Whenever he swings the racquet, he rejoices when he hears a sizzle and sees a mosquito drop to the ground.
CHINESE RACQUETS:
His mother, however, rues this new passion as he spends more time chasing mosquitoes than playing outside.
Keeping him happy are the Chinese mosquito-slaying racquets that are a big hit among Chennaites.
It’s the season when mosquitoes are swarming the city and Chinese companies have cashed in by flooding the market with these racquets.
At New Hindustan Electronics, a small shop on buzzing Ritchie Street which teems with shops hawking all manner of electronic goods, swarms of buyers come for Chinese mosquito racquets. The price ranges from Rs 125 to Rs 250, he said.
“There is no home in the city without a Chinese racquet ,” says M. D. G. Khalefuthullah, owner of the shop.
The Hunter mosquito racquet manufactured in Coimbatore is the only alternative to Chinese ones. However, due to the prevailing power shortage, the company is unable to keep up supplies allowing the Chinese ones to dominate, says Khalefuthullah.
With Chennai beginning to get warmer and mosquitoes losing their sting, the demand for racquets has declined sharply for Khalefuthullah, who now sells around ten a day compared to over 100 during the rainy season.
It is not only the racquets that are in big demand. Meshes for windows and mosquito repellents are also in great demand.
MESH PROTECTION:
Suresh Kumar, owner of Net & Fix, a dealer for the Netlon brand of meshes, says the demand for Netlon has surged this year over the last year due to the fear of dengue. Netlon is no longer a luxury, it has become a necessity in Chennai, he says.
Net & Fix services 5-10 homes each day. The peak demand is during the rainy season (April-May and August/September). According to a spokesperson from Dabur India, which owns the Odomos brand of mosquito repellents, the demand for Odomos has been on the rise to protect from mosquitoes that cause dengue, chikungunya and malaria. While not disclosing numbers, he says it has resulted in a sales spurt for the brand.
Odomos, which controls a lion’s share of 85 per cent of the mosquito repellent cream market in India, is today available in five formats — cream, lotion, gel, spray and oil.
“Consumers are becoming more aware of the long-term ill-effects of using insecticide-based repellents like coils, mats, liquid vapourisers which are harmful to inhale.
So, people are now increasingly shifting to applying products like Odomos,” says the spokesperson.
As the owner of a Chennai provision store says, anything to do with repellents, racquets, coils, vapourisers, creams is flying off the shelves faster than the mosquitoes can.
Key word;mosquito bat(reppelent)
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