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

..... 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.