Viral study shows Skrillex song reduces mosquito bites

A study has shown that a Skrillex song, ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,’ significantly reduced the amount of bites from mosquitoes that were exposed to the dubstep track.

While you shouldn’t necessarily say goodbye to your bug spray, an alternative kind of insect repellent is going viral online after a 2019 study resurfaced on social media.

The study, published in scientific journal Acta Tropica in June 2019, studied the effects of music on female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes — specifically, dubstep.

Surprisingly, scientists discovered that mosquitoes that were forced to listen to ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’ by Skrillex for ten minutes took longer to attack hosts. They also made fewer visits to feed, overall, and bit hosts far less. 

They also mated less frequently when exposed to the song, as opposed to the other control group of mosquitoes that were contained in an environment without any music.

Skrillex song reduces mosquito bites and mating frequency

Scientists explained these findings in the paper, saying that “low-frequency vibrations facilitate sexual interactions, whereas noise disrupts the perception of signals” in insects.

Thus, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, which contains “excessive loudness, constantly escalating pitch, and very high and very low frequencies,” are an effective way to combat mosquito breeding and feeding behaviors.

As reported by the Smithsonian magazine, these findings could offer a “novel and environmentally-friendly alternative” to regular pesticides, with Vice suggesting that the song could be impacting mating rituals by “confusing” the mosquitoes.

“The observation that such music can delay host attack, reduce blood feeding, and disrupt mating provides new avenues for the development of music-based personal protective and control measures against Aedes-borne diseases,” scientists wrote in the Acta Tropica paper.

Skrillex also responded to the study, writing in a now-deleted tweet: “YEEAHHH,” alongside a series of emojis.

Mosquitos aren’t the only insects impacted by loud, energetic music; a 2018 study from Ecology and Evolution showed that female beetles who listened to AC/DC stopped eating aphids (baby beetles), causing a sudden boom in the beetle population.