Science News

World's First Mosquito Swatting Competition

A village in northern Italy is soon to hold the countries first ever mosquito-swatting contest ! 25 male contestants will be given 5 minutes to swat as many mozzies as they can. Judges will then count up the corpses and the swatter with the most to his name will win a prestigious golden mosquito and a gold medal ! We first highlighted the Italian mosquito problem in early July when it emerged that 25,000 people were bitten whilst watching the Euro 2000 final in Milan. The local authorities responded by stocking lakes and ponds where the mosquitos are breeding with thousands of imported South American Gambusia fish, hoping that they would eat the mosquito larvae before they had a chance to turn into adult mosquitos. In the meantime, locals are obviously taking matters into their own hands !

27th Aug 2000