The invasion of mosquitoes these days boosted the sale of repellents.
Annoying and aggressive, these stinging enemies appeared after the rains of late January and early February;
occupying squares and parks;
prodding right and left every distracted walker who wanted to take advantage of the good weather over the weekend.
Faced with this disrespectful outrage, people en masse sought protection in
repellents.
Thus, sales grew almost overnight, and the shortages that were already being verified intensified.
Claudio Páez, from the Union of Kioskers of the Argentine Republic, says that last Friday they started selling well and that since then people have continued buying repellents.
"Until that day there was no movement. I had stocked up because of what had happened with the
previous invasion
. But then all that stopped. It stopped raining, the temperature dropped and people stopped buying them. With this new invasion, we began to sell well again. On Friday sales grew and the weekend continued. In three days what had not been sold in the previous weeks was gone," he commented.
And he added that there is stock but he believes it will run out.
Getting repellent during the invasion can become a titanic task.
People, fed up with bites, go out to buy and the shortage begins to be noticed.
Yolanda Durán, from the Business Chamber of Argentine Development and Southeast Asian Countries, told
Clarín
that
"there is a shortage of repellents. There is none.
We ask for it and the wholesalers and distributors don't have it. And if they have anything, they
charge you a lot.
Not even "They don't even put prices on the shelves. That's why there aren't any."
Depending on the place and area, a repellent can cost
around 5 thousand pesos.
In some places they offer them cheaper, almost half as much.
It all depends on whether there is stock or not.
According to the newsstands, the one that sells the most is the green Off, which lasts longer.
Operation in the City
The Ministry of Public Space and Urban Hygiene of the City of Buenos Aires reported this Monday that it continues with the
disinfestation plan in green spaces, parks and squares.
Starting in December, when the last invasion of wild mosquitoes occurred, operations were reinforced with additional interventions in the largest green spaces in Buenos Aires.
In situations like the current one, large parks are visited weekly or biweekly.
So far,
3,561 operations have been carried out between December and so far in February.
The tasks consist of applying the product where there is the presence of adult mosquitoes.
This procedure is called ULV thermofogging, which is carried out in two ways: manually with motorized, manual and/or electric sprayers and/or
sprinklers that spray the product in small spaces
;
and using a truck that travels, spreading or spraying in open spaces.
In various surveys carried out during the month of December, the existence of green spaces with a very high abundance of Aedes albifasciatus larvae and the presence of adult mosquitoes in several neighborhoods and localities of the AMBA were confirmed.
Peaks of abundance of this species are usually short-lived, as
individuals die within a few weeks.
However, because after about 15 days without rain, they returned last week,
temporary pools continue to form in which the species develops
and this is why new cohorts are recorded, which give continuity to the high abundances of this species. .
Is there a danger of dengue?
The species of mosquito that caused a new invasion of the Metropolitan area of Buenos Aires and La Plata
is not the one that transmits dengue.
The “Aedes Aegypti” mosquito, vector of the Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya viruses, does not usually develop in parks or squares in the City, but rather does so indoors.
Mosquito alert: citronella can be an ally against these insects.
The procedures that are being carried out in Buenos Aires green spaces are intended to mitigate the proliferation of
wild mosquitoes and do not eliminate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito
because it does not reproduce there.
For this reason, the most effective method to prevent the proliferation of the dengue-transmitting mosquito is the elimination of objects that serve as a reservoir or that accumulate water in
private homes and their surroundings.
How long will they be?
Specialists assure that the mosquitoes that bother us now will live
for about 20 days.
And they assure that the "
mosquito invasion"
may last for a period of 10 days.
They say that the invasion will last ten days.
María Victoria Micieli - Center for Parasitological and Vector Studies - affirms that this latest invasion corresponds to "flood"
mosquitoes .
This is what happened
at the end of December
and beginning of January. The new rains (which were very abundant)
have flooded new sites and the larvae that hatched there (approximately 7 to 10 days ago) generated this new invasion of Aedes albifasciatus.
S.C.