THE MOSQUITO

Howard Stapleton

The Mosquito was invented by Howard Stapleton, after his 17 year old daughter Isobel returned home from the local store after being accosted by a rowdy group of teenagers.  Upon hearing about the event, Mr. Stapleton went down to the local store to speak with the shop owner to complain, it was obvious he wasn’t going to move the local hoodlums along.  

Having a background in security he knew there would be a demand for a product to deter local teens from causing problems. So he quickly got to work, in a few hours he came up with a device that could create a high pitched noise that was irritating to hear by his kids but that he could not hear.  The next day he returned to the local store, and parked across the street from the loitering teens, within 15 minutes of turning on his device the teens left, due to the irritating noise the device emitted. 

The Mosquito

The mosquito device operates by emitting a series of  high frequency tones that are annoying and irritating to listen to, that is outside the normal hearing range of most adults.  However, teens and young adults under the age of 24 can hear the tones, due to a condition known as presbycusis.  Presbycusis, is the loss of hearing that most individuals encounter as they grow older, due to changes in the inner ear as a person ages.  Once the mosquito device is activated it puts out a 85 decibel tone that is disturbing and irritating to teenagers.  While the device itself is loud and irritating it causes no damage to your ears, so its a perfect deterrent for local businesses owners who are fed up with loiterers. 

The Mosquito Ringtone

It wasn’t before long until teenagers found out they could create the same tones on their computer and then transfer them to their cellphones creating a ring tone that was unable to be heard by parents and teachers.  And thus the Mosquito Ringtone or Teen Buzz as some people call it was born.