History of The Mosquito

The mosquito came to life back in 2005 when a welshman by the name of Howard Stapleton came up with the idea of using high pitched frequencies to keep teenagers from loitering outside of shops.  The device works by emitting a series of high frequency tones that are generally only able to be heard by teens and those under the age of 20.  The idea behind the device came to him, after his 17 year old daughter came back home from the corner store crying after she was bullied by a group of loitering teens.  Mr. Stapleton went to the store to confront the manager about the problem, but found out there was little to be done.  Upset and disapoited he went to work on the first prototype of the Mosquito, and with the help of his kids produced a design that would quickly become every 7-11 clerks dream device.  See as humans begin to age they gradually loose the ability to hear high pitched sounds over time.  Picking up on this biological fact, Mr. Stapleton was able to create a set of high pitched sounds that only affected the audible range that teens could normally hear, while it went unheard by adults and those over the age of 20. 

Presbycusis

Presbycusis is a gradual loss of hearing as the age.  Inside each persons ear are tiny receptors that as you begin to age become less sensitive.  This results in peoples inability to hear high tones and is said to affect nearly 30% of adults over the age of 60.  Other factors that lead to presbycusis is exposure to loud noises, high blood pressure or diabetes.

The Mosquito Ringtone

It wasn’t soon after Howard Stapleton released his commercial Mosquito repelling device, that teens found that they could recrete the same sounds that were inaudible for adults to hear and use them as ringtones on their cellphones.  Soon after the ringtones were released they quickly spread throughout Europe as students found that they could now descreately use their cellphones in the classroom while they went undetected by teachers.  It did not take long for the ringtones to spread like wildfire, and students in the US and around the world had to get their hands on the Mosquito Ringtones or Ultra Sonic Ringtones as some people referred to them by. As newspapers and media outlets began to pick up on the Mosquito ringtones, they quickly dubbed the sounds Teen Buzz, as it was clearly the buzz going around by teens.   It was even used in a KFC TV Commercial , where KFC gave away free $10 gift cards to who ever could identify what the tone was hidden inside the commercial.