BANGKOK (The Straits Times/ANN): Mosquitoes may spread viruses and diseases, but a woman in Thailand recently went viral in a different way over these blood-sucking insects.
A creator on TikTok said she had earned 10,000 baht (S$390) from selling glow-in-the-dark mosquito keychains.
Identifying herself as Lee in an April 21 post which has since garnered more than 4 million views and 361,500 likes, the creator said she racked up the earnings “by doing nothing all day except swatting mosquitoes”.
She explained that she liked collecting dead mosquitoes to look at, and thought it fun to turn them into keychains.
At an event booth set up to sell her creations – which includes graphic tees and other customised keychains – she noticed the mosquito trinkets were popular among foreign customers who bought them as souvenirs from Thailand.
“It’s selling so well I had to buy a mosquito trap... I can’t keep swatting them all myself,” she said in the post.
She said she even had to put out a call for suppliers for dead mosquitoes, offering to pay one to two baht per insect.
She later rescinded the call after a customer, who sells mosquito repellent devices, offered to supply her with a pack of the dead insects for free to support her business.
Despite its simple design, handcrafting the keychain is a time-consuming task, Ms Lee said. From catching the mosquitoes, to preserving and pressing them into shape, each step can take several days, she added.
The specimen may also get damaged before it fully dries, so it is uncertain which pieces will turn out right, Lee added.
They keychains are priced at 149 baht each, according to Thai news outlet Khaosod English. -- The Straits Times/Asia News Network
