I’d heard about The Mosquito a few years ago as a European solution to the “teenagers loitering outside storefronts” problem. (In America we just make our teenagers stay at home.) A Consumerist thread pointed me to this YouTube video that you can use to figure out if you can hear the sort of high‐frequency sound generated by The Mosquito. I could near nothing until 17.7khz — at which point it clicked in, clear as a bell and annoying as Pauly Shore. It made me wish for the age‐based hearing loss that makes those over 25 supposedly unable to hear it. Will this keep kids away from your place of business? Yes, but it’d also keep me away, and I’m 26.
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I bet these sounds are damaging to the ear and probably cause a lot of stress (with prolonged exposure) whether or not people hear them.
Well, if you’re “too old” to hear The Mosquito, it likely won’t cause damage, because your hearing has deteriorated to the point where your ears simply can’t pick up the signal, so to speak. (But I am not an otolaryngologist.)
But it’s also possible to hear the sound and not realize you’re hearing it. It’s very similar to the squeal a television makes, for instance, but that noise doesn’t bother me unless I’m deliberately trying to listen for it.
I would not be surprised to learn that there is a class of people who can hear The Mosquito but don’t realize what it is, and are therefore measurably crabbier in certain retail stores for reasons they don’t understand.