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Download a 17KHz mosquito ringtone (MP3 or WAV)

p>A couple of years ago NPR had a story about the mosquito ringtone that my pal Colleen pointed out to me. When I heard what the Mosquito Ringtone was (a high frequency sound at 17KHz) I quickly made both MP3 and WAV files. You're invited to download the high frequency ringtone I made and use it as your cell phone's silent ringtone.

Boombox Stencil Seattle WA wallpaper imageAs we age, we lose the ability to hear high frequencies, a normal condition called Presbycusis. As a store owner if you don't want teenagers loitering in front, play high pitched sounds and they'll go away. Meanwhile your older customers can't hear the sound and aren't bothered by it (and will still patronize your business).

Students figured out that if you use a high frequency sound as your ringtone, teachers and parents won't be able to hear it. A new cheat was born. Silent cell phones were born.

Adults can't hear this high frequency ringtone but kids can. Students use the high pitch mosquito ringtone to receive text messages in school so their teachers can't hear their cell phones ring. I suppose you could call it test messaging.

high frequency Mosquito Ringtone Click here to hear and download the Mosquito Ringtone, the 17 KHz tone a.k.a. Teen Buzz. It's available as both a WAV and MP3 file. Take your pick. Given how poor most computer speakers are, you'll probably have better results listening to this through good headphones or external speakers.


Download the Mosquito Ringtone file and then install it on your cell phone like any other ringtone. Whatever you do to put your favorite song on your phone is what you need to do with this ringtone. You know the drill.

mosquito ring tone* Remember kids: MP3 files use lossey compression unlike WAV files. Your cell phone's frequency response may not reproduce 17000 Hz. Always go for quality.

I'm old (53) and I can't hear it but my three teen-aged sons all can. I'm a couple of years older than I was when this story hit NPR. My hearing is worse. While I've heard of adults who can hear the mosquito ring tone I don't hear about kids who can't. Try it out before depending on it. You've been warned...

Want to hear more free ringtones? You've come to the right place.

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