'Mosquito tornado' in Pune shocks internet. Watch viral video

The mosquito tornado was witnessed in Kharadi area of Pune. (Image credit: @vsvirdi/X)

Pune residents recently experienced an unusual phenomenon -- a tornado of mosquitoes swirling over the Mutha river. The incident came to light after an Indian Air Force veteran shared the video on X and it has sparked curiosity and outrage among social media users.

The mosquito tornado was witnessed in Keshavnagar and Kharadi areas of Pune.

Mosquitoes tornado in #kharadi. Hope this will be taken care of soon.@aaplasurendra@Kharadicivic@aolkharadipic.twitter.com/vNcEv3FU0F

— Flt Lt Virender Singh Virdi (Retd.) (@vsvirdi) February 9, 2024

In the clip, swarms of mosquitoes were seen forming swirling towers near the riverbank. The phenomenon though not uncommon in certain regions is a rare occurrence in urban areas.

The area was reportedly cleaned up after the video went viral on different social media platforms and raised concerns among citizens about the mosquito menace.

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Similar incidents have also been earlier reported in Russia and Nicaragua.

In June last year, residents of Nicaragua’s Lake Cocibolca initially thought they were witnessing a tornado.

But, as the dense, irregular-shaped dark cloud wafted across the lake and came closer to their houses, people quickly realised that it was a massive swarm of mosquitoes, the Straits Times reported. Some of the residents even described it as a “doomsday scene”.

I thought this was a tornado at first but NO! It's a swarm of insects coming off Lake #Cocibolca in #Nicaragua..... Ewwww!! via: @Canal4Nipic.twitter.com/2vClfJtVFw — Volcaholic (@volcaholic1) May 30, 2023

In 2021, residents of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula shared videos of a “cloud” of mosquitoes that appeared to endure “for several hundred meters” during a recent drive, in which he saw several “giant pillars” of the insects.

Insect swarms are said to be more common during the mating season, when the male insects seek females to mate with, resulting in a chaotic assembly of flying insects. The mating frenzy also makes the insects a clustered source of prey for predators such as birds.

“These are male mosquitoes swarming around one of several females in order to mate — there is nothing wrong with this,” the Siberian Times quoted entomologist Lyudmila Lobkova as saying.