Until when they stay and the plot of why the repellent is missing

“In Córdoba they call him mosquito… the term is not so bad.” Biologist Sylvia Fisher, researcher at Conicet and director of the Mosquito Study Group at the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the UBA, was looking for a piola noun to designate the irritating cloud of Aedes albifasciatus that “occupies almost half of Argentina.” Clarion He consulted her to understand when they would leave, a central issue considering that days ago buying mosquito repellent became a complicated undertaking.

You can find the occasional small bottle of (for many, impractical) cream repellent, or a container of the national version based on citronella oil, lighter and more natural, less effective in terms of duration and generally indicated for pediatric use.

As for the spray, the main pharmacies in the city of Buenos Aires have not had one for days and, with regard to, for example, the neighborhoods of Villa Crespo or Constitución, this chronicler received the same answers three days ago, in different pharmacies. “A brief”there was nothing left“or the dedicated”It looks like they will deliver after noon.”.

In supermarket chains it is no better. For some, searching online will give them a false sense of success, but when the user, already logged in, actually tries to buy, he will see that ‘no hay stock‘, sometimes followed by the proactive “let me know when this product arrives”.

What do the main manufacturers of repellent?

The leading brand in the market is OFF!, one of the big absentees on the shelves in 2024. At the request of this medium, SC Johnson, its manufacturer, explained in writing that, due to the sudden increase in mosquitoes, “there was a unprecedented climb in the demand for repellents”, which “caused a shortage of products mainly in the points of sale of the AMBA and the central area of ​​the country.”

They clarified that they take “very seriously” the “responsibility of producing and providing high quality products to combat mosquitoes and insects in general, for consumers in Argentina” and, in this sense, “the company has been working hard to increase production and delivery of products to its distributors and retail customers.”

To achieve this, “all measures are being taken to normalize supply, adding more production shifts that will work uninterruptedly. It is estimated that in the coming weeks the supply should normalize,” they added.

But is that period useful or have the mosquitoes already been appeased?

Although the largest manufacturer ruled out having had specific problems in relation to import obstacles, several sources from the commercial sector assured that, in effect, there was a productive input necessary to manufacture repellent whose arrival in the country It was delayed in 2023 (by the SIRAS authorized in dribs and drabs in the economic management of Sergio Massa).

According to a source from a supermarket chain who asked not to be named, the current shortage is due, on the one hand, “to the fact that there was no confirmed calculation and that is why they are not able to satisfy the demand, which increased due to the weather and mosquitoes”, even though (he clarified) “there was a remaining stock from last year, in which very little was sold due to the drought” (dengue outbreak included ).

In other words, “part of it was a lack of calculation.” But, “in addition, there was an import issue, which delayed everything. In this sense, even if they had calculated well, They didn’t have the raw materials to make. That’s why it’s so complicated now.”

There are those who these days made a pocket sacrifice (5,000 to 10,000 pesos) in exchange for that one miraculous repellent found in the neighborhood Chinese supermarket.

A second source also linked to the supermarket provided some context. He said that since these businesses remained outside the ‘fair prices’ policy, the manufacturers of different items (from drinks to repellents) sold to them by selling “at the price they wanted and forcing them to buy the entire assortment.”

That is, all presentations (small, large, with packaging like this or that) of the same product. “It’s as if I told you: ‘If you want me to sell it to you, you have to buy the entire line from me.‘” he explained. In this way, he assured, manufacturers compensated for what they could not earn through the so-called “large stores” (large supermarkets), where suppliers, on the other hand, were (in turn forced by the Government) to put timely presentations on the gondola, to comply with the “fair prices” policy.

This would explain that in these “informal” stores (the source said to refer to the Chinese) there are still some repellents of various types today, but at a very high price.

“No, you can’t talk about millions. You have to add several more zeros. The cloud of mosquitoes covers many provinces. Colleagues from Santiago del Estero, northern Santa Fe, southern Chaco told me that it is impressive. Mosquitoes geographically cover an incredible surface area,” Fischer said.

His explanation of the behavior of this “flood” mosquito is passionate and contagiously interested: “It is a particular mosquito because it breeds in aquatic environments recurring. In other words, it goes through flood, drought and flood environments again. We call them puddles of rain, we.”

“There the females lay eggs, but not in the water but on the ground, which can be a dry puddle or the edge of a puddle that will get bigger if it rains,” he clarified.

It sounds fascinating: the eggs are laid by the females in a strategic place; dry corners that they know will get wet sooner or later, with “sooner or later” being a range as wide as “tomorrow” or “within a year,” Fischer said.

The egg, waiting to hatch when it gets wet (to become a larva and then a mosquito), will still be alive as long as it takes.

“If there are many days of rain and this happens in many puddles, you have millions of larvae developing and millions of adults constantly emerging and millions of females looking for blood to mature their eggs,” the scientist clarified. On the contrary, in the face of a “prolonged drought, a accumulation of generations of eggs waiting to get wet.”

Finally, when will the mosquitoes let up? Perhaps before the supply of repellent is normalized, taking the imprecise “next few weeks” communicated by SC Johnson.

According to Fischer, even though there are many mosquitoes laying eggs and even though it continues to rain and more larvae can hatch quickly, “the species has a strategy to do not hatch all at once”. They stagger or dose their own production, one could say, in order to guarantee the survival of the collective over time.

“Even though there are a lot of females laying eggs, not all of them are going to hatch and many are also going to die, which will cause the number to go down,” said the expert, and concluded: “I would say that in a week to ten days it should placate. This is a peak. These are not situations that last all summer, even if it continues to rain.”