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SINGAPORE: For the past month, stallowners at Makan Shiokz coffee shop on the ground floor of Block 49 Teban Gardens have had to watch their regular customers turn around and go home after seeing the swarms of midges plaguing the block.
“At around 6 or 7pm, I see them walk here to buy food, and after they see the midges, they u-turn and go home,” said the coffee shop manager, who only wanted to be known as Zai.
“First we tried electric racquets. Then we bought electrical insect traps. Then we tried glue boxes. Then these weren’t working, so we bought small fogging machines to try fogging ourselves, and now we’ve put up this net.
“Every night in August, we even used a paint brush to brush the net and the columns with oil, because it is sticky and the midges get stuck.”
“The problem with (the coffee shop) being here, is because we are located at an angle and there is no HDB blocking us, the wind blows all the midges towards (the coffee shop),” said Zai.
“Whenever they do the fogging, it works for the reservoir, but then the midges come to us. You can see them sticking to the second and third floors also.”
He added: “We did email PUB asking if there’s any possibility for us to get compensation, because (the reservoir) belongs to them. But they emailed back and said no way of compensation.” According to Zai, PUB informed residents that the problem is predicted to persist until October.
“The insects really fly into your food. It makes me uncomfortable,” said housewife and regular customer Ms Normah Johan, 53.
Ms Normah stopped eating at Makan Shiokz for about a month, but recently started going to the coffee shop again as she observed that there has been a reduction in the swarms of midges.
Her husband, Mr Aziz Biat, drives a lorry for work every day, and has to wash it more often because the midges stick to the vehicle after he drives around the area.
“When it was hot in August, there were really a lot of insects flying around. Now it is a bit better,” said the 61-year-old. “Actually this is not so bad, it is just irritating. At least it is not mosquitoes, that actually can be dangerous.”
The couple has lived at Block 24 Teban Gardens for over 20 years. While their home has yet to be invaded by midges because their block is located further away from the reservoir, the family closes all their windows and sprays insect repellent before going to bed.
When CNA visited Teban Gardens between 4.30pm and 7pm on Thursday afternoon (Sep 5), midges were swarming above drains in large numbers, and dead midges had accumulated in crevices on walls and pillars, appearing to be dirt or dust at first glance. Standing still resulted in midges swarming around and getting into one's eyes, mouth, nose and hair.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...station-you-can-say-that-we-ve-given-11879188
