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Combating Harassing Use of Mosquito Noise Device?
amicold asks: "For a while now my neighborhood has had to deal with an elderly neighbor who has displayed a slightly paranoid attitude towards myself and the fellow younger-adults of the neighborhood, believing us to be attempting to harass him in our day-to-day activities. Recently, he installed a Mosquito ultrasonic noise device as an apparent attempt to 'get back at us' for our harassment. As the Mosquito emits a sound that's well out of his hearing range, he can't hear it, while most of the rest of the neighborhood is under 40 and can; at which point it's causing everyone a great deal of discomfort. Unfortunately, because the police also can't hear it, we can't get the authorities to do anything about it, leaving us empty-handed in our attempts at getting some peace and quiet back. What can we do to either help the police realize how disturbing this device is, or counteract it so that it's no longer disturbing us? And is this the first of what may be a growing trend of civilians using high-tech discomfort weapons as a method of neighborhood warfare?"
Suggest http://www.eminent-tech.com/RWbrochure.htm
You could start by getting off his damn lawn.
Instead of "Ask Slashdot", shouldn't this be under "Ask Your Lawyer"?
My site
http://www.psywarrior.com/rockmusic.html
Take pictures of it. Print out the link you have in your post and any other documentation you can find on the thing. Ask a community service officer from the police to come out. She will probably be a she. She will probably be young, and since not carrying a gun, will not have spent a bunch of time on the firing range ruining her hearing. She will hear it, and since the docs clearly show it is designed to be annoying, she will be on your side. Probably. Maybe. You can try it and hope, anyway.
Plan B. You like Hendrix, right? With breakfast. Early. Turn it up to eleven.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
And record the "noise" phase shift it by 180, and play it on your stero. Viola, no mosquito.
I think the only way to go is the legal route. Try to get a young police officer. If that fails, get an expert that can measure the signal and testify about ist impact on younger people. I would be surprised very much if hwat your neoghbour does is legal.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Not that I'm condoning any particular course of action, but I just though it worth pointing out that if he can't hear it himself, he can't tell if it's still functioning. Just an observation.
how about you go talk to him, ask him to turn it off maybe?
this sig no verb
Who needs the cops? Sue him. He'll take it down in seconds. You won't even have to go to court.
Then, all you need to do is be annoying enough that he moves to Florida. (Unless you already live in Florida, in which case you're screwed.)
Build a similar device to emit noise at a slightly different frequency. The result will be horrible sounds as the two waves interfere. The horrible sounds will seem to come from both your source and the original source. You may get the blame but at least the cops/etc will believe that an issue exists.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Well, if the cops don't care, you don't need to stick to legal means. I hear BB guns work pretty well for destroying plastic things. Paintball markers are also quite excellent for this purpose. Or use a nice big water gun on it. Of course, I recommend you just call the cops again. There are plenty of cops under 40.
Just egg his house. That will surely make him realize his immaturity and bring a swift end to his harassment.
He could use microphone and amplifier to pick up the signal and a phase locked loop to divide the frequency by two, then feed the lot into a really big speaker. The only hard part is convincing people that the bad noise is really coming from over there.
OTH how about using the stereo effect? If the neighbour on the other side can go along with it bracket his place with speakers and feed the signal in so it appears to be coming from the original location? I like this article. Lots of hacking potential.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Am I the only one that thinks this is a novel Slashvertizement?
How many of you thought "hmmmm. I could use this to really annoy xxx"?
And note that the link goes to a specifc supplier of such items. Not a generic link.... say a wiki. I mean, who really believes that some guy cannot get a cop under 40. Cannot figure out that he should talk to the police and explain more, or maybe go to see a lawyer... or maybe sneak into his neighbor's year with a baseball bat and a ski mask?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Several (disjointed) ideas sprang to mind:
1) Get a sound meter (dB meter, noise level meter, or whatever it's called where you are) and call the cops again. Show the meter to the officer.
2) Buy big speakers and send some noise his direction that he CAN hear. I recommend NES chiptunes.
3) Disconnect the device without his knowledge. He can't hear it, so he can't tell if it's working or not.
4) Kick the neighbor in the nuts. If he gets angry, kick him in the nuts again. If he threatens you, proceed to #5.
5) Shoot him. You didn't need the curmudgeonly bastard anyway. Take his stuff and tell his family he went on vacation to BFE. Be sure to dispose of his body properly - through a wood chipper, then burn the chunks. Invite other young neighbors over for BBQ. Display a big cookbook with a cover that says "To Serve Annoying Old Neighbors".
(And just for the humor impaired, options 4 and 5 are not serious. I am not the voice in your head telling you to assault or kill your neighbor. That voice is named Larry. I'm Matt.)
This guy spent £495 to annoy the shit out of you? Either you deserved this, or the guy is a complete prick, in the latter case, fight fire with fire. Get some _very_ large subwoofers, a good amp, and play a song like Hootchie Mama by 2 live crew, or if that's not your style, maybe something like "Superpredators" by Massive Attack.
e n_repel.html
Or, even if you don't like that, just find something with real spleen shattering bass and just blast it.
Also, for those interested, I found a link to the mosquito sound here from an article at the Beeb here, also, another interesting turn-around:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/24/kids_turn_te
Quite fascinating...
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
I recognize this situation. The woman is a sociopath. She is doing all this to make people around her jump, for the purpose of her own amusement.
There's really only one thing to do when faced with a sociopath, and that's to completely stay our of her life entirely. She's so completely emotionally different from you that she's practically not human. Really, her only purpose in life, the only way she can break the monotony of feeling only primitive emotions is to think of ways to make all the people around her jump.
But since you don't have that option, you can at least fight back. This will NOT solve your problem because she can't stop what she's doing. But it'll be fun.
I recommend that if she has a dog or cat, kill it, paint the inside of her car with the feces and blood, dump the organs down her chimney, and throw what's left through her front window. Let her stew on that a while. After she gets her car and house cleaned up, get a can of gas and burn them both to the ground. That's about what it's going to take to stop this old lady if she's truly a sociopath, short of putting her in the hospital or worse.
If you're not willing or able to do this, then you really need to consider what you're going to do. Measured responses are going to be worse than doing nothing at all. Maybe you should disable her noisemaker device somehow. She can't hear it anyway, how will she know it's broken?
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Analysis: before implementing a solution, is to make sure you've got the full picture. Note that your neighbor is in fact being harassed by something, if not intentionally. What is that thing? If it's something you are doing... Trade Study: will it be a major or minor imposition to not do it; can you bring yourself to politely inform your neighbor that you'll not do it in exchange for taking the offending device offline?
If either you or the neighbor doesn't want to deal: since you've already alerted the authorities that the device is an issue, I'd pass on petty crime or felony-based solutions you likely suspect, you. You and your neighors should keep a running record of your complaints to the police. You might try borrowing/buying a meter that'll measure the dB of the frequency in question. Then, while you can ask for a younger officer that can hear the noise, if you get someone my age, at least the officer will have something to go on.
If you get the device taken offline without dealing with what's pissing your neighbor off, you may just be trading one headache for another.
Luke, help me take this mask off
Our neighbors are firing Katyusha rockets at us.
- Tal Cohen
Two years ago, the building next to mine was being totally renovated (they gutted everything but the outside walls).
And they had that big honking alarm that would go off each time a cat or a bird would go inside the structure.
Of course, it went off at 2 in the morning many times.
After a few weeks, we got to get pretty pissed at it, so I started to grab a pair of cutters, and enter the place despite it being barricaded (from the third floor, the balconies of the respective buildings are only 2 feet away). Then it's just a matter of finding the wire and snipping it.
Of course, they would fix it, until the next snip...
The last time I did it (at 3 in the morning), I was so pissed that I cut the wire in about 200 one inch long little sections. This must have drove the message home because that's the last time we heard the fucking alarm...
Here's the plan:
1. Spend the next 30-40 years breeding and training vicious attack dogs
2. Now you're over 40 and can hear it any more. (Plus, everyone loves dogs -- bonus.)
It's foolproof.
If you follow the link in the story, you'd see that the neighbor in question did not install an insect control device (bug zapper) but rather something specifically designed to annoy young people and drive them away. (Mosquito is the brand name). From the link:
Did he tell you he was out to get you...?
Based on the device the guy installed, I think it goes without saying.
Dude! some crazy old man Pwned j00!! ROFL!
This thing won't produce a reading on a standard sound level meter. There's a standard bandwidth weighting ("A-law") for sound level meters, based on data about hearing damage, and it cuts off at only 8KHz. That's the definition used in most noise ordnances.
If war is what he wants, war is what he will get! This is sure to drive him more nuts then the mosquitoes from his little ultra violet toy... Which by the way is about 5 times as costly as my solution. Use with extreme caution... The device I speak of is called "sonic nausea". This is the blurb from their site: "Sonic Nausea is a small electronic device which can really turn one's stomach. It generates a unique combination of ultra-high frequency sound waves which soon leads most in its vicinity to queasiness. It can also cause headaches, intense irritation, sweating, imbalance, nausea, or even vomiting. Hiding this device in your inconsiderate neighbors house might put an end to their late night parties. The abusive bureaucrat's office, the executive lunchroom... the possibilities are endless for that small portion of inventive payback. The unique soundwave characteristics make directional source determination difficult. Powered by one 9-volt battery (not included). For extended run time two AA batteries in a battery pack with transistor clips (available from most electronics stores) can be used instead. Use with discretion." Only $49.99!!! - http://www.telstarone.com/cs_sonic_nausea.htm If you do go with this method, please post a follow up or pictures :)
Why don't you try talking to the guy-- listen to him-- this simple act will make him more comfortable with you. Apologize to him. Buy him a gift. Show kindness.
Which is of more value to you-- an empty, hollow sense of victory that will bring you no satisfaction, even if it does occur, or peace?
"Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love." -Mahatma Gandhi
"Suppose someone, to annoy, Provokes you to do some evil act. Why allow anger to arise and thus Do exactly as he wants you to do? If you get angry Then maybe he will suffer, maybe not. But by feeling anger yourself You certainly do suffer." "For in this world, Hatred is never appeased by more hatred; It is love that conquers hatred. This is an eternal law." -The Buddha
... asking him to turn it off?
It isn't a misquito repellant asshole!
Betcha if you inject in some epoxy or expanding foam into said cone in quantities that won't be visible from the outside, the horn tweeter will stop making said annoying tone or at least attenuate the sound output or alter the frequency so that it won't be as bad.
Do it right and it'll probably still look like it was still working this way too. Much faster than trying to disassemble something and disable it while making it look like it's still working. The old fart can't hear it anyways, so he'd never know that you'd broken the horn tweeter as many others have pointed out.
You can also just go for a brute force/economic war approach:
Your cost: A couple of bucks for a tube of quick setting epoxy with syringe type applicator. Or, if you don't want to do this manually or the unit isn't readily accessible try some home made/customized paint balls filled with acid/epoxy/superglue/something nasty His cost: $600-$750 + shipping per unit disabled.
Just how many times do you think this guy will be able to afford to replace this device repeatedly? He's probably on fixed income so it's either the Mosquito or the Heart Medications/Doctor's Visits/Food/Heat/etc. The problem will soon go away given enough cheap paintballs I suspect.
War after all is really a matter of economics. Does the damage you cause cost more to your opponent than it does to you and which of you can continue spending money while racking up damage/cost the longest? The guys with the biggest budget or the ability to do massive damage to the other side for cheaper usually wins.
Dave
There are no stupid questions...just stupid people.
I'm just amazed how many posters decide to spew their ignorant nonsense without even trying to understand the issue first! Several posetrs here referred to some "mosquito problem". What mosquito problem??? Do you have any idea about the purpose of "mosquito noise device"? Did you care to follow the link and get a clue first before posting?
For the lazy clueless types: the mosquito noise device has nothing to do with any actual mosquitos or "mosquito problems". The purpose of the device is to annoy young people in order to prevent them from congregating in certain areas. For example, some store owners don't like seeing teenagers gather in front of their stores (drives away customers). The mosquito noise device is specifically designed for the purpose of creating unbearable conditions for those teenagers in order to drive them away. The idea is that young people hear and get extermely annoyed by high frequency (mosquito) noise, while older people simply don't hear it.
So stop embarassing yourself with references to "mosquito problem". If the old man is really using that specific device, then the only reason he is using it is to annoy and harass those young people. The device has no other use of purpose.
That sound is only 15 KHz, and the mp3 has 48Khz sampling rate. And the buzzer in the mobile is perfectly able to reproduce high frequencies, it's the low freqs that cannot be reproduced.
I love the way everyone here says to go over and break his stuff.... Lovely...
Ok, so he's probably an annoying old paranoid crank. He's not going to stop being annoying. If you go over and break his stuff, he'll just become more annoying.
So don't go starting a neighborhood war.
You might try... oh... I don't know... TALKING to him about it? You know, person to person? And leave your attitude at the door.
If that fails, and it may well do so, go talk to your neighbors. Get about 20 of you. go knock on his door together and POLITELY state that his little toy is driving the entire neighborhood nuts and you'd all really appreciate him turning it off. Bring food. Make it an event. Hell, throw a neighborhood barbecue while you're at it.
Don't consider the situation an obstruction to be overcome. Instead, consider it a chance to meet your neighbors. Who knows, you might find out they are actual people, with lives and interests and stuff. Who knew?
And shame on those of you who immediately decided the best course of action was to go on a shadowrun against an old man. Sheesh.. People...
-T
You could escalate the conflict by using high tech countermeasures which will piss him off and turn his relatives and friends against you, or make peace and have a nice quiet neighborhood. Hmmm, which way to go, never ending warfare on the one hand, or peace and quiet on the other?
If you go with high tech warefare then you will stimulate the economy by propping up the companies selling sonic noise cancelling systems. And he will of course provide even more stimulation to the economy when he installs an infra-red insect repellent that fries your border plants. And then you have to invest in a cryogenic thermal redirection unit to protect your flowers, after which he will escalate with a plastic dissolving mist spray device, all great news for the high tech neighborhood armament corporations, aka, the militarized neighborhood complex.
This will be fraught with unforseen complications and collateral damage. Your paper boy will refuse delivery, the water meter reader will not dare enter the property, causing an unpaid bill, and various charges about maliciously killing pets will pop up. You can stay the course until he gives up, but just make sure you understand that you may be liable for accidents caused by radio frequency interference with passing vehicle's electronics.
Or you could just walk up to the guy and say "Hi neighbor, is there a problem, and if so, lets work it out."
Naahh, not a chance. Get out the mini trebouchet and carpet bomb the hell out of him with marbles, eggs, and anything else you have handy! Screw the bastard more than he ever thought of screwing you! Worry about the consequences later, after all you don't have to pay for it, or at least not most of it.
Try to behave like a man. Knock on his door, and ask him _politely_ why he thinks he needs to keep you and your friends away from your home. And I mean, politely. And alone, not with a gang of youths in the background. And listen to what he says. If he doesn't want to talk to you, try again. This may be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life, showing some respect for the people around you, thinking about the consequences of your actions and behaving like a responsible adult. Maybe think about things that you do that you think are funny when you are drunk, and think what other people would feel about them.
Now if you are completely without fault, and the reason for your problem _is_ indeed just paranoia, then the easiest and best solution is to just stay away. It doesn't cost you much, he feels better, and you feel better because you have done The Right Thing.
Some idiots here suggest you should escalate the problem. The problem with that is you don't know where it will end. If you escalate enough, it can end with destroyed lives, his or yours. Think about that.
...they don't know his email address.
Also, pet stores should not ever have ultrasonic store alarms, because rodents can hear them and the sound is very painful. These will kill gerbils from stress. Disclosure: I am not a gerbil, descended from a gerbil, or use gerbils for unnatural purposes, at least not that often.
By way of discussion of a general way to disable electronics; not advocating criminal damage or violation of local spectrum use codes;
..
.. somebody check, quick ..
Get a shotgun and cartridges (wider the bore*, the better).
1) Saw the barrel right down to within 2 inches or so of the top of the cartridge (may be illegal in your jurisdiction: check!).
EXTREME CAUTION - handling unstable explosives
- the catridge has, on the inner side of the metal cap, a small amount some unstable explosives (google picarates)
that are designed to go off when the cap is struck. This charge is enough to blow off a finger or maybe a hand.
It's purpose is to set off the [stable] main powder charge. The powder charge could take your head or leg off.
No naked flame, sparks, live wires, hard surfaces, loose tools, children, pets, etc etc etc.
2) pry open the cartridge and ditch the shot (keep the powder charge + wadding).
3) form an empty tube of cardboard, roughly pencil thin, and wrap enough very-thin (e.g. from a small transformer) copper wire
around it so it's wrapped diameter fits snugly back into the part-empty cartridge
NOTE
you need to wrap so that the full thickness is reached before moving onto the next layer - i.e. not all-the-way-up-the-tube
-then-back-to-the-start--for-each-layer
4) get a bar magnet fitting just a bit loosely into your tube
5) place the coil + magnet into the cartridge. the coil should rest about an inch from the top of the wadding.
Glue the coil in place.
6) Inert the bar magnet into the tube and glue the end to the top of the wadding
7) [needs experimentation or a physics person] maybe fix a load resistor (e.g. pencil lead) across the two free ends of the coil wire
Now, when the cartridge is fired in the shotgun,
1) the magnet accelerates through the center of the coil
2) the coil builds a magnetic field
3) as the shockwave of the powder charge successively destroys the coil from one end to the other,
the magnetic field is sucessively compressed into one end of the coil
4) as the final section of the coil is destroyed, an electromagnetic pulse is emitted
5) as no metal barrel is there to interfere, the pulse travels in the general direction of the aim of the gun.
So, when aimed in the general direction of a mosquito alarm, within say a hundred feet (?), it ought to fry it's circuits.
Perhaps circuits of a bunch of other stuff in the general direction.
Range is unknown; will be fairly loud (wear ear protectors).
I haven't tried this myself... Caveat experimentor
* bore (not boar[=pig]) is measure of inner width of barrel. works like this: "12-bore" = width of sphere of 1/12th a pound of lead ; "18-bore" = width of sphere of 1/18th a pound of lead - so smaller bore is bigger. mmkay? 'Guage' probably same thing in USA
Perhaps this is a method that the teenagers can use to bring about a legal redress for the harrasment, rather than breaking the device. Bring in the RSPCA or whatever local society covers animal welfare in that area. Animal cruelty might get more press than teenager-cruelty.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
...just conspire with the neighbours one day, and thank him for turning it off. Have the neighbours do the same. He may protest that it's still on, but you simply assure him that you certainly can't hear anything anymore (for drama, cock your head and pause a second when you do this). Now obviously he'll take the thing down and maybe try to fix it and remount it, but continue to ignore it and be pleasant to him. Hopefully he'll get the idea that even if the thing isn't working anymore, it obviously was not worthwhile in the first place, and either pack it away or ship it back for a refund.
In a world without walls, there is no need for Windows.
Unless you can EXACTLY duplicate the signal - which you can't - and transmit its inverse from EXACTLY the same point - which you can't - noise cancelling over an area will not work. It works in headphones because the area covered is much smaller than the sound wavelength - that is not so here.
= 63 in a small room, where there will be lots of echoes. I'm 60 but I can hear it if I turn the volume up, a high pitched warble that changes in a very disconcerting way when I move my head. (Not everyone over 25 is deaf!)
Imagine throwing two stones into a quiet pond. The two expanding waves will intersect and cancel at some points - but half a wavelength further on they will be in phase and so double. So it will be with the sound - varying from silent to twice as loud depending where you are. As the wavelength will be small, moving your head will be very uncomfortable! You can try the effect if you play the clean MP3 sample you'll find at http://www.star94.com/shows/index.cfm?show=cr&cid
Meanwhile - IGNORE the idiots here suggesting various illegal measures. Those WILL get the police involved, but not in the way you want. However, if you could get the authorities to recognise the problem (get the neighbours to all complain to your local councillor as well as the police), you may be able to persuade them to take out an ASBO against the offender preventing him from continuing the nuisance. (For our US friends, an ASBO is an "Anti-Social Behaviour Order", and ignoring it becomes a criminal offence).
This is one of those time a civil lawsuit is probably in order. The illegal device the old person bought is specifically designed to annoy young people by way of emitting ultra-sonic (to old people) sounds that, well, annoy young people. Take lots of pictures of the device on the old person's property, turned on and set to do its deed. Get young witnesses to sign affidavits attesting to the audible and annoying nature of the sound. Then all you have to do is also enter all of the product literature for this particular device into the court record. Since this device is specifically designed for one purpose -- to annoy young people -- and its sound emissions do not stay on the property of the old owner, the old owner is certainly responsible for what it is doing to the young people's enjoyment of their own private property and any adjoining public property.
Of course, first sending a very gracious but firm certified letter asking for the removal of the nuisance can only help your side look good and reasonable.
Seriously, how hard can it be....?
No sig today...
This Slashdot story has more potential for talk about ardware hacking, physics babbling, paranoia nursing and 2AM-James-Bond-action than anything I've read here in months. I don't mind a link to a store in a story this intriguing.
Good idea, actually... just find a friend with a seeing eye dog and have them try to enter the area. That would then involve all kinds of equal access laws, to your benefit. And my cats and dogs hated that sound, even just coming from my headset.
You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
Yup, My wife is a teacher and had one of these go off in her classroom. When she asked who the phone belonged to, she got a response of " you can hear that ?" . Pretty funny I thought. This led us to play with the tone. On her computer, with crap generic ten year old standard dell speakers, we could both hear the annoying tone. My computer has a much nicer sound card and speaker set up, and while I could not detect a difference in the tone, she was not able to tell if I was playing the tone or not.
Speaker quality is a must to recreate that sound.
Call bullshit if you like, but Cingular sells 7 of them, in increasing frequencies, on their CingularExtras site.
We run that site at work, so of course, we've tested them all. Most of us back in Operations can hear the first 4, with the exception of 3 guys - 2 in their late 30's, and one in his mid-20's. Those of us that can hear it (8 of us) range from early 20's to late 30's. About half of us can hear the 5th one. A couple of us can at least tell that the 6th one is doing something (including me at 32), and only the mid-20 year old guys can hear the 7th one.
This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U
No no, you don't want to do anything he can press charges about, and you shouldn't do anything that isn't a direct step in solving the problem.
Find the noise device, find its speaker, and stick a hat pin in through the speaker grille to pierce the speaker. Then remove the hat pin and walk away. The hole will cause the speaker to tear itself and will cease making any meaningful volume of noise, and the old coot won't be able to hear the difference. More importantly, he can't really do anything with the police about it because to explain how it's broken he'd have to explain what it's supposed to do in the first place, and then he'd be admitting that your complaints about him were true. He can hardly complain "hey, they broke my illegal noise making machine!"
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Go on over to his house, ring the bell, and when he answers, give him your friendliest smile, then cockpunch him.
The population is too large to limit yourself to peaceful solutions. Do what you feel!
Only if you have the attitude that "If perfection can not be achieved we shouldn't bother striving for it." Another wrong only leads us further away from a peaceful society towards the vigilante style societies of our past. By your model if I consider what your posting as "wrong," I have the right to seek vengence to "right" it. Only by treating others how we WISH to be treated, and not by how they treat us first, is our society going to advance. Will we ever achieve 100% of people doing it? No, but that doesn't mean that it's a dumb thing to do.
I was quoted out of context in my autobiography...
You modify your day-to-day activities somewhat - explain to him that you aren't trying to harass him., and ask him politely to turn the device off since you find it unpleasant.
I mean, you have tried to come to a reasonable accommodation, right?
Get a mosquito sensor, to detect when it is turned on, use it to power a 12Khz sounder focussed at his windows.
When he turns of the mosquito noise, the noise he can hear will go off.
When he turns it on again, he will hear it.
He will think it has gone wrong; and you know he feels the same pain you do.
Sam
blog.sam.liddicott.com
If he can't hear it, I think the easy fix is to wait until he is gone, then replace the batteries with dead ones, snip the power cord someplace where it won't be immediately obvious, or disable the device in some other way. Since he can't hear it, he'll just assume that it's working and no escalation is necessary.
'the Internet is right.'
Similarly, since you don't know any young people, it's obviously OK to blast them with borderline-ultrasonic sound *rolls eyes*.
My new blog
Talk to the guy and tell him his device is hurting your ears. Offer to help him put up a birdhouse for purple martins. Looking out for the birds should keep him busy and out of everyones hair.
If that doesn't work, a box of 1000 crickets cost about $10. Sneak a few thousand crickets in his flowerbeds and then tell him you read those electric mosquito repellers attract crickets. Crickets can be a little noisy and he might turn off his device hoping the other bugs go away.
'Same speed C but faster'
I thought I would deviate a bit and offer a more technological solution.
Let's examine the facts. He can't hear it, and neither can the police. That means you can't prove that it is making a load sound. However, that goes the other way too. He can't prove that it ISN'T making a sound and cannot even notice when it stops working.
Now, if you were to destroy the box, he would notice. If you stole it, again he would notice. If you pulled the power out, he would still notice because it wouldn't light up any more. Any cirucit disruption would cause the power indicator to not glow.
So, here is what you do. You get a 50 ohm resistor, and then sneak over there in the dead of the night with a screwdriver and a soldering iron. These devices are made with ultrasonic transducers. An ultrasonic transducer looks like a small can with holes in the top. It may also use speakers, which are readily identifiable. Simply sever the leads to the transducers/speakers and then solder a 50 ohm resistor in the place of each one. Put the device back together and no one knows that you have tampered with it.
If you do this, all indicator lights that the device has will still work. Every young person will notice the absence of sound, and the older people will be none the wiser. You get your peace back, and he gets to keep his smugness, everyone wins!
I am the penguin that codes in the night.
Sounds of this frequency are very easy to block as they're extremely directional.
If he wants to keep people off his lawn, just stick a cowel over it, so that it directs the sound down. If he has grass on his lawn, that should damp it down enough so that you have to physically be on his lawn to hear it.
The sane response is to borrow an ice cream truck. The noise is universally accepted - it is irritating beyond description, and will attract kids. I think it is the safe and appropriate answer to your problem.
AIK
Leaves no trace... http://slashdot.org/articles/99/09/10/0826258.shtm l
This isn't an "anti-mosquito" device. The device in question is used to disperse loiterers and in general make an area uncomfortable for human beings. It is called a mosquito because it makes a high pitched noise, like a mosquito, that is very annoying and drives people away. It is used outside of 7-11s and the like to keep the riff-raff from hanging around. It has no other purpose except to annoy people. That may make a difference to the answer here but a lot of folks didn't actually read the relevant info (nothing new for /.).