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Repel Bugs With Your Cell Phone
telstar writes "Starting Monday, SK Telecom Co. in South Korea will begin offering a ringtone designed to repel mosquitoes for the one-time price of $2.50. The ringtone, inaudible to humans, has a range of three feet, and functions just like any other ring-tone from your cell." Now if only there was a ringtone to repel bugs in code! Sorry, I'm full of bad jokes today.
I try to stay as far away as possible from someone with a cell phone.
... if you're troubled by a bug you need to quickly find a payphone and call yourself? How will it work?
"Now if only there was a ringtone to get rid of CowboyNeal's bad jokes"
So how long until sharper image releases the bug-b-gone 2200, a $3999 DRM-crippled cell phone capable only of playing the mosquito-repelling ringtone and serving you warm Colombian java.
This ringing sound.... or the odors that attract them to you in the first place?
.unsigged
"Hey, Mike. Thank god you called. The mosquitos are really something out here, you should see them. Yowch! God dammit! Hey, do me a favor Mike? Hang up and call me back!"
By carefully re-adjustng the frequency of the tone down to a level that humans can hear and slowing the playing speed down 300 times, I have been able to determine that it's a guy's voice saying, "this person tastes like crap"
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
So I guess the only time you know you're getting a call is when you aren't getting bit.
What do I have to do to get a sig around here?! www.bearscanfly.org
foldplay your photos won't know what hit them.
Is a ringtone that repels the people who are calling.
The company claimed that the service worked during tests. ...yes. But they fail to mention that every other ring tone repels the bloodsuckers just as well. The minor EM field generated when the phone rings screws with their sensory equipment.
Even if the ringtone format can represent tones that high, can the cellphone speaker reproduce them? Again, many speakers are only rated to about 20 KHz, because that's all that's useful for human beings.
And finally, couldn't you just make a device for about $5 that would actually do this right and last a whole lot longer on a set of batteries? Cell phones are not the right way to make a constant 40KHz (say) tone.
I'm inclined to categorize this the same way I categorize stand-alone sonic pest-repelling devices: well-intentioned but useless. Incidentally, that's the category I put normal cell phones in as well. :)
The Straight Dope has the full scoop on ultrasonic insect repellents. In short, they're a scam.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I made that up.
Check out what Cecil has to say.
I'm not going to answer your last question, H., because ultrasonic mosquito repellers all have one thing in common: none of them work. At all.
[snip]
Some ultrasound firms say their products will also repel mice, rats, roaches, bats, fleas, spiders, and the like. The evidence to date suggests these claims are greatly exaggerated. At best they work only when used in conjunction with a concerted anti-pest program involving traps, improved sanitation, elimination of entry points and nesting places, and so on. So don't throw away that flyswatter yet.
Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
Cigarette smoke works too. They didn't tell you about that in Boy Scouts, did they?
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
...I'll send you a wonder inaudible dialtone that repels mosquitos, bears and Jehovah Witnesses, attracts women and money, makes people on crowded motorway drive off your way, reduces your body fat and makes you forever young. Additionally it's not only inaudible - its presence won't be shown on your phone in any way so no woman will find out you used this to attract it, and no mosquito will be attracted to shining display. Call now! 1-900-...
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
As someone who recently had West Nile I can honestly say that it was a pretty shitty (no pun intended) evening of cramps and fever. I'll take that anyday over paranoia and semi-constant exposure to the nasty potentially cancer causing chemicals in the majority of bug sprays. Oh, and once you've had West Nile you can't get it again.
I live in Ontario and get to watch the constant commercials and news stories about the great threat of the mosquitoes. I do understand that certain segments of the population (the old, the young, the sick) should take precautions, but I don't like the fact that people are dumping chemicals in all of the standing water around to cut the mosquito population. My neighbour was dumping misc chemicals into the rainbarrel that he uses to water the lawn that his children play on. Paranoia kills common sense.
"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality." -- Dalai Lama