"I was watching an episode of Law and Order the other day, where they called the ring tone `the bumblebee,'" said Jerry Whiting, a Seattle Web designer who created the ring tone for free downloads on his ad-based site, jetcity orange.com. Since posting the ring tone 18 months ago, Whiting said, the site has received 1,000 hits a month.
"I thought it was a passing fad, but with the saturation of cell phones it turns out that I clearly underestimated the popularity," he said.
The Mosquito regularly ranges from $1,495 to $1,895. RMS Omega Technologies of Hanover in Anne Arundel County, one of the few U.S. retailers, is selling it for $1,250.
One prospective customer, the Calvert County Sheriff's Department in Southern Maryland, thought the apparatus could help clear certain areas of skateboarders, who gather late into the night and disperse when officers arrive, only to return when they leave.
"I don't want to give away the exact locations, but I can say that it will be put up mainly in the northern end of the county," said Sheriff Matt McDonough, who said community leaders plan to purchase the Mosquito this spring. "We're hoping to put a timer on the devices and run them from 10 p.m. to 6 in the morning. Hopefully, that will reduce the disorderly and public dis- turbance calls."
Already, the device has helped with youth crowd control at a school system in Columbia, S.C. Rick McGee, emergency services manager at Richland School District Two, said that the schools purchased two Mosquitos from RMS Technologies two months ago, installing one in a vehicle and mounting the other in a commons area.
"What we like about them is that you can move crowds without getting into a confrontation," McGee said. "We use the car device at sporting events, in the parking lot after the games where people start congregating and the problems start. We'll switch it on, and immediately you'll see heads turn around. They become irritated from the noise, and within about five minutes they've all gone somewhere else."
At his home in Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales, Stapleton tried to re-create the sound from his youth. He tested various attempts on his children, until they responded at a tone of 17 kHz tone at 85 decibels (dB). He then ramped up the irritating sound by making it peal at four times a second. Stapleton ultimately manufactured the Mosquito for commercial and law-enforcement use worldwide under his company, Compound Security Systems.
