Dubstep Could Be the Answer to Humanity's Mosquito Problem

For some reason, researchers have discovered that playing a specific Skrillex song stops mosquitoes from eating and breeding.

I'm not sure which branch of science this is, but I would have definitely been a lot more interested in STEM subjects growing up if I discovered that the power of gratingly-annoying electronic music had the power to drive the world's objectively worst animal into extinction.

To say mosquitoes are a huge problem is an understatement. They're the number one murderers of human beings. More than Hitler. More than Pol Pot. More than the Dutch in the Congo. More than Stalin. More than that eighth grader who's obsessed with Call of Duty who's just having an "off day" and would totally smoke you in that other game he was just playing but he just feels like taking it easy on you now for some reason.

Mosquitoes are more deadly than all of those murderers combined.

The crazy thing is, they're not even a "necessary evil" contributing to the planet's larger, global ecosystem or anything like that. The overwhelming majority of the world's ecologists agree mosquito extinction would have little to no negative impact on the world.

That's  probably why so many scientists are working like mad to find a way to kill these nasty little buggers off once and for all.

And that brings us back to our good friend, Skrillex.

While researchers were studying the Aedes aegypti mosquito, they found certain low-frequency vibrations — like those found in the Skrillex track "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" — threw the mosquitoes off their game so much that they were unable to mate or eat.

The lifespan of a male mosquito is 10 days. For a female, it ranges from 42-56 days. That's not a lot of time, and if you disrupt a mosquito from eating long enough, you could kill off an entire generation.

It's important to note only female mosquitoes drink blood, and the only reason they suck that blood is to derive enough iron  to lay eggs. But if you're blasting dubstep long enough, male or female, you could put a significant dent in the mosquito population.

OK, so maybe rolling through mosquito-infested areas blaring this track isn't the best solution, but further studies into these frequencies could provide a real solution to reducing the number of mosquitoes in areas where people contract deadly mosquito-borne diseases like Zika, malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile virus.

Maybe using existing radio or communication towers to broadcast these frequencies at a level too low for human beings to hear, but high enough to stop  mosquitoes from eating and mating, and we could be well on our way to destroying the insect that's been a blight on this planet ever since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The answer to our mosquito problem could also lie in the study of air vibrations themselves. During the research study, scientists noted there was a marked decrease in the number of bugs eating and mating in the group that was listening to the Skrillex track.

Another study revealed the defense mechanisms of mosquitoes are triggered when they feel vibrations in the air that could potentially threaten them.

It's kind of hard to focus on anything when your life is in danger, no matter how hungry or horny you are. So understandably a mosquito's self-preservation mechanism kicks in whenever it sense these vibrations in the air.

Which means that the track doesn't necessarily have to be a Skrillex one, but really anything with those low-wave frequencies.

If only it could be as easy as snapping one's fingers to kill all the planet's mosquitoes like the comic above, but we could just suck it up and pretend we like dubstep for a while until all of these nasty little bloodsuckers just waste away.