears

[HanzoSan]

I didnt know insects had ears

minnesota

[No-op]

we're especially serious since those damn new yorkers infested this country with the west nile virus. thanks guys!

This is nothing new...

[Izanagi]

It is called a command line prompt.

The question is...

[nmnilsson]

Does it also repel pets?
"wsdegb nhkio.l/;", to quote my cat walking over my keyboard to her nap on the, now hairy, printer paper... :-)

boy band mp3's and american teens.....

[clyons]

Shhhh!!! Don't give those priests ideas!

Oh no!

[brink]

What does it mean if you load the program, hit play, then experience the sudden urge to run away?

Re:You didn't have roaches before,and you still do

[The_Sock]

Please speak in Simpsoneese to explain things on slashdot. It works better.

---

Lisa: "By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away."

Homer: "Oh, how does it work?"

Lisa: "It doesn't work."

Homer: "Uh-huh."

Lisa: "It's just a stupid rock."

Homer: "Uh-huh."

Lisa: "But I don't see any tigers around, do you?"

Homer: "Lisa, I want to buy your rock."

c64 basic? Neat, but not THAT hard

[ColGraff]

Yeah, it's cool a third-grader could do that, but I don't think you'd have to be an especially bright 3rd grader to pull it off. I don't know c64 basic, but I do know that in pascal and c++, it only takes a few lines to do this - I can't imagine it would be that much harder on the c64.

Apparently they do.

[Kedyn's Crow]

This article at nature.com talks about insect hearing and sites several interesting examples.

Uh, hold on...

[EdMcMan]

"This program produces sound in the range of 16000Hz to 20000Hz which is beyond the audible range of the humans."

That is from the 'about box'. Last time I checked, the human hearing range was 20Hz to 20000Hz...

Program works like Pet OFFense box?

[MtViewGuy]

I have to wonder does this program to turn a computer into pest repellant work like this device shown on this web page:

http://www.youcansave.com/pestoffense.html?AID=5 46 3330&PID=1060337

Mind you, the way Pest OFFense works looks to be different than what that program does to your computer. (shrug)

Corrected name

[MtViewGuy]

Whoops--the message header should say Pest OFFense. (blush)

soundcard limits

[AlecX]

Even really "good" speakers cannot compensate for the limits of your soundcard.

The _highest_ frequency that a soundcard can produce is one-half of it's maximum sampling rate output. For must of us, that implies (44,100 * 1/2) = 22.05 kHz, which is not far outside the "average" upper limit of human hearing (20 kHz).

If you paid alot for your soundcard, you may be able to produce 24 kHz sounds (which, most likely, your speakers can't reproduce, your amplifier can't amplify, and you couldn't hear anyway).

I dont think there are any commercial speakers with a frequency response beyond 22kHz (yet), and most dont get past 20. Several companies are working on small piezoelectrics that will, at which point we will need better $oundcards and new $tereo $ystems.

The following article may be informative in this respect: Humans can't distinguish anything higher than 20 kHz, but...

-alec
Composer of "Music for 16 DogWhistles" (which uses a motif from Cage's 4'33")

warrior instinct?

[Tablizer]

(* you should try this on each other rather than some poor animals, anyone who finds this amusing is a waste of oxygen anyway. dont let mom catch you doing it she might spank you. *)

As much as I hate to admit it, when I was younger I sometimes found such things highly amuzing.

I think there is a warrior instinct that occures in puberty that makes one fascinated about such things.

Fortunately for the world, I don't like to watch such things anymore. I don't like roller coaster anymore either, for that matter. (Even when I was a teenager, I was mostly a bystander to such torture events.....except for letting the dog lick peanut-butter off of a 9V battery.)

Hmmmm. I wonder what Klingon teenagers do for fun.

Re:warrior instinct?

[Abreu]

Hmmmm. I wonder what Klingon teenagers do for fun.

Well I guess many die out of school pranks... But then the perpetrators are caught and executed in front of the whole school.

I dunno, maybe Im wrong, dont really like Star Trek that much (not enough Klingons, too much soap)

Well I just tried it out on a UK midge

[Blue Stone]

(pronounced mid-gee) and it had no effect at all, it sat looking at my screen as I fiddled with the frequency control, and didn't move a millimetre.

Perhaps British midges are made of sterner stuff than Indian mozzies?

Re:Well I just tried it out on a UK midge

[The_dev0]

Maybe they don't speak Thai?

This stuff really works

[danpbrowning]

I'm not kidding, this type of stuff really works for some things. For example, we used to see 5-7 spiders/day in our house, and after getting the ones from costco, we now see 2-3 per month! It is wonderful.

Re:And where do mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats g

[The_dev0]

Wiggum:"Aw Cinnamon, don't make this harder then it already is!"

Re:Malaria

[czaby]

Some border areas still have malaria threat but Bangkok and all the popular tourist places are completely safe.

people kill people ...

[freaker_TuC]

Well, if the frequency gets too high it might scare some people away too ... but never forget, speakers or sounds don't kill people; people kill people :)

I don't believe this.

[Bartmoss]

Sounds like something they would sell in Spam... "as seen on cnn". Buy two and get some herbal viagra for free.

No, but it works in pet stores with a laptop...

[Kaenneth]

Yes, I was a very, very sick and demented child.

Mating call

[Kashif Shaikh]

A better virus would be one that makes a mating call out through your speakers when it infects your computer...in no time would you attract horny little critters. Though one would have to find out mating calls that: a) us humans can't hear, b) require time-of-year stats(call play period), and c) are most receptive to certain species(read most horny)

BTW, Duck/bird hunters use whistles that make such calls to ease their hunting. Take this with a grain of salt 'cause I saw it on some TV show I can't remember(Simpsons?).

Yeah, right, as if a PC speaker produces >20kHz

[femto]

It's unlikely the frequency response of the crappy speakers attached to most computers will extend to ultrasonic frequencies. Result: you can toggle bits in your sound card as fast as you want, but you will get no output from your speaker above a few kilohertz.

Ultrasonic is an unproven method

[krylan]

There is no scientific evidence that ultrasonic can/will repel pests.
We MIGHT be able to say in the least that some pests are temporarly annoyed, however they easily adjust.

pest control article mentioning ultrasonic