Mosquito infestation has become a threat to tourism in a popular Italian resort. The southernmost town of the Tuscan Riviera is Ortobello, where tourists and residents have been tormented by swarms of small insects for the past few weeks. Experts call the hellish heat the main reason for this. According to La Repubblica, Ortobello’s sales have fallen by 60 percent due to the new disaster.
The authorities of the Tuscan town urged the residents not to open the windows and to refrain from hanging laundry, as the fight against the swarm of mosquitoes is underway. Restaurant and bar owners in Orbetello, well known for its beautiful lagoon and long sandy beaches, reported that their business had been hit hard as customers avoided going out for dinner.
“We are forced to close two hours earlier. This is our 2022 season,” one of the hotel owners explained to the newspaper. Some establishments have turned off their outdoor lights altogether and now only take dinner orders until 9:00 p.m., which is not conducive to growing trade. “Despite these measures, profits fell by 60%. “Thousands of midges gather around the light bulbs and move like a wave between the outdoor tables,” complained Marco Di Pietro, owner of the Ovosodo restaurant, describing the “psychological horror” the midges inflict on outdoor tourists.
La Repubblica also quoted a tourist from Rome who noted that Orbetello was “filled” with insects: “It’s been almost a month now impossible to walk through the lagoon. Now it has become impossible to even have dinner or drink an aperitif outside. “Yesterday, the situation reached such an extreme that many shops and restaurants were forced to close around 9:00 p.m.,” he said, adding that midges cling to the body in such a way that it is impossible to eat or go into the sea.
Biologist Mauro Lenzi said last month that the infestation was linked to the lagoon’s conditions of high temperatures, which reduced the presence of the midge’s natural predators, such as frogs, bats, and various birds. Now authorities have said they intend to fumigate the city for the fourth time in as many weeks to get rid of the pests. On the other hand, as explained by the publication, residents complained that deep disinsection, which is usually carried out in the spring, was missed this year. This may also have caused today’s problem.
This summer, the insects are not only attacking Orbetello, according to Corriere but nearby Castiglione della Pisca has also been attacked by swarms of wasps. Councilor in Tuscany Leonardo Marras elaborated on the situation: “Today it is difficult to find a solution to a problem that should have been solved earlier. What I can say is that we are here and open to anyone who has concerns or whose season has been ruined by these insects.”
Reference: Orbetello is a unique city located on a narrow strip of land that stretches to the middle of the same lagoon from which its name derives. The Orbetello lagoon area is bordered by two sandbars called “tombolo”, i.e. spits Tombolo della Feniglia and Tombolo della Giannella, a 6 km beach strip of sand located between the hill of Ansedonia in the east and Monte Argentario in the west. Gianella, although 6 km long, stretches from Monte Argentario to the mouth of the Albeña River.