Friday, December 7, 2007

Tartaruga in Terracotta

Terracotta turtle with mosquito repellant 

Two points about this terracotta turtle*. First, it is fun to read the text supporting this and other products on this site; it is easy enough to understand and the products just wacky enough to laugh at. Second, I never saw this spiral mosquito repellant before coming to Florence. There was a box of them under the sink of our rented house and I thought they were incense. 

Not until after a couple days in Florence did I fully understand (especially in summer) the use of these spirals. They are properly called mosquito coils or spirali antizanzare

Even now in December we have about one mosquito a day in the house. Never fails. Since the early 2000s Zanzara tigre (the tiger mosquito) has moved into Italy from Asia. It is especially resistant. Being the amateur scientists that we are, we “carefully” killed a few and examined them for the markings of tiger mosquito – it didn’t seem like those are what we've caught. But tests are ongoing. 

Back to the ad for the turtle: "Una tartaruga....contro le zanzare! Chi ha detto che i sistemi antizanzare debbano essere brutti da vedere?" Translation: A turtle... versus mosquitoes. Who says that an anti-mosquito system should be ugly to look at.


* This was once a product of dmail.it.

3 comments:

  1. I think the Tartaruga in Terracotta is begging for "un animale domestico di chia" to keep it company.

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  2. Seems like the chia would be a breeder of mosquitoes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is funny!
    The spiral mosquito repellant is not new for me, however the fancy turtle to keep the ashes I haven't seen it before! Quite nice!

    ReplyDelete

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