Greater Kaohsiung residents are set to be able to turn the pests that have spread dengue fever in the southern city into an asset, as health authorities plan to reward those who have caught the most mosquitoes by today.
In the campaign that started on Wednesday, officials have asked the public to collect as many of the mosquitoes contributing to the outbreak as possible and tally them by today in a bid to remove the key transmitter of the disease.
The pests being targeted are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, also known as the yellow fever mosquito and the tiger mosquito respectively.
According to the Greater Kaohsiung Department of Health, which is organizing the campaign, the winner would be the person who has caught the largest number of those two types of mosquitoes — regardless of their state of being (mature or in larval form), alive or dead.
“Instead of fining people who fail to remove standing water and other breeding sites around their homes, we think this program could raise greater community participation,” a department official said.
The No. 1 mosquito catcher would be rewarded with a NT$3,000 (US$100) prize, while the top 10 contestants would each be given free bug spray and mosquito nets, the department said.
To be eligible for the prizes, participants must bring their catches to Alley 161, Lichi Street in Kaohsiung between 8am and 10:30am today, the department said, adding that the results are scheduled to be announced after city staffers tally the number of mosquitoes turned in.
That is due to be followed by a community cleaning event, it added.
The competition ranks among the more unconventional approaches to clearing the municipality of the mosquitoes amid an outbreak of 7,537 cases of dengue fever this year as of Tuesday, including five more severe hemorrhagic dengue fever cases.
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