just an enquiry. In England I read of a device which emits some sort of subsonic wave which teenagers can hear and find terrible and so they move . I think its called a "mosquito". I read of several shops in England deploying/installing them to deter kids hanging around but the lagality was questioned. Anyone know if the device is available here and legal?
I object to these devices both on principle and in light of possible risks. Maybe I should procure and use a directed-microwave-nerve-gun because you are standing outside my house with your cap on back-to-front ?
Lob, this isn't an ultrasound device against rodents. It emits noise in the 16-18 kHz range to shoo away young wrongdoers and costs 1'200 Fr. (Swiss distributor's website ).
According to the distributor's website, the federal council wasn't in favor of banning the device. What he doesn't write though is that last March, the administrative court of Chur backed the local police's order to have two Mosquito devices deactivated because they can be heard on public ground (court ruling here in German). This particular installation was featured prominently in the media last year.
I don't know if there are other Mosquitos in use in Switzerland, I don't know of a single one in Zurich. But I don't think that any court has ruled in favor of the Mosquito nor that there have been other court cases so far. The Mosquito is a recent invention and has only been available in Switzerland for 18 months or so.
The emission from such things are not containable. What we need now for completeness is an Audiologist to confirm possible hearing loss from exposure to such sound...
it's annoying, I actually have the things that come in the yellow box and take little bottles plugged into the underside - the new generation have a push-activation which makes it deploy the "smell" for 8 hours to kill the bugs.
I might take the screamy thing on vacation. Think it was from Media Markt in Grancia that I got it.
The maximum power output of these things is not loud enough to create hearing loss, also given the concept that those who can hear it would not be exposed to the sound for long.
The concept has been widely used across the UK to deter teenagers, although some counties have since removed them (due to possible human right abuse claims...).
There's also a mobile phone ringtone which can be purchased, based on the same principle. The idea here is that only the kids and not their parents will know when their phone is ringing...as long as the processor and speaker in your mobile is good enough to generate above 16,000 Hz....
So in all, it's annoying for children and young adults (and some adults who retain their high frequency hearing past their 20's) but will not do any damage as such.
...oh. I saw Interdiscount selling some "purely electronic" ones for 5 or 7 CHF. Was just wondering about them. My 1 year old wakes up with alot of mosquito bites every day. As an American, I still haven't figured out why Europeans haven't caught onto screen windows, sliced bread or automatic cars...but I guess that's a topic for another thread
My little brother uses the ringtone. Although I am an adult, (I think) and I still hear it. So does my 58 yr old mother. So it's not 100% adult proof. And also young children can hear it.
Why would someone want one of these? If there are thugs hanging outside your house yell at them. That has worked for me in every city i have lived in. And I'm quite sure the teens here are less likely to pull a gun on me than they were back in Chicago where I lived.
Wow, that's interesting. I knew the range of sound for the human ear was between 0-20khz, but I didn't know that peoples hearing degraded below 16khz on average after their 20's. ...so I guess I'd be wasting my money buying that new Barry Manilow on "high def audio" then?
Been following this since it was introduced in the U.K.... Can't say i agree with it much. Don't think teenagers have gotten any more anti-social than when i was one myself.
May be the rest of us are just getting older and grumpier.
anyways a reasonable well balanced blog article on the matter may be found here