Sonny John More is a professional musician known around the world as Skrillex. I'm sure he is like many people in the professional music industry. He likes to sing, write songs and produce records. His motivation is probably to share his musical talent with the world. It seems there may be researchers who enjoy his work so much, they believe it has potential beyond meeting the musical desires of his many dedicated fans. They have used his music as part of research on mosquitoes. A study has shown that mosquitoes had a decreased amount of sex and sucked less blood when they were given an opportunity to listen to Skrillex music.
As a person with
absolutely no musical talent, I can only imagine how this would
affect a successful and professional musician. Would you be insulted
that your music was used as part of an experiment to control a pesky
insect? Would you be pleased and list it as a reason even people who
don't like your music to purchase it and play it around their home to
control mosquitoes? If it were me, I'd think it would be neat if
they named a bug spray after me.
Below are excerpts from
the story with my valuable insights in italics.
The authors of the new
study, published March 25 in the journal Acta Tropica, wanted to
test whether loud music could be used to manipulate mosquito behavior
as an "environmentally friendly" alternative to
insecticides.
If I were Skrillex, I
would be insulted to have my work referred to as loud music. Why
couldn't they refer to it as popular music or music of the current
generation? They make it sound as if any music could have been used
as long as it had been played loudly. I wonder if jazz music would
put mosquitoes in the mood to mate more often. Blues music may make
mosquitoes feel depressed and want to drink more. We'll probably
never know since they chose to only use certain music.
In their study, the
researchers tested their hypothesis by blasting electronic music from
a speaker set up near a cage of hungry female mosquitoes who had gone
12 hours without a meal. The cage also contained one virgin male
mosquito (for sex) and a restrained hamster (for lunch).
I bet if any females of
any species had gone 12 hours without a meal, they would be hungry no
matter what music was played. At this point, the female mosquitoes
are probably willing to listen to anything and only think of being
fed. I like a single virgin male mosquito locked up with hungry
females. I wonder why it had to be a virgin. An experienced male
mosquito will probably know what the hungry females want to hear to
put them in the mood even if they are hungry.
“Hey, you are one
good looking lady mosquito. I know you're hungry, but you do have a
rather beautiful thorax.”
“Get lost. I'm out
for blood.”
“You know some
attention from a male mosquito like me with a well-developed abdomen
might be what you need more than food.”
“Okay, but only if
you play Skrillex music not so loudly.”
“It's a deal.”
When the team compared the
mating and feeding behaviors of the Skrillex mosquitoes to those of a
control group, whose cage was silent, they found that the
noise-addled bugs had significantly less sex and sucked
less blood than their quiet-space counterparts.
What kind of results do
you expect from hungry females being in a place where music is being
blasted and the only person they can get lucky with is a virgin? Of
course, those in the quiet experiment did better. The female
mosquitoes there were able to eat, relax and focus on deflowering a
virgin male mosquito. This type of activity requires a quiet
atmosphere to be successful.
Skrillex
mosquitoes also had about five times less sex than mosquitoes flying
in silence. The researchers said the music's aggressive vibrations
may have confused mosquitoes who were trying to synchronize their
wingbeats — an insect equivalent of swiping right.
I guess Skrillex music
isn't made to put hungry female mosquitoes in the mood to have their
way with a virgin male mosquito. If I were a musician, I would not
feel too bad about not having hungry female mosquitoes or virgin male
mosquitoes be part of my fan base. This would only be a concern if
they were able to purchase music. I doubt mosquitoes are able to
leave music reviews on social media.
The
results of this study harmonize well with previous research that has
linked human-made noise to the disruption of insect behavior. Similar
studies have found that leaf-eating insects get distracted from
their meals when exposed to the pulses and chirps of an audio
oscillator and that beetles who listen to AC/DC's rock classic "Back
in Black" eat fewer aphids than beetles who forage in
silence.
So, if I understand
correctly, there are researchers who sit around all day, put on music
and watch how bugs react to it. I notice they failed to mention
people begin swearing and yelling from being annoyed by mosquitoes
and how that could have disrupted insect behavior. I'm sure it takes
someone with extensive knowledge of science to know how to properly
play Back in Black by AC/DC to beetles. I wonder if the experiment
would have an entirely different result if they would have play music
by the Beetles for the beetles?
Here
is a link to the story.
https://www.livescience.com/65125-mosquitoes-dont-care-for-skrillex.html
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!
If you think THIS is
funny. Click on the Links Below to Check out My Humor Book
The Longer You Live The
Older You Get
Or my other one
I Speak Cursive Like a
Baby Boomer
No comments:
Post a Comment