Translate

Saturday 15 December 2012

Buzz Off

Hope springs eternal in the hearts of men, and having been occasionally plagued by mozzies (mosquitoes) on holidays (notably in Corfu and also once in Turkey), I read the following story with some anticipation .....

Mosquito Beat Radio - Beat to the DEET
Mosquito Beat Radio - Beat to the DEET

..... News agencies reported that a radio station broadcast ultrasound along with its programmes to repel mosquitoes .... great! Radio listeners in Brazil were told that listening station 'Band FM' was all you need to do to beat mosquitoes .... just have the radio stuck close by (probably their ears).
 
In fact so attractive was this tale, that apparently one of the world's top advertising awards went this year to the accompanying ad campaign .....But Oh No! scientists say its not true .... bummer! Apparently, it was all based on the idea that dragonflies have a wing beat frequency that repels mozzies which are its prey, and that mozzies avoid that beat frequency.

Oops, the radio station actually broadcast at 15kHz, and dragonflies have a wing beat frequency of between 20 and 170Hz ... but even if the radio station used this much lower frequency, they have tested, and it still doesn't work.

Ah well back to the DEET instead of the BEAT.

2 comments:

  1. These kinds of stories always turn out to be a fly in the ointment. Or is that a flea in the ear Ha Ha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry I never responded to your comment .... oops I wasn't very diligent back in 2012 was I? Belated thanks for the comment ... a flea in the ear is probably another story!

      Delete

All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.

Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.

Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.

Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.

Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.

Followers

Blog Archive

Its a Pucking World

Its a Pucking World
Dreamberry Wine Cover

About Me

My photo
A middle aged orange male ... So 'un' PC it's not true....