For some shopkeepers and other ‘challenged’ adults who haven’t figured out how to play nice with kids, they think the blood-sucking mosquito is the better of 2 evils. So much so that they’ve inspired a company to market “the MOSQUITO™ unit that uses complex high frequency sound to chase away those annoying teenagers!!!” Watch this CBS News video if you want to see it tested live, kiddos!

The Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent is the solution to the eternal problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping malls and around shops. The presence of these teenagers discourages genuine shoppers and customers' from coming into your shop, affecting your turnover and profits. Anti social behaviour has become the biggest threat to private property over the last decade and there has been no effective deterrent until now.

Acclaimed by the Police forces of many areas of the United Kingdom, the Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent has been described as "the most effective tool in our fight against anti social behaviour". Shop keepers around the world have purchased the device to move along unwanted gatherings of teenagers and anti social youths. Railway companies have placed the device to discourage youths from spraying graffiti on their trains and the walls of stations.

This is better than Big Brother. Better than an angry old lady waving her cane. Better than the “wah-wah-wah-wah” teacher in front of Charlie Brown. Better than a million “when I was your age walking up hill in snow barefoot… BOTH ways to school… I respected EVERY adult like they were the Pope!” comments dredged out of the coffin.

Doesn’t sound so bad, right?

One said he could hear the noise, then scampered away.

Another said is sounded like a repetitive “deep, deep, deep” and was indeed grating.

Yet another described it as resembling “a violin string (being rubbed), but really, really, really high pitched.”

The sound, Roth explains, is supposed to work as a repellant for a simple reason: Most people over 30 can’t hear it, most people under 20 can, and hate it.

And it causes an actual medical situation, too. Yippee!

It seems that there is a very real medical phenomenon known as presbycusis or age related hearing loss which, according to The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, “begins after the age of 20 but is usually significant only in persons over 65”. It first affects the highest frequencies (18 to 20 kHz) notably in those who have turned 20 years of age”. It is possible to generate a high frequency sound that is audible only to teenagers.

Best part of all?

Kids have a crazy little way of gettin’ you back, and bitin’ the mosquito that threatens to bite you:

A high-pitched alarm which cannot be heard by adults has been hijacked by schoolchildren to create ringtones so they can get away with using phones in class.

Techno-savvy pupils have adapted the Mosquito alarm, used to drive teenage gangs away from shopping centres.

They can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on.

The alarm, which has been praised by police, is highly effective because its ultra-high sound can be heard only by youths but not by most people over 20.

Schoolchildren have recorded the sound, which they named Teen Buzz, and spread it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth technology.

Now they can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on.

A secondary school teacher in Cardiff said: ‘All the kids were laughing about something, but I didn’t know what. They know phones must be turned off during school. They could all hear somebody’s phone ringing but I couldn’t hear a thing.

Basic law of physics: every action has its equal and opposite reaction, right? See, I was paying attention in 12th grade science! And seems that the teens of today are way ahead of the sine curve!

Reproduced with kind permission from Christian Long's 'think:lab' blog