Castlegar battles drunken crowds with ultrasonic device

A B.C. Interior city has turned to a high-tech device in an effort to solve an age-old problem — it's using sound waves to keep young people from loitering in some areas.

The city of Castlegar has installed a device called the Mosquito Ultrasonic Teen Repellent, which emits an irritating, high-pitched sound that most people over the age of 25 can't hear.

Castlegar Mayor Lawrence Chernoff said drunken behaviour outside the Element, a popular nightclub made the devices necessary.

"We tried various other things that didn't work. And so we thought, well, here's a pilot project that we would try and see what it would do," said Chernoff.

The Mosquito was developed in Britain, and has been in use for several years in Europe. It is designed to emit what its makers say is a harmless but irritating sound to make groups of young people move away from the area where it's being used.

The U.K. company that makes the devices claims the natural deterioration of people's hearing as they age, ensures that almost no one over the age of 25 would be affected — they just can't hear it.

Castlegar spent almost $7,000 on the ultrasonic devices, and Chernoff says there has been a drop in the nightclub problem.

"It has discouraged, and it has moved them along," he said. "We're not cleaning the streets constantly or the Element nightclub with their people out there cleaning, because these things just aren't happening anymore in the downtown core."

Now the council is considering installing more of them throughout Castlegar, but not everyone thinks the device does what it's supposed to do.

Jessilyn Melville, 20, recently heard the noise when she was with a group of friends.

"It was not anything that would have driven me out of the area that's for sure. I was just curious as to what the noise was. It was just sort of a buzzing noise that was unfamiliar, really," said Melville.

Melville agreed there are groups of young people who do need to be moved along, but said she thought the devices were probably not the best way to spend tax dollars.

The devices have been the subject of a debate in Britain about whether they infringe on young people's rights.