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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.
Just a thought.
I hate cleaning up all those broken dishes every morning.
Table-ized A.I.
Millions of DEBUG and WINDOWS jokes to follow...
The software program they talk about can be found on (an almost all Thai) web site here.
I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
About a RAID array of say 14-15 15K RPM SCSI hard drives?
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.
"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?
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?
-- Adam
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Cockroaches, Blood Suckers, and Rats!?!
Better not fire up that baby in congress!
Yeah, I know it's lame, but this is funnier.
tcd004
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
while true;do echo -e -n "\033[s\n\033[u\134_\033[B";done
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.
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.
...I'll procrastinate tomorrow...
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.
Infuriate left and right
If I scared rats away then who would power my computer?
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
According to a colleague at Rutgers: .... 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.
Hand-held electronic devices that rely on high-frequency sound to repel mosquitoes have become surprisingly popular in recent years
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!
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
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
Everyone is born right-handed; only the greatest overcome it
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.
I thought CmdrTaco was going to say:
"Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by standing there!
An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
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.
unf.
is portsentry: repels dozens of pests every day!
/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!
Combine it with heavy editing of
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
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?
Infuriate left and right
I don't know about PCs in America, but the Indian Simputer definitely needs this feature!
All your favorite sites in one place!
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!
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. :)
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...
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.
My blog
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.)
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
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!
"And like that
(* 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.)
Table-ized A.I.
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 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.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
I've got an insect and pest repellent... It's called a sub-woofer.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
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.
What is music when you despise all sound?
10 SOUND 255,255
20 GOTO 10
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...
dmarien
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.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Please stop confusing evolution with adaptation.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
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.
... TVs drive me up the wall).
;-)
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
So, who's got a recording of dragonfly sounds they want to share(ware)?
.f00Dave
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?
~ now you know
use gdb to get rid of bugs.
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 :)
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
I guess because the software effectively repels bugs.
badum-tshh. Thanks! I'll be here all week, tip your waitresses.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Think about that for a minute. An MP3 of an inaudible sound.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
It's been done. My code has been attracting bugs for years.
managers...why god invented purgatory
I played the sounds backward and all the pests came back.
Table-ized A.I.
All we need now is a way to repel sale and/or marketing people with speakers
The only thing that we learn from history is that nobody learns anything from history.
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.
Table-ized A.I.
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.
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:::::
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
The fan and hard drive noise alone from my box is enough to drop flies at ten feet.
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
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
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.
YAHOO! WHEEEEE ! IT IS ABOUT FRIGGIN' TIME. OH MY THAT IS THE GREATES...
Oh.
rats.
I thought it said Katz.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
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?
Gives whole new meaning to "RAID array"
- Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
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....
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
For the troubled (ie lazy), you can see the page here (and download it from the mirror sites located at the bottom), bug proggie
i've used my computer to repel women for years...
Free Webmail
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?
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?
Or rather, they still work as well as they always did, which seems to be not at all.
Wanna buy a bridge?
- 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.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
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...
Yeah, right! All geeks know that leaving stale chips, pizza boxes, etc on the floor never attracts cockroaches, mice, or anything!
(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!
They work, you know. I have one, and I'm not dead yet .
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
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
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.
-- john
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 :(
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. "
Does it only work on mosquitos and roaches, or will it debug your software as well?
I didnt know insects had ears
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
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!'"
~Dalcius
Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
we're especially serious since those damn new yorkers infested this country with the west nile virus. thanks guys!
EOM
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.
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.
I'm the stranger...posting to
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.
FWIW, products like these have been out for some time and still seem to work effectivly. They're *repellants*, not killers.
/ m osquito.htm) I'd say the whole post is just a big hooopla.
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
1 Earth is warming, 2 It's us, 3 it's royally bad, 4 we need to take action NOW
That is from the 'about box'. Last time I checked, the human hearing range was 20Hz to 20000Hz...
I have to wonder does this program to turn a computer into pest repellant work like this device shown on this web page:
5 46 3330&PID=1060337
http://www.youcansave.com/pestoffense.html?AID=
Mind you, the way Pest OFFense works looks to be different than what that program does to your computer. (shrug)
Whoops--the message header should say Pest OFFense. (blush)
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.)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
(* 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.
Table-ized A.I.
(* 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?)
Table-ized A.I.
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.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
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.
Daniel