Residents, shops riled by insect infestation
Cai Haoxiang Straits Times 19 Jan 11;
THEY are attracted to clothes hung out to dry, land in food and end up in drinks, cling to walls and ceilings, and a mass of them can black out fluorescent lights.
Millions of these tiny green and black flies have invaded the open areas and homes of residents living in Bedok Reservoir Road.
The flies, or non-biting midges - known scientifically as Chironomidae - originated from the marshy ground around Bedok Reservoir and have been infuriating residents over the past week.
Complained Madam Vivian Ng, 48, who lives above her hardware shop in Block 740: 'My 12-year-old daughter saw the flies in her soup and told me she wanted to vomit.
'They stick on all the clothes I hang out to dry... It's horrible especially when you're eating and insects start falling around you.'
The infestation has hit eateries especially hard, said Mr Koh Hup Leong, 50, a grassroots leader overseeing the shops in the area. This is because of the proliferation of the insects in the evening hours, coinciding with when most residents are out to shop and eat, and when lights across the estate are switched on, he said.
Said Mrs Maggie Pang, 51, a supervisor at the Super Lucky Restaurant: 'Business is down by 30 per cent to 40 per cent. A lot of customers order their food, see the insects, and then run away.'
Other businesses have not been spared. Outside a beauty salon, a thick band of thousands of dead midges lined the shop's glass window.
Responding to the chorus of complaints from residents, Foreign Minister George Yeo, the MP for the Bedok Reservoir-Punggol ward of Aljunied GRC, visited the area yesterday afternoon. Accompanying him were representatives from the Aljunied Town Council, the PUB and the National Environment Agency (NEA).
The town council brought in pest control contractors yesterday morning to spray the banks of the reservoir and the walls of nearby Housing Board blocks with an insecticide.
This will continue every day until the midge infestation is gone.
The insecticide is biodegradeable, water-based and causes no health problems, said Mr Nicck Yeong of pest control company Rentokil, which is carrying out the fumigation.
Mr Yeo also visited shops and talked to residents to reassure them that the situation is under control.
'It's more of a nuisance than a danger in any health sense,' he said.
'But they are uncomfortable, get into your food and can be very irritating.'
He said the problem had been around in Bedok in previous years, and resurfaced a few weeks ago. But the insect population explosion of the last few days was unprecedented.
NEA officials told Mr Yeo that this could have been the result of changes to the ecosystem in the area. While they had yet to pinpoint the exact cause, they suggested it may be due to a chemical imbalance, or the rainy season, among other possibilities.
Said Mr Yeo: 'We don't really know, so we're going to treat it symptomatically and hope that when the weather changes, the problems will be resolved.'
The midges lay eggs in the reservoir, and the larvae cannot be eaten by fish as they are hidden in the mud, said Mr Martin Nathan, head of the NEA's North East Regional Office, offering another possible reason for the scale of the infestation this time around.
The midge problem had also surfaced recently in Teban Gardens and Yishun, added NEA senior operations manager Tang Choon Siang.
Mr Yeo said the insect explosion has attracted large numbers of swifts to the area to feed on the insects.
Spiders too, he said, have been 'working overtime', spinning webs on ceilings and walls to trap the flies.
To deal with the midge problem, Mr Yeo said, residents could switch off the lights, cover food and not open their windows. Some residents have also found high-frequency insect repellent devices useful.
But Mr Tony Teo, 64, a music instructor living in Baywater condominium, said that although his walls are covered, he is taking the infestation in his stride.
'You can't exterminate them completely, and bug spray doesn't work. Complaining is useless. We just ignore them. After a while, the insects will go away,' he said.
Bedok Reservoir faces 'swarm' problem
Qiuyi Tan Today Online 18 Jan 11;
SINGAPORE - Bedok Reservoir residents have been plagued by a swarm of green flies for the past week.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) said they are midges - they look like mosquitoes, but they do not bite and they do not carry diseases.
Millions of these flies are landing everywhere in the area. They are attracted to lights from flats and are a nuisance.
The sudden upsurge in the midge population may be caused by a change in weather and an imbalance of the ecosystem, said the NEA.
Many of the higher floor units have not been spared as the insects are carried by wind into residents' homes.
The Foreign Minister and MP for the area, Mr George Yeo, who inspected the area on Tuesday afternoon, said the Aljunied Town Council is spraying safe pesticides along the mud banks where the insects breed.
Residents have been advised to keep windows closed as pest control personnel attempt to reduce the fly population by spraying a biological agent called BTI into the water at the edge of the reservoir, on the void decks and various floors of the HDB flats.
Saying that the agent was completely safe, Mr Yeo said he hoped it would help contain the problem.
A resident at Block 710/Bedok Reservoir, Mr Tia Siew Hian, said: "They are attracted to the lights so we shut the windows to keep them out. It's very irritating because they get into your nose, ears and eyes."
