Outdoor enthusiasts enjoying the Finnish summer know that insect repellent sprays may prevent angry female mosquitoes from sucking the blood of their victims, but it doesn’t break their desire to cling to human skin.
Mosquito suckers can’t penetrate a thick layer of clothing, but it's likely that summer sun worshippers won’t last long in heavy gear.
There seems to be no way of escaping the pesky flying marauders. Consumers now have to beef up their summer artilleries with heavy duty weapons such as bug traps.
“We get calls from customers every day asking for bug traps,” said Satu Teirikko of the Kempele Agri Market.
Time for the big guns
Just in time for the summer suffering experienced by many, an assortment of insect repellant devices and traps have come on the market, with prices as varied as the offering.
The bug-tormented may shell out under thirty euros for the cheapest liquid gas repellants, while they may fork out more than 1,000 euros for the state-of-the art fire power of devices that vacuum up the mite-sized whining persecutors. In spite of high prices, demand for these devices increases every year, leaving store owners unable to predict sales.
There’s just one of the high-powered bug zappers left on the shelves of the Agri Market store in Kempele, but even that is not for sale as it has been reserved by telephone.
“Customers have been trying to reserve their own units, but all 60 units have already been sold. We’ll just have to carry bigger stocks next summer,” Teirikko said.
The war must be won
A one-thousand euro investment speaks to the confidence the insect warriors place in the weaponry – but also to their obsession with their flying foes.
“At the moment I’m buying this smaller repellent which my friends recommended. The bugs are getting to me,” admitted Jukka Haaga of Kiiminki, as he contemplated the purchase of a larger unit later on.
And so outdoor enthusiasts have declared war in the season of flying insects, and Finns are arming their homes and gardens with the best of offensive weapons, regardless of price. It will be a fight to the finish to ensure that man triumphs over mite.