Mosquitoes are annoying insects and in most parts of the world also dangerous, because they transmit diseases like malaria, dengue fever or Zika. When I grew up, these tropical diseases were not a problem in Finland – but the global warming is changing that, making mosquitoes even more feared summer element in the northern parts of the world, too.
Hot or not, mosquitoes need a humid environment, and that is definitely what a summer in Finland is. Every Finn knows that the amount of the little insects can be overwhelming. In Lapland, where they most abound, you can see huge clouds of mosquitoes moving through the forest, and sometimes the air is so thick of them you can constantly hear their sound. How to cope with mosquitoes?
As a child I hated them. Our family had adopted the strategy we could call Expose For Immunity. It meant that the first day of summer you should let them suck your blood without restriction so that your body would become immune to their saliva – it is the saliva that makes your skin itch after they have had their feast. Obviously, this method is out of question from the point of view of the diseases they are now known to transmit even in northern countries such as Finland. But in the 90’s it was common to make kids go out in a swim suit and let them have it with the mosquitoes so that they would become immune to their spit and have a great, worry free summer after the itchy shock wore off.
Nowadays none of the previous is recommended, of course. There is a wide array mosquito repellents to choose from, many of them natural enough to be used on kids. But what we, pre-millenial kids, learned those summers is that you can survive mosquitoes with nothing else than your hands. And we learned to swat them quite efficiently. Today Mosquito Swatting Championships are organised every summer to celebrate this traditional knowledge.
The song below is called “Summers Last Mosquito” and celebrates the end of summer – and of mosquitos – in a typical Schlager music style popular in Finland among other countries. You can listen to it on the background while visioning the second video, in which a beautiful sunset and not-so-beautiful swarm of mosquitos is documented in Lapland.
Does your summer holiday include a trip to somewhere mosquitos abound?
How do you feel about killing insects?
As 5th- and 6th-grade homework, read the 1999 Wall Street Journal Article “Mosquito-Swatting Champ Sweats a Recent Close Contest” and write a five to ten sentence summary on it. The summary should include at least the following facts: where are we in the narration of the article, who is the youngest Mosquito Swatting World Champion and what is his winning tactic, why are some environmentalists opposed to the Championships, what public institution came to the yearly summer events defence, and what is the outcome of the day the article describes.
As 4th-grade homework, draw a comic strip about a mosquito, with at least 3 speech bubbles.
Weird Finnish Traditions 