Dubstep could protect against mosquito bites

According to a recent scientific study, the way to avoid mosquito bites is to listen to electronic music – specifically dubstep by Skrillex.

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Sound is “crucial for reproduction, survival, and population maintenance of many animals,” says a team of international scientists specialising in mosquitoes and the diseases they carry.

They subjected adults of the species Aedes aegypti, known as the yellow fever mosquito, to electronic music to see whether it could work as a repellent.

Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, a track by Skrillex which features on his Grammy-award winning album of the same name, was chosen because of its mix of very high and very low frequencies.

“In insects, low-frequency vibrations facilitate sexual interactions, whereas noise disrupts the perception of signals from conspecifics [members of the same species] and hosts,” the scientists said.

And the results, which were published in the journal Acta Tropica, were good news for us and for Skrillex.

Female adult mosquitoes were “entertained” by the track and attacked hosts later and less often than those in a dubstep-free environment.

Scientists said “the occurrence of blood feeding activity was lower when music was being played”.

The scientists also found that mosquitoes exposed to the song had sex “far less often” than mosquitoes without music.

Story by BBC Newsbeat