In news that has come just a little late for summer, scientists have revealed that the music of Skrillex can be helpful in repelling mosquitos.
Ask as many people as you can, and you’d likely be hard-pressed to find a single person who isn’t fed-up with the constant menace of mosquitos.
From their relatively superficial bites, to the dangerous diseases they carry, folks the world over are often looking for new ways to fight back against the insects.
While people often stock up on Aerogard in the summer months, or even try their hand at the old lemon method, it seems that the answer might actually be as simple as hitting up Spotify.
Yes, according a new study published in the journal Acta Tropica, the new method of repelling mosquitos appears to be none other than dubstep, or specifically, the music of Skrillex.
So what’s the science behind all this? Well, it actually is rather simple when you get down to it.
According to the researchers of this new paper, the use of sound is “crucial for reproduction, survival, and population maintenance of many animals,” and when it comes to insects, “low-frequency vibrations facilitate sexual interactions” while higher noises do not.
As part of their study, researchers subjected groups of the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti, if you’re wondering) to bouts of listening to Skrillex’s 2011 song, ‘Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites’, chosen for its variety of higher and lower-pitched sounds.
What they soon discovered was that mosquitos exposed to the song not only delayed the attacking of hosts, but also fed less, and copulated less than those in a non-musical environment.
“The observation that such music can delay host attack, reduce blood feeding, and disrupt mating provides new avenues for the development of music-based personal protective and control measures against Aedes-borne diseases,” researchers noted.
While this research might be good news for those who constantly fight with the dreaded mosquito, we definitely don’t recommend throwing out your insect repellent just yet.
However, you might want to run down to JB Hi-Fi and grab a copy of Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites before you have any outdoor barbecues in the near future.
Check out Skrillex’s ‘Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites’:
